"The Pleasure of My Company"
September 23 - November 21, 2024
Main Gallery
Preview reception: Thursday, Sept. 26, 4-7 pm
Opening reception: Saturday, Sept. 28, 1-4 pm, with short artist walkthrough at 1 p.m.; concurrent with "Adrienne DeVine: AMALGAMATION - The Art of Visual Dialogue."
Free admission to gallery and events.
"The Pleasure of My Company” is a celebration of presence through the lens of black artists. The exhibit captures a multigenerational group, including a current faculty (Larissa Brown) and student (Balinda Kibalama) at Orange Coast College. Whether on cameras, paint, collage, and glitter: these experiences are freed into abstract gestures or honored through references to family, history, and place.
Moments include the power of breath. The spirit of play. Families born into and chosen. Dreams imagined for oneself, one’s child, or a collective group. References to anime, meditation, punk culture, and VHS. Their work invites viewers to engage in a dialogue about self-empowerment and the importance of embracing one’s narrative. None of their experiences are uniform: just as their artwork ranges in display of framing and installation.
Educational communities are important to the artists; many of whom teach throughout Southern California. They are dialogue with past artists, current students, and the future. In the words of Zora Neale Hurston, “How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company?
Participating artists:
Deitra Charles, courtney coles, Rakeem Cunningham, Adrian Culverson, Leslie Foster, Janna Ireland, Balinda Kibalama, Loren Leblanc, Francis Robateau, Lisa Diane Wedgeworth
Curated by Dakota Noot, Acting Director
Francis Robateau, Madonnas De Belize, Acrylic, collage, screen-print
on wooden panel, 65 x 64 inches
"Adrienne DeVine: AMALGAMATION - The Art of Visual Dialogue"
September 23 - November 21, 2024
Project Gallery
Preview reception: Thursday, Sept. 26, 4-7 pm
Opening reception: Saturday, Sept. 28, 1-4 pm, with short artist walkthrough at 1 p.m.; concurrent with "The Pleasure of My Company."
Free admission to gallery and events.
“AMALGAMATION - The Art of Visual Dialogue” transforms the art of bookmaking. The exhibition explores the vision of mixed media artist, Adrienne DeVine, whose diverse body of work includes installations, paintings, collage, hanging wire sculptures, and handmade books. DeVine’s visual language is inspired by precolonial African culture, elements of traditional and contemporary artistic practices, and is embedded with historical and contemporary dimensions of human experience.
Paint, wire, raffia, shells, found objects, text, and symbols, dialogue amongst themselves while the artist aims to provoke thought, spark conversation, and inspire new ways of seeing and knowing for the viewer. DeVine describes her process as “perennial,” nurturing the artwork from 2012-2024. The exhibit captures a moment in time, memory, and evolution for artwork that has changed - and will change again.
Curated by Dakota Noot
