Studio DDLA is proud to present “Body Stories”, a series of works that explore themes of religious belief, violence, absurdity, and mania through imagery layered with influences from Catholicism, alchemy, and cosmic phenomena. Recurring symbols like steer skulls and black holes echo the confluence of life, death, and oblivion. Collaborative sculptures integrate ceramic, fiber, and printmaking, using fragmented bodies to explore memory, the unconscious, death, and existence with open-mindedness, humor, and a sense of mystery.
Through geometric and explosive mark making, this show explores the absurdity of finding meaning in life and death, inspired by Samuel Beckett’s embrace of death’s inevitable mystery.
Bill Faecke received a BFA in drawing and painting from Cal State Fullerton in 2005 and an MFA from Cal State LA in 2009, with a focus on video performance and large-scale drawings. In his mixed media works, he draws from a variety of influences such as medieval alchemy, noise music, free jazz, the American West, the Theatre of the Absurd, cosmic phenomena, and sundry historical religious, spiritual, political and artistic figures. He layers this imagery with mark making that is alternately geometric and architectural or organic and often explosive in nature. His key impetus in creating art is to continually explore different avenues of finding meaning in life and death, while maintaining an underlying tone of absurdity in this endeavor.
Yeansoo Aum received her BFA from the University of Minnesota. She does printmaking in Irvine, California as a member of the printmaking group, LynkCollective. Yeansoo specializes in drypoint and relief techniques. In her artworks, she combines simplicity with texture to create friendly images.
Christina Yasmin Fesmire is a Southern California-based printmaker, curator and designer who holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and has exhibited and trained in various cities throughout Europe and Central America. She is a core member of the printmaking group Lynk Collective and a board member of the Los Angeles Printmaking Society. Interested in metaphysical issues of loss and the traversal of time, her work explores life as a liminal passage between growth and decay.
Paula Voss (she/her) I am a printmaker, painter and mixed media artist who draws on the natural world and on our societies’ issues for inspiration to spark inquiry and nurture dialog. My work is at times whimsical and other times solemn, mirroring my own and our collective understanding of relationship to each other and to our shared world.
Nguyen Ly is a multimedia artist and art educator with expertise in numerous printmaking techniques (including monoprint and drypoint), as well as drawing, sculpture and collage. His prints, drawings, sculpture and other work have been exhibited throughout California and in locales as diverse as Springfield, Missouri, and Guadalajara, Mexico. He was born in Saigon and raised in Los Angeles, and is a member of the multiracial printmaking group Lynk Collective, and a former member of Los de Abajo Printmaking Collective and Mono Gráfico Colectivo. As a result, he is especially attuned to the cultural mix that makes his adopted hometown of L.A. so rich – and to the pressures faced by so many first- and second-generation Americans.
About Studio DDLA
Located in LA’s Historic Chinatown, Studio DDLA is a death and mortality centered art gallery and community space run by Jill Schock of @deathdoulala. We are one of the first physical spaces in the country dedicated to deathwork. In addition to rotating art exhibitions, Studio DDLA hosts a wide range of programming. Our interactive workshops and educational offerings cover topics like end-of-life planning, art therapy, grief support, living funerals, and somatic and movement work.
Instagram: @studio.ddla
