detail of Jackie Amézquita and LaRissa Rogers, Hieroglyphs of metaphysical lacerations, 2023. Photo by Juan Silverio.
Of Seed, Soil, and Stars:
Meditations on Land, Body, Resistance, and Regeneration
Curated by Joy A. Anderson and Robin Garcia
LACE 2023 Emerging Curators
Gayle and Ed Roski Gallery
USC Roski Studios Building
3001 South Flower Street (entrance is on 30th Street)
On view June 2–July 9, 2023, Fridays through Sundays 12–6pm
Opening Reception June 1, 2023 7–9 PM
with a sunset performance by Jackie Amézquita and LaRissa Rogers
Read the Curatorial Statement and view Exhibition Checklist here.
Of Seed, Soil, and Stars brings together six interdisciplinary artists who collaborate with earth and communities, using soil, rainwater, and natural pigments as material. Together, their work explores the relationships between the land and body and between migration and memory. The exhibition asks, “How does the impact of colonial extractive processes and resulting diasporic related traumas move us towards reimagining and recreating right relationship with lands and bodies?”
Featuring artworks by Jackie Amézquita, Sarita Doe, Jess Gudiel, JEM, LaRissa Rogers, and a closing performance by Maria Maea.
About the artists
Jackie Amézquita is a Central American artist based in Los Angeles, California. Amézquita was born in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, and migrated to the United States in 2003. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from ArtCenter College of Design and an Associate degree in Visual Communications from Los Angeles Valley College. She recently completed her Master of Fine Arts in the New Genres program at the University of California, Los Angeles (2022).
www.jackieamezquita.com
Sarita Doe, née Sarah Dougherty, is an Earthworker, parent, artist, educator and student of the Ecocene, born in 1983 on Houma lands to a Cajun-Celtic Father and Andean-American Mother. Punk rock, Nepantla, and visits to family in Bolivia nurtured her practice of echo-location; or finding oneself in relation to the land, habitat, and the stories carried in place. Sarita is a student of Queen Hollins with the Earthlodge for Spiritual Transformation and Olivia Chumacero of Everything is Medicine. She is cofounder and steward of the School for the Ecocene Cooperative and facilitates the DIY PhD for multi-passionate planetary learners. Her Dissertation, Textbook for the Ecocene, published with Co-Conspirator Press in 2020. Sarita currently lives and collaborates with ecosystems in Huchiun, Ohlone Lands.
www.saritadoe.com
Jess Gudiel is an LA land based artist rooted in the practice of horticulture, shadow art and puppetry. Gudiel has worked in local schools and art centers for over ten years sharing knowledge of sustainable organic growing while also using shadow art to bring light to youth’s creative expression of their interaction with local ecosystems. Jess is an artist in residence at the Watts Towers Arts Center Campus and lives in Lincoln Heights where she has grown a wide selection of exquisite plants in her garden since 2012!
JEM is an Indigenous (Diné/Apache) Chicana artist and writer based in East Los Angeles. JEM is currently an MFA student in fiction at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She also works with clay and adobe along with contributing to local Native gardening practices and collectives.
LaRissa Rogers is a Black and Korean antidisciplinary artist raised in Ruckersville, VA. She is currently based between Virginia and Los Angeles. She holds a BFA in Painting and Printmaking and BIS in International Fashion Buying from Virginia Commonwealth University. Rogers has exhibited and performed in institutions such as Frieze Seoul (Korea), Documenta 15 (Germany), Fields Projects (NY), M+B Gallery (CA), 1708 Gallery (VA), Second Street Gallery (VA), Black Ground (Colombia), W Doha (Qatar), The Fronte Arte Cultura (CA), Grand Central Art Center (CA), and the Museum of Contemporary Art (VA) among others. She received the Visual Arts fellowship at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (2022) and the Black Artists and Designers Guild Creative Futures Grant (2022). Rogers attended the BEMIS Center of Contemporary Art Residency (2022), Black Spatial Relics Residency (2022), and SOMA (2019), among others. Rogers is currently pursuing her MFA in New Genres at the University of California Los Angeles. www.larissamrogers.com
Maria Maea is a Samoan-Mexican American artist whose multidisciplinary practice encompasses film, sculpture, and performance. Her work investigates the “brown body’s (dys)function as capitalist commodity, as a resistance to somatic fixity, an examination of the multiplicities of consciousness, and survival as immigrants and first generation Americans.” LAND is supporting Maea to realize a large-scale sculpture to be sited at the Los Angeles State Historic Park as part of “Gatherings,” an ongoing exhibition series that constellates artists who weld ritual, myth, ancestral knowledge, and/or communal practices to navigate and reimagine the world.
About the Curators
Joy Angela Anderson is an independent curator, artist, educator and yoga/meditation guide. As a Chicana, native of East L.A., Chicanx art and culture informed her social and political consciousness. Her background in arts, activism, cultural work and performance led her to receive a BA in “World Arts and Cultures” from UCLA and a Master’s degree in “Art/Curatorial Practices in the Public Sphere” from USC Roski School of Fine Arts. Joy has curated exhibitions and public programs at Pieter Performance Space, The Southern California Library, The Da Vinci Gallery, Highways Performance Space, Avenue 50 Gallery, WE RISE at The El Sereno Community Garden, L.A. Rooted and has performed and taught with Critical Mass Dance Company, WXPT, HomeLA, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Human Resources Gallery, The Main Museum, UCLA, OXYArts, People’s Yoga, The Healing Center of Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Self Help Graphics, and YOGA@ Lincoln Heights Youth Arts Center.
Currently, Joy is curator on the Arts Council at El Sereno Community Garden, Artist/Educator/Curator at Pieter Performance Space and is working on her DIYPhd through the School for the Ecocene. Joy values opportunities to bring artists and audiences together in conversation and creative action around intersectional practices toward decolonization, Earth care and healing arts that honor, uplift and protect Indigenous people, land and culture.
Robin Garcia’s doctorate in Cultural Studies from Claremont Graduate University focused on Latin American Studies and Globalization and Culture. As ACLS/Mellon Fellow at the LA County Department of Arts and Culture, she was the lead evaluator on the county’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative. She is currently a fellow at the Intercultural Leadership Institute and Community Forward Programing Co-Director for WE RISE, an initiative that supports grassroots programming at the intersection of arts, healing, racial and social justice.
ABOUT THE EMERGING CURATOR PROGRAM
Of Seed, Soil, and Stars is the eighth presentation from the LACE Emerging Curator Program. Designed to discover curatorial talent in Los Angeles, each year’s selected Curator/Curatorial Team works with the LACE staff over a year to plan and collaborate on the presentation and public programming.
SUPPORT
Of Seed, Soil, and Stars is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, and the Pasadena Art Alliance. Special thanks to our friends at USC Roski School of Art and Design for their support while LACE’s Hollywood gallery is under renovation.
