Trade Fare Social

In Trade Fare Social artists kelli rae adams, Melissa Bouwman, Mark Rumsey, and the Institute 4 Labor Generosity Workers & Uniforms engage the audience as participants – not mere viewers – in art as social practice. Trade Fare Social opens with a free public reception at Angels Gate Cultural Center on Saturday, January 21st from 3 – 5pm.

Trade – to exchange, Fare – the cost to participate, and Social – relating to/interacting with, encompasses the ethos of this group exhibition comprised of kelli rae adams, Melissa Bouwman, the Institute 4 Labor Generosity Workers & Uniforms and Mark Rumsey. Works in Trade Fare Social address present-day challenges of the Student Debt Crisis, Bodily Autonomy, Sustainability, and Economic Systems. Offering a reflection on the viewer/maker relationship, this exhibition privileges the collaborative processes by which the art is made. The modes of physical production and material usage explored also deepens existing subtexts, about the worldwide web, the handmade vs mass produced, and consumerism among other themes. Through the audiences’ engagement with the works as active participants, these creations deny the authority of capitalist structures as there is no consumable end product for profit. Trade Fare Social positions the artist as a change agent who creates frameworks for engagement around critical social issues.

Support for this exhibition is provided by the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Arts & Culture, and the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation.

[Press Kit]