I’ve even had the opportunity to bring discarded furniture into galleries to create painted installations for visitors to experience in person – which is another exciting way to explore these ideas!Īs a curator, “PORTALS” was my largest project to date and such a wonderful opportunity to grow in this realm, I was so honored to feature the work of Erin Harmon, Erika Lizée, Elana Mann, Yevgeniya Mikhailik, Alicia Piller, Adam Rabinowitz, Esther Ruiz, Howard Schwartzberg and Svetlana Shigroff at Angels Gate Cultural Center. Ever since then I have been exploring how that series affected what I do in my studio through making my own sculptural objects combined with works on paper as well as taking objects from the street to incorporate into finished works. They became about how these found objects already had a very visible history as furniture which, combined with my paintings expounded on the meaning of both. The pieces seemed to become many things: they were performance, painting, sculptural, installation, ephemeral and public art. I was so curious to continue the project to see what meaning I could uncover. This series was very impactful to my practice and changed how I made work going forward. I would then take photos and videos of the piece and leave it where I found it for its ultimate delivery to the landfill. I would spot something on the sidewalk or in an alleyway like a broken refrigerator, couch or mattress and return the following morning to make a painting on it. These were paintings I was making out on the streets of Los Angeles directly onto discarded furniture. After making many paintings and drawings of this subject matter, in 2019 I began what I called Confine In Situ. As I mentioned earlier, the Confine Series is what I’ve been developing over the past several years. This also coincided with the conclusion of “PORTALS” at Angels Gate Cultural Center which meant I was overseeing the deinstallation of the exhibition whilst moving my studio – no small feat!Ĭan you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?Īs an artist, I am primarily a painter. This displaced hundreds of artists, myself included, and we were all forced to find new places to store our artwork and new studio spaces. Another huge challenge came when the Hawthorne Arts Complex, which was home to many artists, closed in March of 2022. I had to be more considerate of the demands on my body and be very cognizant of my posture while painting as well as know when to take breaks. My art practice became much more physically demanding as I was creating much larger works which became a huge challenge. Particularly with creative endeavors, the path is not very clear and one typically has to trust the path forward. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?Īh, there are always struggles! This is part of the journey, though. I’ve also been developing my practice as a curator working on various exhibitions with my artist collectives Somewhere in LA (SILA) and Acceptable Risk LA (ARLA) as well as earlier this year a major solo curatorial project at Angels Gate Cultural Center entitled “PORTALS”.Ĭan you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. This series started out as paintings on panels or canvas and has expanded into a more sculptural realm which has proven to be quite compelling. Artistically, I have been working through what has become a large series of works I call the Confine Series which are defined by imagery of soft, flesh-like materials bound within a rigid structure like a basket. I’ve always loved the city for a variety of reasons, I love the urban decay and beauty of it and the huge and diverse community of artists that live and work here. My art practice and my curatorial practice both tend to be rather nomadic and dependent on place so in that sense I am very tied to Los Angeles. My journey through it all has been quite an adventure and I’ve grown quite a lot in those various realms. I have been working as an artist, curator and arts administrator in Los Angeles for many years now since completing my degree in Fine Art from Cal State Long Beach. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today? Hi Stephanie, so excited to have you on the platform. Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Sherwood.
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