Contemporary Art

Angels Gate Cultural Center (AGCC) presents UPEND Female Experience and Activism, a new group exhibition featuring contemporary women artists. Providing a counter to the increased societal distress of a return to toxic hypermasculinity, UPEND depicts strength and resistance in a decidedly female-identifying voice – upending expectations for what can and cannot be said, and how women should act.

UPEND includes works by Kennedi Carter, Nonny de la Peña with Emblematic Group, Ibuki Kuramochi, Andrea Patrie, Elyse Pignolet, She Loves Collective, Suzanna Scott, Sheli Silverio, and Kayla Tange and is curated by AGCC Director of Exhibitions, Cecelia Koger.

UPEND Female Experience and Activism explores contemporary, intersectional feminist issues through the lens of radical empathy for the female experience. Works explore both the inner personal lives of women and their outward expressions of resistance. UPEND is a response to the cultural resurgence of hypertoxic masculinity and recent political upheavals diminishing bodily autonomy and rights for women. By sharing the unique perspectives of women, UPEND hopes to create empathy for the experiences of others.

UPEND Female Experience and Activism will be on view in the gallery alongside Displacing Structures through August 17th, 2024 with free public visiting hours Thursdays through Saturdays, from 10am to 4pm. Please note that pets are not allowed inside our buildings. For questions, please email gallery@angelsgateart.org.

Visit angelsgateart.org to learn more.

This exhibition is supported by the California Natural Resources Agency for the Museum Grant Program under the California Cultural and Historical Endowment, the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles, and the Pasadena Art Alliance.

Image: Kennedi Carter, Hidden Mother II, 2022. Archival pigment print. Courtesy of the Artist and ROSEGALLERY.

Angels Gate Cultural Center (AGCC) presents Displacing Structures, an exhibition guest curated by local artist and CSULB Professor Fafnir Adamites. In Displacing Structures, traditional methods of weaving, netting, lacemaking, and basketry techniques are expanded upon to reveal and embrace personal and shared experiences, queer bodies and the tensions between structure and deviation.

Displacing Structures includes works by Fafnir Adamites, Molly Haynes, José Santiago Pérez, Jade Yumang, and Tomorrow, Asteroid x Jeanne Medina Le.

Displacing Structures is focused on artists who create with materials or techniques that are traditionally within the field of fiber or textile art. These five contemporary artists utilize both traditional and unconventional materials to reveal forms that hold, frame, expand and otherwise make room for the permeable edges. The grid structure found within weaving and netting acts as a stand-in for the societal, political, and binary-heavy structures around us. The artists in Displacing Structures disrupt these strict edges of the grid, instead using it as a visual framework to investigate place, identity and belonging. Languages, bodies, desires, abilities and anomalies of all kinds are given space within their practice to breathe and thrive. Straying from pattern allows room for critique of power structures, imposed binaries and systems of oppression.

Whether permeable or opaque, obvious or veiled, all of the artists included in Displacing Structures push against borders and defy fixed perspectives by examining personal and collective experiences. The artists use thoughtful intention to manipulate, activate and engage materials to create portals, fresh topographies and defiant patterns that offer respite for anyone seeking a break in the grid.

Displacing Structures, alongside UPEND Female Experience and Activism, will be on view in the gallery through August 17th, 2024 with free public visiting hours Thursdays through Saturdays, from 10am to 4pm. Please note that pets are not allowed inside our buildings. For questions, please email gallery@angelsgateart.org.

This exhibition is supported by the California Natural Resources Agency for the Museum Grant Program under the California Cultural and Historical Endowment, the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles, and the Pasadena Art Alliance.

Visit angelsgateart.org to learn more.

Image: Jade Yumang, Obedience Training (detail), 2023. Discharged dye, cotton, sublimation dye, mercerized cotton yarn, fiberfill, cotton piping cord, and bamboo.

In 2019, Lawson answered more than 1,000 questions in his Story File so that future generations can continue conversing with him to learn about his legacy. What would you like to ask Lawson?

