Patrisse Cullors

Patrisse Cullors is a New York Times bestselling author, educator, artist, and abolitionist from Los Angeles, CA. Her work has been featured at The Broad, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, LTD Gallery, Crystal Bridges Museum, Second Home West Hollywood, The Fowler Museum, Frieze LA, The Hammer Museum, Vashon Center for the Arts, Joe’s Pub, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, and a host of theaters, galleries, and museums across the globe.

Cullors launched a ground-breaking Social and Environmental Arts Practice MFA program at Prescott College where she served as the Founding Director for two years. She is the co-founder of the Crenshaw Dairy Mart and has been on the frontlines of abolitionist movement building with Black Lives Matter, Justice LA, Dignity and Power Now and Reform LA jails. Her current work and practice is focusing on what she calls “Abolitionist Aesthetics,” a  term she coined to help challenge artists and cultural workers to aestheticize abolition. Patrisse has won numerous awards for her art and activism.  In September 2021, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Patrisse’s appointment to serve as one of three Second District Arts Commissioners. Patrisse’s mission is to invite all of us to grow towards abolition through intergenerational healing work that centers love, collective care, and art.

alexandre ali reza dorriz

alexandre ali reza dorriz (he/him/his) is an artist, writer, researcher, and curator. dorriz’s research and fieldwork has previously investigated the privatization of water banks, municipal securities, and commodities trading, the financial properties of museums and museum patronage, and the localization of textile economies and silkworm breeding. dorriz is a co-founder of the Crenshaw Dairy Mart alongside artists Patrisse Cullors and noé olivas. he is a professor for the Social and Environmental Arts Practice MFA at Prescott College, where he teaches studio practice and critical museology. dorriz received his MFA at the University of Southern California and his BA at the University of California, Berkeley.

Jake Freilich

Jake Freilich is an artist and educator who lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. He received a BA from Bard College in 2015 and an MFA from University of Southern California in 2019. He makes paintings that explore paint’s history, utility, and capacity for movement. Since the Summer of 2020 he’s been the lead organizer of the Crenshaw Dairy Mart Art Supply Kits, a project that has provided free art materials and art lessons to communities in South LA, Pico-Union, and Borrego Springs. He is an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator for the MFA in Social and Environmental Arts Practice at Prescott College.

Star Montana

Star Montana is a photo-based artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She was born and raised in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles, which is predominantly Mexican American and serves as the backdrop to much of her work. Her work has recently been exhibited at Charlie James Gallery (2019, 2016); Residency Art Gallery (2018); LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes (2018); Occidental College (2017); The Mexican Center for Culture and Cinematic Arts at the Mexican Consulate General of Mexico (2017); The Main Museum (2017); Ballroom Marfa (2017); and Vincent Price Art Museum (2016). Montana will be an artist-in-residence at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in 2020. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Art from the University of Southern California, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the School of Visual Arts, and an Associate of Arts in Photography from East Los Angeles College.

noé olivas

NOÉ OLIVAS (B. SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, USA) IS A SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA-BASED ARTIST. THROUGH PRINTING MAKING, SCULPTURE, AND PERFORMANCE, HE INVESTIGATES THE POETICS OF LABOR. HE CONSIDERS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LABOR AS IT FITS INTO THE CONCEPTIONS OF FEMININITY AND MASCULINITY IN ORDER TO PLAY WITH AND RESHAPE CULTURAL REFERENCES, NARRATIVES, MYTHS, TRADITIONS, AND OBJECTS, ULTIMATELY EMPLOYING A NEW MEANING. OLIVAS RECEIVED HIS BA IN VISUAL ARTS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO IN 2013 AND IS CURRENTLY AN MFA CANDIDATE AT UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. HE LIVES AND WORKS IN SOUTH CENTRAL, LOS ANGELES, CA.

_
MY WORK FOR THE PAST 6 YEARS HAS BEEN A MEDITATION ON WHAT I CALL THE POETICS OF LABOR. GROWING UP IN A FIRST-GENERATION MEXICAN AMERICAN, WORKING-CLASS FAMILY HOME, I INHERITED A PARTICULAR IDEA OF WHAT IT MEANS TO PERFORM HARD LABOR. THE GRUELING TOUGHNESS OF LABOR—PHYSICALLY, EMOTIONALLY, MENTALLY, AND SPIRITUALITY—IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF MY ART MAKING PROCESS. THERE ARE TIMES I, AS A LABORER, FORGET THAT MY PRACTICE AS AN INDEPENDENT ARTIST IS AKIN TO THE WORK THAT MY FAMILY AND OTHER IMMIGRANT FAMILIES DO TO SIMPLY KEEP FOOD ON THE TABLE AND A ROOF OVER THE HEADS OF OUR LOVED ONE. I BELIEVE THE LABOR WE ENDURE IS AN ACT OF LOVE, SOMETHING THAT I CONTINUOUSLY CHANNEL THROUGH MY WORK. WHAT KEEPS THE SPIRIT (EL ÁNIMO AS WE SAY) IN THE MOTION IS BELIEVING IN THE BEAUTY THAT HARD LABOR CAN CREATE THROUGH THE COLLECTIVE EFFORT.

