HBD United States! And a belated HBD to Canada!
ETBTKS, The Wende Museum, Village Well Books, SCOTUS
Weekly Wrap:
This week I received news that my painting “The Thinkers” was accepted into this years Everything but the Kitchen Sync show at La Luz de Jesus! Yay! Dates to come…
Saturday I made a visit to the Culver City Bookfair hosted by Village Well bookstore. The event took place in the Wende Museum garden. I previously had not heard about this museum so I also popped in to check it out. The exhibition “Vision of Transcendence: Creating Space in East and West” places contemporary prison art created in U.S. prisons like San Quentin alongside artworks from incarcerated people in Soviet countries during the Cold War era. I like how the show displayed the work from both time periods and locations without super sharp, delineating lines. The human condition has a through line and maybe in this context we can pause, reflect, and come to better understanding of the “un-humanness” of our U.S. prison system. The edges of the space form hallways of soviet cold era ephemera and books. What is this place? Turns out the Wende was founded to address the neglect and destruction of Cold War material culture following the fall for the Berlin Wall. And today “the Wende Museum holds an unparalleled collection of art and artifacts from the Cold War era, which serves as a foundation for programs that illuminate the political and cultural changes of the past, offer opportunities to make sense of a changing present, and inspire active participation in the personal and social changes that will shape the future,” (from the Wende’s Mission statement) Okay, interesting! And very cool that the exhibition catalog is available to view online.
I then took the 5 minute road trip up to Village Well Bookstore. I love bookstores and they have become such rare jewels. Every time I have the pleasure to find myself in one I have a pact that I will be finding and purchasing a book. On this occasion it was Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird Some instructions on Writing and Life.” I’m about halfway through it and though at times i find it a bit too glib and punchy it has a really consumable tone and realistic advice for making any creative work. It was nice to read while feeling yuck from my Covid Booster.
Also this week the Supreme Court began the implementation of project 2025 concluding perhaps the worst term in SCOTUS history. Their rulings would be laughable if they weren’t so terribly terrifying. A really great podcast episode that help me understand this weeks rulings: strict scrutiny episode titled SCOTUS hands Trump presidential immunity.
Open call:
For the open call section this week I am choosing to highlight the Quinn Emanuel Artist Residency Program because this month the LA residency is culminating in a month long show of the two Spring 2024 residents, Levi Atkinson and Zoe Walsh.
Opening July 13, 2024 5-8P at 311 S. Broadway at 3rd Street in DTLA.
When I first came across this residency i was suspicious: no fee to apply, studio space for 4 months, $5,000 a month stipend, and up to $1500 grant for materials! Is there actually an entity in the USA that believes in and IS supporting and resourcing artists??? Amazing if so but a unicorn! Well it’s true and exists and hopefully this becomes a model for more firms and companies to follow.
Quinn Emanuel is an international law firm who had an idea to turn a corner office into an artist studio and create a four month residency when the pandemic stay at home orders emptied their downtown LA office building. Since it’s inception in 2021 the residency has expanded to their NYC and London offices under the tutelage of art advisor Alexis Hyde. Currently all residency applications are closed but if they follow a similar timelines to their past deadlines they would be as follows: January for LA, April for NYC, November for London.
Here is an article from 2022 by John B. Quinn, founder of Quinn Emanuel writing about the project.
And a nice discovery I just made of Alexis Hyde’s tiktok