LACE Emerging Curators exhibition highlights seeds, soil and stars
Artists focus on regenerative practices that sustain life as well as community.
For LACE’s eighth annual Emerging Curators exhibition, Joy A. Anderson and Robin Garcia proposed the exhibition Of Seeds, Soil and Stars: Regenerative Actions In Transformational Times that invites viewers to consider soil and seeds as sources of regenerative practices with the potential to sustain life and community.
Their proposal was selected from a large field of applicants by a jury of artists and art professionals. This year the panelists included Associate Professor of Latin American and Latino Art History at California State University Bakersfield Bill Kelley Jr., curator Diana Nawi, and artist Hana Ward.
“It was wonderful to see the thoughtful way so many curators and artists are engaging with the possibilities of exhibition making––responding to this moment, to their communities, and to the platform that LACE has been able to create.” Nawi said. Reflecting on her experience as an artist in last year’s Emerging Curators exhibition, Ward said she was reminded of how much fun she had while thinking through the questions posed by last year’s Parable 003 exhibition.
Anderson and Garcia will include healing, ancestral traditions and technology, and explore integrating those into contemporary responses to the changing climate. The exhibition, which is scheduled for late 2023 will feature artists who use soil and natural elements as a medium to open up conversations around land, memory, history, and indigeneity. Performance and sculptural works will invite audiences to imagine the role of the body in relationship to and as extension of the earth.
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 CURATORS PROGRAM
The Emerging Curators Program is designed to discover curatorial talent in Los Angeles and provides opportunities for emerging curators to partner with LACE. Applicants are reviewed by a panel that recommends a compelling project to the LACE team consistent with LACE’s experimental spirit. Click here to view all past seven Emerging Curator projects, including the 2022 Reclaiming Performance: Reverence of Self, curated by Cat Jones.
ABOUT LACE
LACE both champions and challenges the art of our time by fostering artists who innovate, explore, and risk. We move within and beyond our four walls to provide opportunities for diverse publics to engage deeply with contemporary art. In doing so, we further dialogue and participation between and among artists and those audiences.
Image: Larissa Rogers, A Poetic of Living, 2021. Soil from Pen Park and Farmington Country Club, celosia, fungus, oxygen, light, care. Photo: Stacey Evans
