Working in a variety of media, 10 Occidental College seniors will make their public debut on December 5 with the opening reception for “Syndicate: A Comprehensive Exhibition” in the gallery of the College’s new Oxy Arts community art center on York Boulevard in Highland Park.
In what will become an annual event, the students—all majoring in studio art—will exhibit their work as part of one of Oxy’s oldest traditions: “senior comps,” a culminating comprehensive project every student is required to complete during their final year. The opening reception will run from 5 to 8 p.m. at Oxy Arts, 4757 York Blvd. The exhibition runs through January 17.
The exhibition is an opportunity for the student artists to exhibit their sculpture, ceramics, performance art, photography, painting, drawing and a graphic novel in the same space where some of Los Angeles’ most promising artists already have exhibited. (Wanlass Visiting Artist Shizu Saldamando will be coming to Oxy Arts this spring.)
“This is really exciting, showing in an actual public space that is accessible to everyone,” says sculptor August Barringer. “This is more of a real-world experience for us.”
Although the student artists come from around the world, “I think it is all L.A. art because it’s work made by students educated by L.A. artists,” says ceramicist Emma Connelly. “We all have been here for four years during a formative time in our lives, forming our own identities as artists and people.”
The student exhibition is the latest in a series of wide-ranging programs offered by Oxy Arts, the College’s public-facing community space that presents the visual arts, theater, film, performance art, dance and music rooted in Northeast Los Angeles in collaboration with a wide range of community partners.
The student artists and the work they are exhibiting are:
August Barringer
Effulgence, mixed media
Traditional masculine and feminine forms intertwine in violent crimson, from which a yonic coil oozes in delicate equilibrium. Monumental and exuberant, Effulgence fuses our societal gender binaries, embodying the struggles and celebrating the triumphs of the transgender experience.
Emma Connelly
Untitled, pit-fired and raku ceramic forms
Made as a reflection upon the acts of listening and being deeply listened to, these vessels offer a chance to contemplate familiar yet nonrepresentational forms. Viewers are encouraged to share their life with these biologically infused bodies.
Naomi Field
Flash to Coral Bleaching, acrylic
This piece allows viewers to experience the beauty and diversity of a healthy coral reef and how flash photography intervention communicates the urgency of preventing coral bleaching.
Tyler Ivy
Take a Break, drawings
Rest, relax, and enjoy three drawings that are inspired by tarot and some of my favorite cartoons.
Makayla Keasler
Let Them Be, pen and watercolor
This piece is a celebratory collection of women and femme bodies drawn situated in mundane activities of self-reflection, care, and contentment; highlighting the diversity and beauty of overlooked identities and unnoticed moments.
Samantha Moua
Soul Lock: Reclamation of a Diasporic Identity, mixed media
Soul Lock is a sculptural work drawing upon the traditional Hmong soul lock amulet to reclaim and recall the history of Hmong in the diaspora, intertwining the past and present.
Sarah Ruiz
Hear Me/See Me, single-channel video and sound
This video performance piece opens up the conversation surrounding mental health by inviting viewers to intimately experience my own personal battle with mental illness for themselves.
Bryan Suh
I Am Whole, photographic prints
I make art with my anxiety-related skin condition called dermatographia, where any physical stimuli results in red welts on my skin. In making I Am Whole, I have accepted this as part of who I am, as I inscribe the words of my personal growth onto my own body.
Dahlia Theriault
Black Pomegranates, 54-page graphic novel
This hand-drawn graphic novel explores Slavic Paganism and Anti-Semitism in newly Christianized Russia.
Chengtian (Jason) Yu
Untitled, acrylic
This piece intends to create a meditation realm that temporary breaks from reality. People might get lost in tracing the brushstrokes and thick texture, or in the large scale of the paintings. Untitled seeks to represent a beautiful dynamic of random ideas balanced with subjective control of techniques.
