InterGalactic Blvd : an Oakland Portal, an exhibition by Rigo 23 and Collaborators 
Oct
14
to Dec 15

InterGalactic Blvd : an Oakland Portal, an exhibition by Rigo 23 and Collaborators 

  • The EastSide Arts Alliance & Cultural Center (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Eastside Arts Alliance and ProArts Gallery and Commons presents 

InterGalactic Blvd : an Oakland Portal

an exhibition by Rigo 23 and Collaborators 

October 14, 2023 - December 15, 2023 

Eastside Arts Alliance - 2285 Gallery 

Oct 14 / 12pm-3pm: Reception / CompArte: The Emiliano Zapata Community Festival 

Oct 22 / 1pm: Writing Ourselves into Oakland Spaces - East 14th Writing Workshop with Dr. Kailey Heitz

Nov 17 / 11am: Intergalactic Walk for Life

Dec 7 / 7pm: Holla Back Intergalactic Poetry Night 


Rigo 23’s Intergalactic Boulevard - an Oakland Portal is a project rooted in radical solidarity among people and communities in the anti-capitalist and anti-colonial struggles. Inspired by the Zapatista concept of Intergalacticism and the Black Panther Party’s concept of Intercommunalism, this project opens an intergalactic portal at Eastside Arts Alliance that aims to connect people and movements within E14th Street, Oakland and around the world to each other -  through art, poetry and shared strategies.  

Rigo 23’s Intergalactic Boulevard - an Oakland Portal is a project rooted in radical solidarity among people and communities in the anti-capitalist and anti-colonial struggles. Inspired by the Zapatista concept of Intergalacticism and the Black Panther Party’s concept of Intercommunalism, this project opens an intergalactic portal at Eastside Arts Alliance that aims to connect people and movements within E14th Street, Oakland and around the world to each other -  through art, poetry and shared strategies.  

InterGalactic Boulevard - an Oakland Portal incorporates sculpture, embroidery, drawing, painting, time based movement and spoken word to create an immersive installation at East Side Arts Alliance - 2285 Gallery and in collaborating venues across a vast geographical reach. 

Rigo 23 and his many collaborators re-imagine International Boulevard as Intergalactic Boulevard, a location for an autonomous portal for intercommunal connection. Acknowledging the deep history and connections people have with International Blvd. (formerly known as East 14th Street), Intergalactic Blvd invites the community to envision East Oakland as the epicenter for intercommunal and intergalactic solidarity; with visual art and poetry deeply intertwined with grassroots community organizing; enlisting images and sounds as mighty allies in the struggles for autonomy and self-determination, countering colonial, capitalist, racist, white supremacist and patriarchal systems.

The aim of the Portal at Intergalactic Boulevard is to provide a space for connection, dialogue and contemplation. The focus is both on the local and the intergalactic, as such this project will engage people, communities, and organizations that call International Blvd. home, as well as the far reaches of our imaginings. Through a mapping and socially engaged approach this project invites people to contribute stories about their lives and perspectives on International Boulevard. Moreover, through collaborations with Oakland-based artists and organizations this exhibition will connect and mark the extensive grassroots networks that make up Oakland’s strong revolutionary movements. In a wider scope, this project will develop collaborations with artists and organizations in other geographies - namely, Chiapas, Havana and Viena. 

For this exhibition and programming series, Rigo 23 will showcase artworks resulting from a wide ranging series of collaborations - the still incarcerated human rights defender Leonard Peltier; Indigenous Chiapas, Mexico, based artists involved in the ongoing process set in motion by the EZLN - Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional; contemporary urban Bay Area artists and organizations; freed members of the Black Panther Party, namely the Angola-3; and other organizations including Pro-Arts and Chiapas Support Committee in Oakland; Centro Bahia, in Havana, Cuba; Galeria Muy, in San Cristobal de Las Casas, México and the WeltMuseum, in Vienna, Austria.

