Some City Angels

Edward Cella Art & Architecture presents Some City Angels, a group exhibition conceived to characterize the ever hard to grasp, frustratingly elusive, yet undeniable phenomenon termed the ‘L.A. Vibe.’ The exhibition casts a lens on the diversity of art currently being made in Los Angeles through highlighting a notable gathering new and recent works of eight artists active today. Organized by guest curator, Marlena Doktorczyk-Donohue and presented against the backdrop of the unprecedented Pacific Standard Time exhibitions and collaborations; Some City Angels zeroes in on a small yet discerning slice of L.A. now.

Sampling a range of materials and methods – from conceptual photography to installation, from oil painting to drawing – Some City Angels culls works made by newly minted grad students, local artists known better in Europe, and L.A. mainstays, and seasoned mid career artists. The exhibition includes works by: Deborah Aschheim, Adam Berg, Wilder Buck, Kate Harding, Elana Mann, R. Nelson Parrish, Alex Slade and Chris Wilder.

Envisioned to trigger visual and discursive inquiry, the exhibition asks, given our increasingly visible and well chronicled local history and increasing global profile, where is L.A. art today? While making no definitive claims or statements, the exhibition taps into our local suspicions of hierarchies, our diversity of thought and approach, our precision of process, our delight in play, our dark desires, and the general far reaching inventive license that more than anything else has formed L.A.’s enduring creative substrate.

The first in a series of guest curatorial projects planned by Edward Cella Art & Architecture, Some City Angels is curated by Marlena Doktorczyk-Donohue, Professor of Art History within the Liberal Arts and Sciences Dept. of Otis College of Art and Design. Ms. Doktorczyk-Donohue’s deep engagement of the greater Los Angeles arts community as a lecturer, critic, curator and arts editor for over two decades informs the exhibition eccentric yet revealing selection of under recognized artists and unexpected artworks.

SPECIAL EXHIBITION PROGRAMS

In Conversation: Marlena Doktorczyk-Donohue with Deborah Aschheim, Elana Mann, Alex Slade and Chris Wilder
Saturday, September 24, 2011/ 4pm
Join Marlena Doktorczyk-Donohue, Professor of Art History within the Department of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Otis College of Art and Design, as she leads a discussion with Deborah Aschheim, Elana Mann, Alex Slade and Chris Wilder about their work and its relationship to Los Angeles as a creative center beginning in the 1940s and continuing through today.

Marlena Donohue is an art historian, critic, essayist, editor, independent curator and Associate Professor of Art History at Otis College of Art and Design. Donohue received her B.A. in psychology at UCLA and her MA in Art History at USC. She has worked as an art critic for several newspapers and magazines including Sculpture Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Artweek, and London Art Newspaper.

In Conversation: Lisa Melandri with Adam Berg, Wilder Buck and R. Nelson Parrish
Saturday, October 8, 2011/ 4pm
Join Lisa Melandri, Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, as she leads a discussion with Adam Berg, Wilder Buck and R. Nelson Parrish about their work and the issues raised by their display in the museum and gallery system of Los Angeles.

Lisa Melandri is the Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs at the Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMoA). Melandri received her BA in Fine Arts/ Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard College and her MA in Art History from Williams College. At SMMoA, Melandri has organized a number of exhibitions as well as managing the oversight of the museum’s infrastructure and exhibition/education program. Along with her work at SMMoA, Melandri has served as an independent curator and writer for a number of projects.