Evo/Revo : Artists' Panel

A conversation with some of the featured artists on arts and activism.

The Panel Includes:

Robbie Conal

Gee Vaucher

Yuri Shimojo

Karen Fiorito

Moderated by Fabrizio Flores.

Free to the Public. RSVP Required.

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About the Panelists:

Fabrizio Flores was born in Guatemala City in 1975 and moved to Los Angeles in 1984. He went to Belmont High School in Los Angeles, then graduated from the California State University of Los Angeles in 1998 with a BA in art, option design. He works as an artist, educator and arts manager. While still in college he started working as an Artist/Educator; developing and designing curriculum for middle and high school students in the education department at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles. He has also worked as an artist-educator, artist-in-residency for many different art centers and cultural institutions.

In the past 4 years he’s been managing youth, family and community programs at MOCA. He was one of the founding youth members of the MOCA Apprenticeship Program (MAP), which he now manages. ”The human connections between students and coordinators were a major contributor to the program’s enrichment experience. All in all, the program gave me a kind of personal growth that was absent in my high school. In the same way that I was helped when I was part of MAP, I make sure I am helping the younger students I now teach. MAP, and its relationship with a culturally diverse community setting, is one of the most effective ways of supporting the vitality of student artists and the gifts they have to offer. In addition, MAP acknowledges and values the individual efforts of promising student artists and citizens “

In 2010 co-produced We Are The Art, a book documenting a performance project with teens, which became part of Getty Research Institute’s modern and contemporary collection and MOCA’s library. Currently, he has been actively consulting and presenting on teen and family programs locally and internationally. Additionally, he is part of a local high school’s governing board and a museum board of advisors.

Robbie Conal grew up on the upper west side of Manhattan--his parents were both union organizers who considered the major art museums to be day care centers for him. He attended the High School of Music and Art in New York, got his BFA at San Francisco State University and his Masters of Fine Arts degree at Stanford University. In 1984 he moved to Los Angeles. Inspired by the Reagan Administration, he began making satirical posters of politicians and bureaucrats who, by his reckoning, had abused their power in the name of representative democracy. He developed an irregular guerrilla army of volunteers and put his posters up in the streets of major cities around the country. He has made more than 50 posters satirizing politicians from both parties, televangelists and global capitalists. He also takes on issues of censorship, the Supreme Court’s ruling against women’s freedom of choice, and environmental issues.  www.robbieconal.com

Despite her much sought after work as an illustrator and later as a painter, Gee Vaucher is perhaps best known for the extensive body of work she created during the late seventies and early eighties. quite apart from her now famous collages, as designer with the renowned punk band ‘crass’, she concentrated her highly developed painting skills on ‘photorealism’, creating some of the most disturbing and acclaimed images of the time. Her work is generally accepted as having been seminal to the iconography of the ‘punk generation’. When ‘crass’ disbanded in 1984, Vaucher felt the need to explore other areas of work, abandoning the tightness of her more ‘overt’ political statements in favor of a more loosely expressed personal politics. Most of her work since then has in some way been connected with the human form, intimately exploring the psychological diversities of social inter-relationships. She has been exhibited extensively both solo and in group shows throughout the world.

Yuri Shimojo has published several books in Japan, including: “Makkana Mangetsu~Crimson Full Moon”(1995), which showcase her earlier illustration works, “Vagabonds” (2001), a journal work from her trip in Central America and Mexico, and “Chiisana Rakugaki~Tiny Scribble” (1997), an autobiography of her unique childhood, which has republished in 2007. www.YuriShimojo.com

Karen Fiorito is a political street artist and curator residing in Los Angeles, California. Her art continues to be exhibited nationally and internationally and has appeared in such publications as Art in America, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Hustler Magazine, the LA Weekly, URB Magazine and the Seattle Weekly. She also owns and operates her own fine art printmaking studio and socially conscious publishing company, Buddha Cat Press, which produces prints for such subversive and visionary artists as Robbie Conal, Winston Smith and El Mac. Fiorito received her Master’s in Fine Art in Printmaking from Arizona State University and her B.F.A. in Printmaking from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. In 2005, Fiorito received a Puffin Foundation Grant to install a billboard in Santa Monica, California, and in 2004, she was a recipient of a Change, Inc. grant. www.KarenFiorito.com

About the show:

Evolution/Revolution: the Interconnectedness of All Beings is a ground breaking, educational and socially conscious exhibition, which explores various aspects of animal welfare and the environment. Curated by Karen Fiorito, the show features the works of William Wegman, Robbie Conal, Sue Coe, Gee Vaucher, Peter Kuper, Yuri Shimojo, Emek, Cole Gerst, Jonathan Horowitz and Karen Fiorito.

The mission of this art exhibition and forum is to open new dialogues and explore human perceptions about nature and the environment, awakening and inviting people to make more conscious decisions about their food, clothing, furniture, lifestyle and pets. Evolution Revolution includes the art works of some of the most prominent artists in the field of animal rights and welfare.

The show runs from February 19, through March 27, 2011 and includes several public programs about animal rights and welfare. The topics are “Artist Panel: A conversation with some of the featured artists on arts and activism”, “Animal Liberation Forum: A thought provoking discussion with scholars, lawyers, filmmakers and activists on the plight of animals”, “Kafka’s Monkey - A Report To An Academy: A one man performance”, and “The Annual Santa Monica Airport Art Walk”.

Opening Reception is on February 19, 2011 5 - 9 PM. All of the events will take place at Santa Monica Art Studios - Arena 1 Gallery 3026 Airport Ave. Santa Monica, CA 90405 - Phone (310) 397 7449. Gallery Hours are Wednesday through Saturday Noon to 6 PM. Admission is free and open to the public. Free parking is available.

This art exhibition and forum is presented by Buddha Cat Press, SoCiArts Productions and Santa Monica Art Studios. For more information please visit www.EvolutionRevolutionArt.org

Sponsors and Partners:
Edgar Varela Fine Arts, Art Weekend LA, Veggie Grill, Animal Acres Sanctuary, Zoo District Theater, Indie Printing and Frey Wine.