Intergalactic Blvd.  is an extension of Rigo 23’s Autonomous Intergalactic Space Program (AISP), an art collaboration with the Zapatista communities in Chiapas that attempts to realize the possibilities of intercommunal and intergalactic dialogue through art that give shape and voice to the Zapatista community’s struggle for autonomy in the face of globalization. The planetary constellations and vegetal spacecrafts that form the basis of the art piece, illustrate the Zapatista’s radical politics, its belief in the ability to overcome the constraints of time and space, and its commitment to the redistribution of land ownership. 

The Intergalactic Space Program is currently on view at the Welt Museum in Vienna, Austria as part of the exhibition, Science Fiction(s): If There Were a Tomorrow. 


Intergalactic Blvd. and all related public programs and events are made possible with generous funding from California Arts Council and The Zellerbach Family Foundation, and produced in collaboration between Pro Arts Gallery & COMMONS and East Side Arts Alliance.

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Radiator's Association leads a workshop
Oct
8
2:00 PM14:00

Radiator's Association leads a workshop

Join Radiator’s Association at Pro Arts at Omni Commons on October 8, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm for an engaging, two-hour long workshop and city walk, mapping our material culture. A zine publication is planned as part of this workshop and engagement with the audience.

To attend, send RSVP by October 7th to info@proartsgallery.org Space is limited.

Barthelemy Garcia is a is a French born artist based in Sweden, working with photography combined with installation and vinyl text. In his practice, he starts from the idea of the material as something inherently meaningful. He believes that things possess an independent existence that extends beyond what we humans ascribe to them. He holds a bachelor degree and master degree in photography from Valand Academy (Sweden) and previously studied art history and archaeology in Aix-en-Provence (France). His work has been exhibited at Röda Sten Konsthall in Gothenburg, Galleri Format in Malmö, at FG2 in Gothenburg and most recently at Duo Contradiction in Stockholm. In 2020 he was awarded the Swedish Arts Grants Committees assistant grant, together with Klara Källström and Thobias Fäldt, and in 2022 he was awarded the IASPIS residency in Stockholm, Sweden.

Barthelemy Garcia’s residency with Pro Arts and his exhibition are made possible with generous funding from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee.

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Opening Reception for Värmeelementens Förbund Goes West
Oct
6
6:00 PM18:00

Opening Reception for Värmeelementens Förbund Goes West

Pro Arts welcomes audiences on First Friday, October 6, 2023, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm at our new space at Omni Commons in Oakland, California for the opening of a site-specific installation and 3-weeks long residency project Värmeelementens Förbund Goes West (the radiator association goes west) by French/Swedish artist, Barthélémy Garcia.

Värmeelementens Förbund Goes West (the radiator association goes west) installation consists of a commissioned work in photography — Bad Omen — which will be suspended from the ceiling in Pro Arts’ office space, as a reminder of one of the most used and banal architectural tools in corporate and office interiors.

Audience is invited to join the Radiator’s Association again on October 8, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm for an engaging, two-hour long workshop and city walk, mapping our material culture. A zine publication is planned as part of this workshop and engagement with the audience.

Garcia is a French born artist based in Sweden, working with photography combined with installation and vinyl text. In his practice, he starts from the idea of the material as something inherently meaningful. He believes that things possess an independent existence that extends beyond what we humans ascribe to them. He holds a bachelor degree and master degree in photography from Valand Academy (Sweden) and previously studied art history and archaeology in Aix-en-Provence (France). His work has been exhibited at Röda Sten Konsthall in Gothenburg, Galleri Format in Malmö, at FG2 in Gothenburg and most recently at Duo Contradiction in Stockholm. In 2020 he was awarded the Swedish Arts Grants Committees assistant grant, together with Klara Källström and Thobias Fäldt, and in 2022 he was awarded the IASPIS residency in Stockholm, Sweden.

Barthelemy Garcia’s residency with Pro Arts and his exhibition are made possible with generous funding from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee.