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.,
Thursday, 12:00 noon – 8:00 p.m.
Adults – $16, Seniors and Youth – $9, Members and Children under 5 – Free

The exhibition brings together artists Michael Massenburg, Aiseborn, and Mr. B Baby to explore the intersections of family,
culture, and community. Curated by Guillermo Aviles-Rodriguez, PhD., the works will be on view Wednesday to Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., from April 13 to August 2024, with a reception/artist talk and performance by Nedra Wheeler Trio taking place Sunday, June 9 at 1:00 p.m. Admission is free.

Cover image: Helping Families Grow, by Michael Massenburg, Aiseborn, and Mr. B Baby located at Kaiser Permanente Watts Counseling and Learning Center

Mark Bradford’s 150 Portrait Tone, a mural-size composition that contains elements of both abstraction and realism, is based on an idea for a work that the artist conceived after the fatal shooting of Philando Castile by a police officer in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in July 2016. Castile, a nutrition services supervisor at an elementary school, was shot after being pulled over in his car—an incident that was livestreamed on Facebook by Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, who was sitting in the passenger seat next to him.

The painting features excerpts of Reynolds’s dialogue from the video. The title, 150 Portrait Tone, refers to the name and color code of the pink acrylic used throughout the painting. Like the now-obsolete “flesh” crayon in the Crayola 64 box (renamed “peach” in 1962), the color “portrait tone” carries inherent assumptions about who, exactly, is being depicted. In the context of Bradford’s painting, the title presents a sobering commentary on power and representation.

Port Traits pays tribute to the work of late AGCC Studio Artists Scott Brown and Slobodan Dimitrov. The exhibition features a selection of paintings by Brown and his alias, Butcher John Henry (a collaboration with artist Logan Fox), in addition to black and white film photographs by Dimitrov. With over 25 years of history at the Center, Scott Brown and Slobodan Dimitrov will be remembered for their impact on the San Pedro community.

Scott Brown was a painter, photographer, and storyteller who grew up in Southern California. Scott was an active member of the South Bay arts community, participating regularly in the First Thursday art walk in Downtown San Pedro and other events around San Pedro and Palos Verdes. Brown’s colorful and uniquely stylized paintings captured the people and places in his life around San Pedro and beyond. Paintings by Scott Brown and his collaborative alias, Butcher John Henry, will be on view in Port Traits.

Slobodan Dimitrov was the unofficial photographer of the labor movement in the LA area for the past thirty years, a crucial period in its history. He was born in former Yugoslavia (present-day Serbia) and spent several years in France as a child before emigrating to Los Angeles. He became an AGCC Studio Artist in 1984, and he has spent much of his career documenting the labor movement in addition to San Pedro’s history and local artists. Port Traits will feature several bodies work by Dimitrov from his black and white film photography practice.

Port Traits will be on view in the AGCC galleries March 9th – April 6th, 2024, with open gallery hours Thursdays – Saturdays from 10am to 4pm. The exhibition will open with a free public reception on Saturday, March 9th from 3-5pm.

Support for the AGCC exhibitions program is provided by City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, The Ahmanson Foundation, Norris Foundation, the Perenchio Foundation, and the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation.

About Angels Gate Cultural Center

Angels Gate Cultural Center (AGCC) emerged from a group of San Pedro artists in the 1970s that created art studios and exhibition space within the WWII era army barracks of Angels Gate Park near the Port of Los Angeles. Today, AGCC hosts over 50 artist studios in addition to a variety of programs to engage the diverse communities of the Los Angeles Harbor region, including arts education in local schools, community classes, cultural events, and exhibitions of contemporary art. More information about AGCC is available at angelsgateart.org

One of the first in the region, the monthly First Thursday ArtWalk happens between Pacific Ave, Harbor Boulevard, 4th and 9th streets.

The First Thursday ArtWalk showcases all arts disciplines throughout the arts community. Begun in 1997, by a group of restaurateurs, artists, and urban planners, it was designed to revitalize businesses and the arts by creating a regular attraction to bring the community into downtown San Pedro.

Guided ArtWalk Tours will begin in March 2024, for a small fee.

In 2019, Lawson answered more than 1,000 questions in his Story File so that future generations can continue conversing with him to learn about his legacy. What would you like to ask Lawson?

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.,
Thursday, 12:00 noon – 8:00 p.m.
Adults – $16, Seniors and Youth – $9, Members and Children under 5 – Free