USING THE PLATFORM OF FINE ART, MY WORK ALLOWS FOR A REFLECTION FOR THE WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITY. I SEEK TO CONFRONT THE INVISIBILITY OF LABOR BY FACING IT WITH PEOPLE FROM THE COMMUNITY THROUGH COLLABORATION, DISCUSSION, INTERVENTION, OR CELEBRATION. I OFTEN USE MY FAMILY’S PERSONAL ARCHIVE AND OTHER FOUND DOMESTIC OR UTILITARIAN OBJECTS AND MATERIALS TO CONSTRUCT SCULPTURES, DRAWINGS, PRINTS, AND LIVE PERFORMANCE TO CREATE A CONNECTING POINT OF FAMILIARITY. ADDITIONALLY, IN MY WORK I TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LABOR AS IT FITS INTO THE CONCEPTIONS OF FEMININITY AND MASCULINITY IN ORDER TO PLAY WITH AND RESHAPE CULTURAL REFERENCES, NARRATIVES, MYTHS, TRADITIONS, AND OBJECTS, ULTIMATELY EMPLOYING A NEW MEANING.

IN MY CURRENT PROJECT ENTITLED BREAKING BREAD, I AM DEVELOPING CONVERSATIONS WITH DAY LABORERS, PARTICULARLY THOSE THAT UTILIZE THE HOME DEPOT IN LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA AS A GATHERING PLACE TO SEEK WORK. I ENGAGE WITH THEM BY OFFERING THEM PAN DULCE (MEXICAN SWEET BREAD) AND COFFEE, USING MY VEHICLE’S TAILGATE AS A SERVING STATION. THIS VEHICLE, A 1987 WHITE FORD RANGER, HAS BEEN PASSED DOWN THROUGH MY FAMILY AND WAS ORIGINALLY MY FATHER’S PRIMARY WORK VEHICLE, USED TO HAUL WORK MATERIALS LIKE WHEELBARROWS AND LUMBER, WHICH IS SOMETHING I HAVE CONTINUED TO DO TO THIS DAY. THROUGH THE GESTURE OF BREAKING BREAD, I HOPE TO CREATE A SAFER SPACE TO AFFIRM CONFIDENCE, CERTAINTY, AND COMFORT WITH THOSE FROM THE COMMUNITY—IN OTHER WORDS, EARNING TRUST AND BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS. WE ENGAGE IN INSIGHTFUL AND MEANINGFUL CONVERSATION ABOUT LABOR, MONEY, FAMILY, DESIRES, LIFE, ETC. I AM INTERESTED IN LISTENING TO THEIR STORIES, AND WITH CONSENT, DOCUMENTING IT THROUGH THE PROCESS OF PRINTMAKING.  I WILL REIMBURSE THEM FOR THEIR TIME TO MAKE A PRINT OF THEIR BOOT SOLE ON ART PAPER.  THE WORK BECOMES AN OFFICIAL RECORD OF TIME, LOCATION, OCCUPATION, CLASS, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY THEIR PRESENCES. MY APPROACH TO PRINTMAKING IS NON-TRADITIONAL. I CREATE NEW METHOD TO PRINT THE OBJECTS I’M INTERESTED AND ALSO USING THE NATURAL PIGMENTS/ STAINS THE OBJECT COLLECTS OVER ITS USAGE, SUCH SOIL, GREASE, AND MOTOR OIL. THROUGH THE UTILIZATION AND MANIPULATION OF THE MATERIAL, I ATTEMPT TO CONNECT THE IMAGE BACK TO SOURCE LABOR.

IN ADDITION TO OBJECT AND PRINTMAKING I HAVE BEEN CHALLENGING MYSELF TO UTILIZE LIVE PERFORMANCE TO EMBODY LABOR AND CONNECT WITH THE COMMUNITY. A NOTABLE LIVE PERFORMANCE I HAVE DONE WAS WITH MY COLLABORATOR PATRISSE CULLORS AT HAUSER & WIRTH GALLERY IN LOS ANGELES. IN THE PERFORMANCE, WE CREATE A RITUALISTIC HEALING CEREMONY USING SALT, HONEY WATER, SWISHER SWEETS, AND MARIJUANA. WE BOTH TOOK ON A SHAMANISTIC, MESSENGER CHARACTER TO BRING AWARENESS OF THE DANGEROUS TIMES WE ARE LIVING IN AND THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING CONNECTED. THROUGH THIS PERFORMANCE I MIMIC THE IMAGE OF THE SLEEPING MEXICAN, A STEREOTYPICAL CHARACTER SOLD AS SOUVENIRS THAT IS MEANT TO REPRESENT THE SOUTHWESTERN REGION BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MÉXICO. THESE FIGURES ARE COMMONLY MADE OUT OF CERAMIC AND CAN BE USED AS PLANTERS, SOMETHING I HOPE TO EXPLORE FURTHER WITHIN MY PRACTICE. ALTHOUGH THIS IMAGE HAS A DEEPLY OPPRESSIVE HISTORY, SOME PEOPLE HAVE RECONTEXTUALIZED IT, GIVING IT A NEW MEANING. FOR ME, THAT IS THE MEDITATIVE THINKER AND HEALER.