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Värmeelementens Förbund Goes West
Sep
25
to Oct 14

Värmeelementens Förbund Goes West

  • Pro Arts Gallery & COMMONS at Omni Commons (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Barthélémy Garcia has recently created an association called Värmeelementens Förbund --The Radiator Association -- as a platform for his artistic practice. Värmeelementens Förbund is coming for the first time to the US where it will invite the local communities of Oakland to explore the possibilities such associations can offer through city walks and conversations.

Hosted by Common Knowledge Platform, Pro Arts’s international artist residency in Oakland, the Association will take on the task of examining our material environment and its impact in our lives. The Association is a symbol, and the radiator stands for the most banal material things that together form our living environment.

Decisions about our living environments are made in spaces that are not usually considered as “political,” where material things are playing a crucial role. How can the issue of inequality be resolved without taking material things into account?

Garcia’s interest lays in material things and this is also what will be at the center of The Radiator Association’s inquiry. His residency will run from September 25 until October 15, 2023 with a public program and opening for the project, scheduled for First Friday in October (October 6th 2023) at Pro Arts, now at Omni Commons, Oakland, CA.

CKP is a residency for an open knowledge production and exchange in the form of peer-to-peer artist collaborations, commissioned projects in research and print, and collective action through the medium of art and law that embody community ethos and philosophy. the international residency puts artists and cultural organizers at the center of artistic and cultural knowledge production, and as the main instigators of civic and community empowerment.

Garcia is a is a French born artist based in Sweden, working with photography combined with installation and vinyl text. In his practice, he starts from the idea of the material as something inherently meaningful. He believes that things possess an independent existence that extends beyond what we humans ascribe to them. He holds a bachelor degree and master degree in photography from Valand Academy (Sweden) and previously studied art history and archaeology in Aix-en-Provence (France). His work has been exhibited at Röda Sten Konsthall in Gothenburg, Galleri Format in Malmö, at FG2 in Gothenburg and most recently at Duo Contradiction in Stockholm. In 2020 he was awarded the Swedish Arts Grants Committees assistant grant, together with Klara Källström and Thobias Fäldt, and in 2022 he was awarded the IASPIS residency in Stockholm, Sweden.

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"Probability: Bodil & Larnie Fox" exhibition closing reception
Apr
2
6:00 PM18:00

"Probability: Bodil & Larnie Fox" exhibition closing reception

Closing for the exhibition “Probability: Bodil & Larnie Fox” and a community celebration of Pro Arts’ long, storied occupancy of its space on Frank Ogawa plaza. Refreshments will be served, there will be surprise performances, and the Crank Ensemble will perform for the first time in eight years.

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Probability: Bodil and Larnie Fox
Mar
5
6:00 PM18:00

Probability: Bodil and Larnie Fox

Join us for the opening celebration of “Probability: Bodil and Larnie Fox,” an exhibition of interactive sound sculpture made collaboratively by visual artists Bodil Fox and Larnie Fox, The exhibition and related performances will revolve around notions of chance, indeterminacy, and luck.

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INTER STATE Book Launch (Soft Skull) and Reading - José Vad
Sep
18
7:00 PM19:00

INTER STATE Book Launch (Soft Skull) and Reading - José Vad

Join Pro Arts Gallery and Commons in celebration of longtime collaborator, writer José Vadi, and the launch of his debut collection INTER STATE: Essays from California out now on Soft Skull Press!

A debut collection of eight poetic, linked essays, INTER STATE investigates the past and present state of California, its conflicting histories and their impact on a writer’s family and life. Vadi’s writing style has received much advanced praise: Kirkus says that “at a line level, the book is outstanding, filled with long, breathless sentences, innovative syntax,” and Publishers Weekly describes the book as “part love letter, part indictment.” 

Join us Saturday, September 18th at 7pm, for a celebration in the plaza outside the gallery and a brief, indoor reading by Vadi from his book. Vadi will also be signing books for sale. PLEASE WEAR A MASK. INDOOR PORTION WILL REQUIRE PROOF OF VACCINATION.

Read an excerpt here and review here.

