Closing Reception: Sunday, July 3rd, 2 to 4 pm

by and for: Democracy and Art is part of a year-long initiative by Avenue 50 Studio to address the question that the California Humanities Council posed: Does Democracy Need Art?  

Exhibition Dates:  June 11 to July 3, 2011
23 contemporary artists address the shifting meanings of freedom and equality, censorship and civil liberties and specifically, consider the role of art in a democracy in their works. A full color catalogue accompanies the exhibition. Work was selected by Carol A. Wells. 

Artists: Mariona Barkus, Ulla Barr, Yvonne Beatty, Christine Behnen, Tristan Blodgett, Christina Carroll, Audrey Chan, Bayesteh Ghaffary, Michael Graham, Leslie Gray, Karen Gutfreund, Sinan Leong Revell, Larry Lytle, Barbara Margolies, Silva Matossian, Felicia Montes, O O, Sheila Pinkel, Chris Ramos, Jeffrey Robison, Catherine Ruanne, Amy Spain and France White.

Venue: Avenue 50 Studio, 131 North Ave 50, Los Angeles, CA 90042

For more information, please contact: info@scwca.org

Public Conversation on Art & Democracy June 18th featured:

NIKU KASHEF is a multidisciplinary artist and educator whose artwork often deals with ideas of displacement and the uncanny. It has been shown in galleries and museums in California, Washington, DC and internationally. She serves on CAA’s Student and Emerging Professionals Committee and as President of the SoCal WCA chapter. She teaches at Cal State Northridge and Woodbury Universities and received an MA in visual communications from CSUN.

FELICIA MONTES is a Xicana Indigenous artist, activist, academic, community & event organizer, and poet & performer. She believes art is a tool for education, empowerment and transformation. Montes is the cofounder of two women’s collectives, Mujeres de Maiz and In Lak Ech. She received a BA from UCLA, an MA in Chicana Studies from CSUN and an MFA in Public Practice from OTIS in 2011.

SHEILA PINKEL is an activist, educator and artist whose socially engaged work has been exhibited broadly and is included in national and international collections. She is a Professor of Art at Pomona College. Her work addresses unseen aspects in nature and culture. She received a BA from UC Berkeley and later studied photography at UCLA with Robert Heinecken where she earned an MFA without using a camera.

CAROL WELLS is an activist, art historian, curator, lecturer, writer, and poster collector. Trained as a medievalist, Wells is founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, an archive that houses the largest collection of post-WWII posters in the United States. Her articles on art and politics have appeared in numerous publications and catalogs. In 2010, Wells received the first Wally Marks Pursuit of Change Award from FACTS.