Public reception: Sept. 8th, from 7-10p, Northeast Los Angeles Art Gallery night

A postcard exhibition, snail mail style. Postcards can be and are art. They are invites, souvenirs and documentation. They can be nostalgic, romantic, adventureous, and curious. They can be social, political & more. Postcards can be made and done in various artistic mediums. Be it collage, photography, letterpress, silkscreened, altered, digital, drawn, painted or printed in a variety of ways.

Featured are Arroyo Arts Collective’s set of Artist’s Recipe Cards, with artwork on one side & corresponding recipes on the other side. These can also be sent as postcards. Katherine Ng’s letterpress postcards, excerpts from Edith Abeyta & Betsy Lohrer Hall’s Paper Trail project, mixed media creations by Nancy Ann Jones on recycled boards, excerpts from Edith Abeyta & Merry-Beth Noble overseas correspondence project, and Smart Gals’ Twelve Days of Christmas, artist series, are displayed.

What kind of postcards, do you like to create, design, imagine, send, receive or collect? This exhibition fosters and displays a wealth of creativity in postcard mail art. This genre, involves a interesting factor of what can be sent & makes it through the postal system.

Photos by Kevin Hass

POSTAL EDGE will be on display Aug. 25 - Sept.30, 2007. Additional entries will be installed weekly. Public reception on Sept. 8th, from 7-10p, Northeast Los Angeles Art Gallery night www.nelaart.org.

Opening reception: July 14, 7 - 10pm
Gallery Hours: Saturday & Sundays, noon-4pm
Artists: Stuart Bender, Kay Brown, Karen Neubert and Doug Wichert
Curator: Nancy Buchanan

FRESH PRINTS, opening at the Acorn Gallery July 14, brings together four disparate artists who create art through various kinds of transfer process. Doug Wichert earned an MFA from California State University, Long Beach, where he also ran the print labs and facilitated student work in lithography and etching. Returning to printmaking after a twenty year absence, he examines issues of material, craft, expectation and risk. Kay Brown, trained in graphic design at Chouinard and Art Center, joined a printmaking collective at Self-Help Graphics and has explored linocut, drypoint, woodcut, silkscreen, silk etching and monoprints. Many of her works carry strong social messages, and have been auctioned from the collection of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics.

Prints by Karen Neubert

Karen Neubert's monotypes are painterly prints. She studied painting at Stanford and Otis and has worked extensively to create art workshops for children, establishing a children's studio at Pacific Oaks College. The subject matter of the hand-colored postcards she employs is less important to her than a particular color combination, mood or strangeness possessed by the card. Since 1985, Stuart Bender has created installation, single-channel, and live-performance music/video works which have been exhibited internationally. He is exhibiting works from a new series titled “Djinn of the Fourth Wall.” Each print includes photography, drawing, digital processing, and the Brazilian model Moux, who appears as the Djinn in the images. Djinn comprise an order of spirits believed capable of exercising influence over humankind for either good or bad. For the ancient Semites, djinn were spirits who acted during the night.

Detail from Stuart Bender’s “Djinn of the Fourth Wall”

During the run of the exhibition, each of the artists will be present on at least two gallery days, so those missing the opening may discuss the work in depth. Fresh Prints is curated by Collective member Nancy Buchanan.

Illustration by Carol Colin

Opening Reception
Saturday, June 9, 7:00 to 10:00 pm
Videos by April Totten & Donnie Stroud
Film by Poli Marichal
Puppet Building Demonstration by Patricia Lee

Sunday, June 10
2:00 pm Alan Cook, lecture
3:30 pm Beth Peterson, Toy Theatre Puppet Show

Saturday, June 16, 2:00 pm
Poli Marichal Shadow Theatre
Jamie Kim One Grain of Sand Puppet & Mask Theatre

Gallery Hours:
Saturday & Sundays, noon-4pm

Puppets On The Wall is part of NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night.
Look for other Puppet Festival events in and around the Northeast area during the month of June.

The Horse Show gallops into the Acorn Gallery on NELAart Second Saturday, April 14, from 7-10pm: paintings, drawings and sculpture depicting the grace and splendor of superb equines. Frank and Sharon Romero, Denise Monaghan, Heather Hoggan, and Patrick Harper join the legions of artists who celebrate the horse through art. Curator Patty Sue Jones states, “From the Stone Age horse paintings on cave walls in Lascaux, France, 2nd Century bronze Chinese sculptures, Impressionist race days - the horse has been critical subject matter for artists.” The exhibit continues on weekends from 12-4pm and closes on Sunday, May 20 (Museums of the Arroyo Day). As a special treat, for Museums of the Arroyo Day we will provide a singular opportunity to draw a live horse.

Opening reception Saturday, March 10, 7 to 10 p.m.

The Acorn Gallery is pleased to showcase the work of three historically important and different feminist groups: Mother Art, The Waitresses, and M.A.M.A., as well as the short videotape “Define” by O.F. Makarah, founder of In Visible Colors.

Running Out of Time: Mid-life, The current state of MOTHER ART in the year 2000

Photos by Kevin Hass

Mother Art and The Waitresses were active in the 70s and 80s and grew out of the Woman’s Building’s Feminist Studio Workshop. Beginning in 1974, Mother Art initially addressed issues of art and motherhood. Over its twelve year existence, the group expanded its concerns to deal with women’s domestic work and social issues such as homelessness among women, nuclear war, and the attack on a woman’s right to choose. From 1978 through 1985, The Waitresses explored their roles as service workers and nurturers in performance pieces that took place in restaurants, parades, conferences, galleries and museums. In the 90s, M.A.M.A. (Mother Artists Making Art) used their identities and experiences as mothers as the basis for sculpture and installation. In Visible Colors is an organization dedicated to the creation and promotion of films and videos by African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos and Natives.

This exhibit is curated by Nancy Buchanan and will include a recreation of a Mother Art installation, photo documentation, sculpture and video.