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Ebonics Native Land Acknowledgement #1 (ENLA #1) by Marshall Trammell/Music Research Strategies
Aug
21
6:00 PM18:00

Ebonics Native Land Acknowledgement #1 (ENLA #1) by Marshall Trammell/Music Research Strategies

Pro Arts in partnership with AGENCY Oakland is excited to invite you to The LOOM, on August 21st, 2021, at 6:00PM for a public site-tuning event, entitled Ebonics Native Land Acknowledgement #1 (ENLA #1), performed by percussionist Marshall Trammell/Music Research Strategies.

Ebonics Native Land Acknowledgement #1 (ENLA #1) is an electro-acoustic, site-tuning event of the internal architecture of the 10,000 square feet AGENCY's space at the LOOM. The event is part of Trammell’s Black Amnesia and Indigenous Justice project series that began as his 2018-19 Intercultural Leadership Institute fellowship and his solo tour, Status Quo Is My Enemy. Ebonics Native Land Acknowledgement series of public site-interventions in Oakland , performed by Marshall Trammell are meant to create a platform for new interpretations of the ethos of native land acknowledgements with the Artist at the center of community empowerment, knowledge production, and solidarity economics.

As part of Ebonics Native Land Acknowledgement #1 (ENLA #1) Marshall Trammell will lead a collective reading of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples , perform a percussion solo, and discuss the significance of his Black Amnesia and Indigenous Ebonic Native Land Acknowledgement projects, and the Pro Arts’ Performing Pro Arts COMMONS incubator that transgresses art, law, and economics to reframe the value of art and labor in the context of a sharing economy. This collective reading is going to be the foundation for an idiosyncratic, sound-based site-tuning event at the LOOM. It should further be noted that this project is an interpretation of the visual score, Dispatch #2, conceived by Candace Hopkins (Taglish/Yukon) and Raven Chacon (Novajo), with interpretation by Music Research Strategies. “Published in three parts — or ‘Dispatches’ as the artists declare — the work draws from Chacon and Hopkins’ reflections on the fight for cultural preservation and defense of Indigenous sovereignty at the Standing Rock Reservation Water Protector encampment in 2016."

For RSVP @ Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/166109302395

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AGENCY Oakland is a newly established collective that creates and holds community-centered space for artistic and creative production and knowledge in Oakland, CA.

Pro Arts is one of the longest running alternative art spaces in Oakland, CA. Established as a 501 (c ) (3) organization in 1974, over the years Pro Arts has supported more than 20,000 artists and cultural workers by providing them the opportunity to create in a non-traditional context and connect with new audiences.

Marshall Trammell/Music Research Strategies is an Oakland-based, experimental archivist, percussionist, conductor, and composer performing political education through the production and reproduction of tactical media manifested in sonic, social and political cooperative aesthetics. His work is centered in social change interventions and embraces improvisation as a collective, movement-building tool in the creation of post-capitalist imaginaries. 

The LOOM is an urban village in Oakland, California, where tenants, visitors, artists and neighbors are all vital parts of a collective vision: creating a self-powered and regenerative community where how we live, work and play is intertwined.

EVENT DETAILS:

August 21, 2021 @ 6:00pm

Ebonics Native Land Acknowledgement #1 (ENLA #1) by Marshall Trammell/Music Research Strategies

AGENCY @ the LOOM, 2150 Livingston Street, Oakland, CA 94606

RSVP Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/166109302395

Event Program

6:00/6:30pm Native Land Acknowledgement & Solo Percussion Performance by Marshall Trammell

7:00pm Ebonics Native Land Acknowledgement #1 (ENLA #1)

7:30pm Performing Pro Arts COMMONS & The Moral Clause (presentation)

8:00pm – Site-Tuning & Documentation

**This is an in-door public event and all attendees will be required to wear masks.

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7/31 Pro Arts Fundraiser On The Block
Jul
31
2:00 PM14:00

7/31 Pro Arts Fundraiser On The Block

Pro Arts is one of the oldest alternative art institutions in Oakland. Founded in 1974, Pro Arts has supported more than 20,000+ artists with space, material and immaterial resources, and the community to share their work, artistic knowledge, and create a change in and through the Arts.

