Artist's Biography

Finishing School (FS) is an interdisciplinary artist collective that explores an expansive range of subject and media territories. FS was established in 2001 and is based in Los Angeles. They conflate praxis, play, and activism and seek to engage audiences through various participatory models. Recently, FS has produced projects for the 2010 California Biennial; Engagement Party, a three-month residency program at MOCA; Living as Form, a 20-year survey of social practice for Creative Time in New York; the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore; and a site-specific commission for DFLUX in Detroit. FS has also presented projects internationally in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Thailand, English, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, and Italy. Collective Members include: Brian Boyer, Ed Giardina, Joel Heflin, Jason Plapp, and James Rojsirivat.

Tim Shelton is a tattoo artist and painter. He received a BA in Illustration from the Laguna College of Art and Design. He lives and works in Orange County, California.

Curator's Biography

Chloë Flores is a writer, curator, and arts producer based in Los Angeles. She received her Master of Public Art Studies from the University of Southern California in 2011. From 2005 to 2007 she co-directed and co-curated enView Gallery in Long Beach. She currently directs GuestHaus Residency, which offers housing to artists and scholars who are visiting Los Angeles in conjunction with a project, education, or research at a local institution. In 2010 she was enlisted by the artist collective Fallen Fruit to assist with the production of Let Them Eat LACMA, and has contributed an essay for the forthcoming artist book that catalogues the event. She has contributed additional texts to the catalogues for the the 2010 California Biennial, the J. Paul Getty Museum’s California Video exhibition, and for LACE. Her ongoing curatorial project, Chloë Flores, is an art space and curatorial project that utilizes the user-based, social interface of Facebook as a public space for exhibition and representation—of oneself, of others, and of art.

Matt Lipps received his MFA in Studio Art from University of California, Irvine in 2004. After seventeen years in Los Angeles, he recently returned to the Bay Area to assume the role of Assistant Professor, teaching photography in the Department of Art at San Francisco State University. Lipps has had solo exhibitions including HORIZON/S at Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles; Silverman Gallery, San Francisco; and Josh Lilley Gallery, London. His work has also been featured in group exhibitions in national and international galleries including Saatchi Gallery; Pool Gallery, Berlin; The Apartment, Greece; Artists Space, New York, among others. Lipps’ work is held the permanent collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Hammer Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.