Stoned, Herd, and Yup Yup

Angels Gate Cultural Center presents the opening of three new exhibitions: Stoned, Herd and Yup Yup. The exhibitions each investigate the role of the individual in a collective body. JD Samson’s Stoned excavates a personal narrative through the repetitive gesture of drilling holes in rocks. In Yup Yup Victoria Fu and Matt Rich make aprons, a uniform associated with obscured labor, unique canvases. The artists and collaborative duos in Herd investigate histories of humans differentiating themselves each other and nature through site-responsive and timely work activated through audience engagement.

Herd featuring Maura Brewer + Maya Gurantz, Artemisa Clark, Vanessa Roveto and Melissanthi Saliba will be on view in Community Gallery, and Project Space beginning June 30^th.  The installation work by these artists are linked by the ways in which they are activated by the viewer.  Artemisa Clark will create an installation with text and images that will frame a re-performance of Ana Mendieta’s Untitled (Rape Scene) on July 1^st.  The video of the performance will be on display, with a focus on the role of the witness. Vanessa Roveto and Melissanti Saliba will be presenting a new work inspired by the Marine Mammal Rescue Center, located on the same park as AGCC. Sealophone will link text generated by the artists to sounds recorded at the MMRC. Maura Brewer + Maya Gurantz will explore the question of “defense” in the current political landscape through historical examples. The installation will feature text and documentation of programming relating tensions between individual need, collective good, desire and identity.

In Main Gallery I, Victoria Fu and Matt Rich will present Yup Yup. The fabric compositions are functional riffs on aprons, formatting this utilitarian object for home, studio, and for display. They layer various image spaces and surfaces, intermingling photographic and painterly representation. Fu works primarily in video installation, while Rich is a painter. This artwork merges aesthetic sensibilities, approaches and working processes through combined palettes and textures–from film-grained gradients to painted brushstrokes and frayed canvas threads.

In Main Gallery II JD Samson will present Stoned.  The exhibition consists of a video, sculpture and unique artist book featuring documentation of some of the 400 stones the artist drilled through. As they write, “ There are stories of my family dating back to 1620 with stones/rocks/minerals. We landed on “Plymouth rock” where the tales were many and I don’t believe them at all. Drill a hole through it. Apparently the studio I’m working in was occupied by the “Last Indian” in town. And the owner, “chased him out”. Their bodies were crushed by two slabs of stone like the witches. They were kept away from parcels of land “given” to each member of the new society. Kept away with stone walls. Drill a hole through them.”

Programs include:

“A History of Mutual Criticism”, Sunday, July 16, 1pm,

“Throw the Comrade in the Limepit: Brecht and Group Performance,” July 23, 1pm,

JUMPSUIT Workshop with Maura Brewer and Abigail Glaum-Lathbury / July 29-30, 10am-4pm.