On Saturday, July 2021, from 2 to 8pm our comrades from the15th Street block are throwing us a fundraising bash and a street party. Because this is how we do. This is how we survive. Together.

When: Saturday, July 2021 2 to 8pm

Where: 15th Street block (between Webster & Harrison)

Participating Venues: Brunt Oak Gallery, 8Ball Oakland, Dream Farm Commons, Beauty Botanica, Memory Sign co., Foodz Oakland, Botanical Sorcerer Gallery, Pro Arts.

ART AUCTION: 6pm @ Dream Farm Commons

PERFORMANCES & DJs from 4 to 8pm: Kristian Dahlbom, Chris Brown, Marshall Trammell, mutantdreams, Ish/Izmyla, and more surprise "pull through" acts

COMMUNITY CANVAS & LIVE ART starting at 3pm: FYE Collective (AB, Akili, Yosef +) will be providing & hosting Live Art + Community Canvas/Walls.

TABLES: books, zines, prints, posters, fashion, jewelry, music, art, gifts...

FOOD: Pig Roast

and more....;)

* All proceeds raised at this event will benefit Pro Arts, a 501 (c) (3) art institution, located at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland, CA.

purchase tickets below:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/art-auction-pig-roastblock-party-july-31-2-8pm-benefit-for-pro-arts-tickets-164693347235

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7/30 ÜNCOMMON BIPOC MARKET
Jul
30
3:00 PM15:00

7/30 ÜNCOMMON BIPOC MARKET

~~ join us for an experimental community-based marketplace, featuring very special & unique vendors with exclusive works to share.


This is outdoor event with limited access to open gallery & gift shop (limited capacity inside)
**MASKS REQUIRED INSIDE
; optional/encouraged outdoors


***this market benefits our host/sponsor @proartsoakland’s
active fundraising initiatives - learn more: proartscommons.org 📡



🌈Flyer by @sophiayauweeks
PLEASE SHARE IF YOU CAN OR CANNOT ATTEND!!!

***OUTDOOR EVENT***

When: Friday, July 2021 - 3 to 9pm

Where: Pro Arts Gallery & Commons + Plaza

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Jun
30
7:00 PM19:00
Exhibitions

Closing Reception to Mercury Retrograde / Poetry Night with Mizna

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Mizna promotes contemporary expressions of Arab American culture. We publish the literary journal Mizna: Prose, Poetry and Art Exploring Arab America, produce the Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, and support an exceptionally talented and diverse range of local, national, and international Arab American artists.

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Jun
18
8:30 PM20:30

Of Land and Bread Film Screening by Drunken Film Festival

This screening is courtesy of Video Project, brought to you by Drunken Film Festival Oakland

This screening is courtesy of Video Project, brought to you by Drunken Film Festival Oakland

Of Land and Bread is a series of vignettes about the daily life of Palestinians in the West Bank. It is a story of constant vulnerability where one's life is lived under the specter of state violence and the whims of settlers, and a camera is one's only defense.

In 2005, human rights organization B'Tselem established a video department, seeking to amplify the impact and power of their written reports on human rights violations in the Occupied Territories with visual documentation. Two years later, they launched the Camera Project, providing video cameras and training to Palestinian volunteers in the West Bank to document their own lives under Israeli occupation. Since the project launched, the real-time images taken by these amateur photographers have become a staple of B’Tselem’s reporting. Raw material captured by staff and volunteers over the past decade have been carefully catalogued into an extensively unique video archive. Of Land and Bread consists entirely of footage from this archive, showing first hand the lived experiences of Palestinians.

The film shows the regular injustices enacted upon Palestinians under occupation from uniformed soldiers and police, as well as from Israeli settlers who are acting under their protection. The Palestinians have neither political rights nor the right to protest, and lie on the receiving end of a project of dispossession of land, resources, and culture. Of Land and Bread challenges prevailing narratives regarding settlements and offers an opportunity for expression and empathy.

