How exactly does one emerge from isolation into a social atmosphere? We have communal and intimate experiences of separation and loss that we are just now starting to navigate. Using separate and shared spaces, with walls closing in, we are collectively offering new work that has been born out of the past year’s impact on our artistic lives. These pieces showcase individual artists’ ongoing responses to the connecting experience of isolation and re-entry. From the art-of-everyday-conversation lessons Ruoyi Shi has to teach the feisty green parrot to the warmth and safety of Chiho Harazaki’s tenuous cocoon, we are delighted to participate in this thematic exploration of safety and community.
Curated by Level Ground Collective Artist & Board Member Labkhand Olfatmanesh.
Participating Artists:
Ruoyi Shi
Chantal Cherry
Casey Brown
Jireh Deng
Chiho Harazaki
Shima Taj Bakhsh
Rebekah Mei
16 collectives exhibiting 65 artists are bringing you High Beams No. 4: SPF 405………..
As part of a larger festival called Ultra!, which is sponsored by the Torrance Art Museum and the city of Torrance, High Beams #4 will feature works from 16 prominent artist collectives from around Los Angeles, Northern California, and Colorado. The first daytime High Beams event will include longtime participants, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Durden and Ray, and Last Ditch, as well as newcomers like MOTOR, SF Artists Alumni, Hyperlink, and La Backyard.
Although the projects will be as varied as the artists themselves, common themes revolve around social justice, life in a post-COVID world, and LA car culture.
Many works were made in response to the traumas of 2020, like Durden and Ray’s poolside ode to the summer that never happened; Level Ground’s response to post-COVID anxiety; ARLA’s connection to domestic life during post-pandemic lockdown; and Technicolor Skies’ triumphal detritus arch dedicated to pandemic “victory”.
Meanwhile, MOTOR, Hyperlink, and La Backyard are planning to configure their vehicles as mobile exhibition spaces, displaying works in and around a trailer, a station wagon, and a pickup truck.
Come see! It’s worth the ride to Torrance!
Photo by Chiho Harazaki
