Artists Live Here / Nomadic Studios June 3 4, 2016 3:00 9:00 pm Frank H. Ogawa Plaza Co organized by Artist in Residency Program at Pro Arts Studio Lab, Dawline Jane Oni Eseleh Participating Artists: Alyssa Lempesis, Creative Growth Art Center, Daniel Spangler, Jessie Marino, Kate Kuaimoku, Keith Denatale, Kelsey Leib, Nolan Lem, Ricardo Saavedra, Renetta Sitoy, Victor Medvedzenge, and others. Artists Live Here/Nomadic Studios project consists of 14 temporary public installations with focus on digital and time based media artwork. Artists Live Here/Nomadic Studios project takes the idea of the home base one step further by presenting new media, video, sound and performance artists with audience engagement alternatives to the ever proliferating mobile and web based interactive platforms. RELATED PUBLIC PROGRAMS Opening Reception & Special Program Saturday, June 4, 2016 5:00 9:00 pm Frank H. Ogawa Plaza Celebrate the Artists Live Here/ Nomadic Studios at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. *Major funds for this project are provided by The California Arts Council.
ALYSSA LEMPESIS http://alyssalempesis.com/ Born and raised in the East Bay, Alyssa Lempesis received an MFA from University of California at Davis (2014) and a BA from University of California at Berkeley (2012). Recent exhibitions include solo exhibitions at Aggregate Space (Oakland) and Diablo Valley College (Pleasant Hill), and inclusion in group exhibitions at The Lab (San Francisco, CA), and Marymount California University (San Pedro, CA.) Alyssa creates sculpture and video work inspired by the possibilities that exist between alien imaginings and archaeological reconstructions. Her current animation speculates on uncanny and posthuman ecologies. CREATIVE GROWTH ART CENTER (FEATURING WORK BY VARIOUS ARTISTS) www.creativegrowth.org Creative Growth Art Center serves adult artists with developmental, mental and physical disabilities, providing a professional studio environment for artistic development, gallery exhibition and representation and a social atmosphere among peers. DANIEL SPANGLER www.lostlift.com Daniel Spangler is an Oakland based filmmaker and video artist, recently graduated from an MFA program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (in Film/Video and New Media). His work uses combined processes of accidental/spontaneous capture, followed by intentional digital manipulation to explore nomadic states of mind, and relate an experience of wandering far from home.
KEITH DeNATALE http://cargocollective.com/keithdenatale/ Keith DeNatale is a video artist who lives and works in Oakland. For the past few years he has been working on the piece "BRONNE" which consists of multiple video diaries chronicling the life of a character he created, and his quest for self discovery. The videos take the form of mantras, footage the character has taken in public, and footage of himself exercising. BRONNE is trying to feel comfortable in his own skin and the world that surrounds him. The camera is a tool to capture moments and discoveries that create a larger portrait the character can use to piece himself together. KELSEY LEIB http://www.kelseyleib.com/ Oakland based artist Kelsey Leib's sculptural work explores the concept of bodies as vessels for the spirit, and the dualities present in these forms. Form, material, and texture are used to reference cultural and societal effects on the physical and spiritual self, particularly with respect to women. Variations between the interior and exterior of the form can be seen as a metaphor for the physical world versus the spirit. In this sense, the exterior of the vessel represents an outer shell, something that characterizes the form to the outside world. The void or interior space is reserved for the spirit, something implied, only visible from certain perspectives.
RENETTA SITOY www.rsitoy.com Rsitoy is a Filipino American artist who was born in New York, NY. She holds an MFA in Design + Technology from the San Francisco Art Institute, where she was the recipient of the San Francisco Art Institute MFA Fellowship from 2005 to 2007. Using media that include video and animation to examine the human condition, her work often involves an element of research, and has explored topics such as the alteration of time and space, perception, memory, dreams, and the effects of technology on human behavior. Her work has been shown in Atlanta, Baltimore, New York City, Los Angeles, Providence, Rhode Island, Phoenix, Varna, Bulgaria, Budapest, Hungary, Athens, Greece, and throughout the Bay Area. She has lectured throughout Northern California on her work as an artist and was awarded a residency at the Philadelphia Art Hotel in 2009. She received an Individual Artist Grant from the City of Oakland Cultural Funding Program for the years 2012 2013, and again for 2015 2016. She lives and works in the Bay Area. RICARDO SAAVEDRA https://soundcloud.com/ricardosaavedra Ricardo Saavedra's work explores new media and our relationship with technology and sound, and recently worked on a video art/music performance piece that dealt with that intersection. The music helped generate random IP addresses that he then used to camouflage his personal data.
VICTOR MAVEDZENGE www.mavedzenge.com Victor Mavedzenge was born in Zimbabwe. He studied fine art at the Slade School of Fine Art from 2008 2010 where he earned his Masters of Fine Arts degree. Mavedzenge engages in conversation with the history of art inspired by ideas or styles of his predecessors. Philosophically, his query is about the human condition. Inspired by existentialism, he asks himself "Now that we are in this situation (Life: usually the trials and tribulations), what are we going to do about it? His work becomes a comment about the socio political status of the world we live in. FEATURING MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCES BY JESSIE MARINO & FRIENDS JESSIE MARINO www.jessiemarino.com NOLAN LEM www.nolanlem.com LAURA STEENBERGE lhttps://laurasteenbergeportfolio.com CONSTANTIN BASICA www.constantinbasica.com THE HAPPY VALLEY BAND www.happyvalleyband.com ABOUT PRO ARTS MISSION Pro Arts is an Oakland based organization that encourages change in and through the arts to invigorate our communities. We champion new art practices and emerging forms of cultural production through an institutional platform which fosters collaboration and the cross pollination of ideas. We support contemporary artists directly through exhibitions, commissions, residency programs, research, satellite projects, digital platforms and publications. Annually we exhibit over 550 artists, conduct over 700 art education programs for youth, and reach an audience of over 72,000.
HISTORY Founded in 1974 as the Alameda County Neighborhood Arts Program, for more than 40 years Pro Arts has contributed significantly to the infrastructure of a thriving artist community and brought visibility to thousands of artists in the Oakland/Bay Area. 150 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland CA 94612 (Ground Floor Gallery.) 510 763 4361 info@proartsgallery.org www.proartsgallery.org