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Dec
12
10:30 PM22:30

ON ZOOM: RE/Search Anniversary Round Table Talk

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RE/Search Publications 40th anniversary roundtables! Co-hosted with Concordia University and Pro Arts Gallery and Commons

{Rebroadcasting on Pro Arts Gallery Official Youtube date TBD}

December 12th, 2020
5pm PST / 8PM EST
Free/ Donations Accepted

RE/Search Publications 40th anniversary roundtables! Co-hosted with Concordia University and Pro Arts Gallery and Commons
The Photography of RE/Search roundtable conversation features highlights from V. Vale’ s vast personal archive of over 100,000 photographs he’s taken over the years. Following J.G. Ballard’s thought of “If it wasn’t recorded, it didn’t happen,” he documented the then-nascent punk rock scene in the Bay Area, capturing informal portraits, candid images; and stunning live shots from the earliest gigs at Mabuhay Gardens since 1977.
Curated with Marian Wallace, The Photography of RE/Search previews the upcoming RE/Search 40th Anniversary exhibition at Pro Arts Gallery & COMMONS opening in 2021.

Kathy Acker, J.G. Ballard, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lydia Lunch, The Ramones, Andy Warhol, V. Vale photographed them all. Not that he planned it this way, “It’s not intellectual taking a picture. You do it and you don’t know why–you just wanted to. Is that art?” he chuckles, “Only history can judge.”
“I had a roommate who had almost all of the RE/Search books, and I would read them...”
–– Nick Cave, musician, writer and composer

“Probably the only surviving original Punk publisher who never stopped is V. Vale, who started Search & Destroy magazine in 1977; then RE/Search magazine in 1980. Viva Vale!”
–– Nancy Peters, co-owner of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers

“One of the first people on the scene, as far as the punk rock fanzine, and really pursuing that kind of information was V. Vale. Very rarely you get a chance to meet a true intellectual, a real cerebral person. No matter how much V. Vale finds out, his curiosity is quenchless. He is unable to stop pursuing new information. He is ceaselessly fascinated by everything.”
–– Henry Rollins, musician, actor, author, speaker and presenter

“I remember seeing the RE/Search books, Modern Primitives and Pranks! They weren’t like any books I’d ever seeing before. They had a handmade look to them, sort of a do-it-yourself underground look, and such an uncensored quality. This is a really fascinating collection, Underground Living, it’s almost like a tarot deck of the powers of San Francisco.”
–– Rudy Rucker, Philip K. Dick Award-winning author of Software and Wetware

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Dec
6
12:00 PM12:00

INVOCATION DEMOCRACY Artist Talk: Zoom Webinar

A conversation with artists Ann McCoy, Darrin Martin, Edgar Fabián Frías and a live performance by Linda Montano, for INVOCATION DEMOCRACY A Political and Mystical Virtual Exhibition

Presented by Pro Arts Commons & moderated by INVOCATION DEMOCRACY's curator eco-feminist artist & mystic Monet Clark, our panelists will discuss the role of the mystic & the subconscious in their artmaking practices & their physical lives, plus the interplay between climate justice, misogyny, Indigenous culture, human & animal rights, mysticism & our democracy.

ANN McCOY is a New York based sculptor, painter, art critic, & editor at large at the Brooklyn Rail, who's worked with Prof. C.A. Meier, Jung’s heir apparent for 25 years; studied alchemy since the early '70s in Zurich & at the Vatican Library; has taught since the 1980s & the past 10 at Yale; & is engaged in ongoing research & writing about women artists exploring spirituality & the unconscious.


LINDA MONTANO is a seminal performance, video & 'life as art' artist exploring personal & spiritual discipline, the 7 Hindu Chakras, personal transformation & altered consciousness. She is critical in the development of video art by, for & about women. Her recent Dorsky Museum show in NY, The Art-Life Hospital allowed her to practice the processes involved in her own death.


DARRIN MARTIN is an artist & Associate Professor at UCD. Through video, sculpture & multi-channel installation, he engages the overlaps of personal & collective memories, & influenced by his own hearing loss, the synesthetic qualities of perception as ways to examine the limits of certainty. In collaborative speculative fictions he has explored paranormal phenomenon, supernatural beings, animal spirit séance/past life regression & more.


