It’s a Wonderful World curated by Betty Ann Brown

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 8, 6:00-9:00 pm
Closing Reception and Curator’s Talk: Saturday, July 22, 4:00-6:00 pm
Exhibition Dates: July 8-23, 2017

Groundspace Project is pleased to present It’s A Wonderful World curated by Betty Ann Brown, including artists Aline Mare, Andrea Bersaglieri, Ann Mitchell, Catherine Ruane, Cheri Gaulke, Courtney Hayes-Sturgeon, Dwora Fried, Erika Lizée, Jill Sykes, Kate Carvellas, Kireilyn Barber, L. Aviva Diamond, Lillian Abel, Linda Sue Price, Maria Larsson, Melissa Reischman, Michelle Rozic, Nancy Mooslin, Roger Gordon, Samuelle Richardson, Sandra Mueller and Susan Sironi. Please join us for the opening reception on Saturday, July 8, 6:00 to 9:00 pm.

Curator’s Statement:
I see trees of green, red roses too.
I see them bloom for me and for you,
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

In this time of global doubt and despair, to focus on the wonder of our world is to turn to the positive and the affirmatively possible. In the Call for Submissions to this exhibition, artist/curator Susan Joseph and I wrote that we were “looking for artists who celebrate the marvelous beauty of our natural and built environments. Such celebrations can be figurative, symbolic or abstract, but should not be simply pretty in a superficial or ‘easy’ way.” I have tried to hold to that statement throughout the jurying process.

We received almost a hundred submissions, most of them truly excellent. The first challenge in the jurying process was to winnow that large number down to a total that would fit in the Groundspace Project gallery. But more important than numbers was the need to select artworks that would “talk” to each other; I sought artworks that, together, would create a cohesive and engaged aesthetic conversation. Several really great pieces were eliminated because they didn’t fit into the exhibition that began to emerge, almost organically, from the submissions.

As it stands, the exhibition features poetic, lyrical work that is often landscape based, with images of plants and pathways, water, smoke, and steam. There are glances into the urban environment, from abandoned back alleys to the architecture of industry. There are ghostly canines wandering through imagined spaces. And there are echoes of Buddhist chants glancing off the ripples of the Mekong River.

Selecting the prize recipients was as challenging as the initial jurying process. In the end, I had to go with the pieces that spoke most clearly to my heart. All of the submissions spoke to me and, frankly, if I were to go through them in a week or a month or a year down the line, I might very well select four other winners.

I see skies of blue and clouds of white,
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night.
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.
Song written by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss,
First performed by Louis Armstrong in 1967

Betty Ann Brown
Art historian, critic and curator

Groundspace Project is an artist-run alternative space located just east of the 4th Street bridge in downtown Los Angeles.
Exhibition hours are Friday and Saturday, 1-6 pm.

1427 E. 4th St. #4
Los Angeles, CA 90033

Trip The Light Fantastic: Marion Lane and Rochelle Botello

Opening Reception and Performance: Saturday, June 3, 6-9 pm
Closing Reception: Saturday, June 24, 4-6 pm
Exhibition Dates: June 3- 24, 2017

Groundspace Project is pleased to present Trip The Light Fantastic a two person show by Marion Lane and Rochelle Botello.  We hope you can join us Saturday, June 4 between 6:00 and 9:00 pm for the opening reception.  During the reception choreographer and dancer, Shelby Williams-Gonzalez, will perform an interactive dance with Rochelle’s sculpture.

Artists’ Statement:

Trip The Light Fantastic: Marion Lane and Rochelle Botello is a two person exhibition that continues a conversation between two individual art practices. Exploring materiality, process and discovery, their work embraces improvisation, humor, and the absurd. The title refers to the ways in which one moves lightly in time or moment, to optimistic temperaments that shift in gesture, form and color. Through the manipulation of unlikely materials, they reveal complexities of everyday life. The works in this exhibition are extensions of that engagement with life, done with grit, reverence and verve.

Rochelle Botello

Marion Lane

Rochelle Botello is a Los Angeles based visual artist working across mixed media, sculpture and site-specific installations. Her work has been exhibited in the United States and internationally, extending Japan, Berlin and South Korea. She has exhibited with Holter Museum of Art, Torrance Art Museum, Jaus, Coagula Curatorial and Eastside International to name a few. Her exhibitions have also been reviewed in the LA Times, The Huffington Post, Artillery Magazine and Coagula Art Journal. Botello holds a MFA from Claremont Graduate University and a BA in Sociology with an emphasis in Social Psychology from University of California, Santa Cruz.

Marion Lane currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Her work has been widely exhibited in the United States and internationally including Australia and Japan. Lane’s art has been featured in Beautiful Decay, Juxtapoz Magazine, Artillery Magazine, Modern Painters, Artweek.LA, ArtScene and the LA Weekly. Her exhibitions have been an outlet for her immense curiosity and interest in engaging the human eye and the systems by which it organizes color and form.

Shelby Williams-Gonzalez (choreographer / dancer) has danced with LA-based groups such as Diana MacNeil and the Posthouse Dance Group, The Yorke Dance Project, and Louise Reichlin and Dancers. She has a Bachelor’s in Dance and Anthropology from UC Berkeley. While attending Berkeley she was a member of the Kendra Kimbrough Dance Ensemble, Patricia Reedy Dancers and Robert Moses’ Kin. Shelby completed the Silvestre Technique program in Salvador, Bahia, where she was certified as an instructor of the Brazilian based modern dance technique. As an arts educator, Shelby serves as the Development and Communications Director for artworxLA (formerly The HeArt Project), a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing the arts to alternative high schools. As an artist, she draws from her diverse foundation in contemporary dance, martial arts, and traditional and contemporary Afro-Brazilian movement. Shelby is a proud native Angelino, mom, wife, avid runner and company member of the national touring Afro-Brazilian dance company, Viver Brasil.

Groundspace Project is an artist-run alternative space located just east of the 4th Street bridge in downtown Los Angeles.
Exhibition hours are Friday and Saturday, 1-6 pm.

1427 E. 4th St. #4
Los Angeles, CA 90033