EDGAR FABIÁN FRÍAS is a nonbinary, queer, indigenous (Wixárika) multi-disciplinary artist & psychotherapist working in photography, video, sound, sculpture, GIFs spells, performance & community organizing, with BA degrees in Psychology & Studio Art, & an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling emphasizing Interpersonal Neurobiology & Somatic Psychotherapy & is a 2022 MFA candidate in Art Practice at UCB.

Time: Dec 6, 2020 12:00 PM in Pacific Time (US and Canada)

registration link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qxGThXu1QNqQLB-Ry5oXqw?fbclid=IwAR1egHUh455LIbu5pzOnRQS9VjwB51X4mBnC4ecykeJYedpciNg7vrOk00s

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Nov
15
12:00 PM12:00

INVOCATION DEMOCRACY Artist Talk: Zoom Webinar

A conversation with artists Edgar Heap of Birds, Penny Slinger, Jennifer Locke and John DiLeva Halpern for our virtual exhibition INVOCATION DEMOCRACY

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Pictured from INVOCATION DEMOCRACY: Mariee Sioux, music video "Black Snakes"; Penny Slinger, Heavy Lifting-2; John DiLeva Halpern, video still For George Floyd, the Martyr —A Meditation Pause From the Sacred Grounds of Minneapolis; Jennifer Locke, video still Spells III (Tree, Candle, Levitation, Moonstone); Edgar Heap of Birds, Proud, Brave, Brutal.


Presented by Pro Arts Commons, INVOCATION DEMOCRACY, A Political and Mystical Virtual Exhibition, features 27 artists from across the nation responding to this challenging time for our country. Moderated by the show's curator Monet Clark, this discussion will revolve around the motivations behind these artist's works in the show, the liminality of artistic practice, art as cultural activation, and the interplay between a healthy democracy, climate justice, human and animal rights, and mysticism.

Register in advance for this webinar:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_s9OlSNxgSOGgvDWMvoYiUg

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Thanks and hope to see you,

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ON ZOOM: La Milpa en Tiempos de Pandemia, (La Milpa in Pandemic Times)
Oct
30
4:00 PM16:00

ON ZOOM: La Milpa en Tiempos de Pandemia, (La Milpa in Pandemic Times)

 
 
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La Milpa en Tiempos de Pandemia (La Milpa in Pandemic Times) live from Oakland and Oaxaca is a Techno-Tamaladas Webinar/Dialogo we’ll share on Friday, October 30, 4pm - 5pm Pacific Standard Time, hosted by Pro Arts Gallery & COMMONS.

Praba Pilar and project collaborators Charlotte Sáenz and Ben Simmons will share updates on the Techno-Tamaladas and our cultivating and harvesting of a community milpa in 2020. In this webinar, we will be asking: How can ancestral Indigenous Technologies of Life, such as the integrated traditional milpa (aka three sisters of corn, beans, and squash), help us build greater resilience in these pandemic times? How can these knowledges and practices build and nourish urban communities, transcending the increasing divisions and isolation exacerbated by COVID-19 and other climate crises? What lessons do we carry from previous epidemics, such as the AIDS crisis? What learnings can we carry with us as we prepare for the mounting challenges ahead?

REGISTRATION

We will be hosting this webinar on Zoom, to make it as accessible as we can. You can join us via computer and webcam/microphone, or via telephone. Please click the registration button below, fill out the form with your name, email address, and any questions, and we will send you the Zoom link closer to October 30th. Gracias!

TO REGISTER: https://www.prabapilar.com/events/milpa-webinar


This webinar has received support from the Community Rapid Response Fund of Headlands Center for the Arts.

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Oct
30
to Jan 20
Exhibitions

INVOCATION DEMOCRACY: a Political and Mystical Virtual Exhibition

Mariee Sioux, “Black Snakes” music video; Karen Finley, Vote Like Your Life Depends On It; Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Dreamocracy In America; Linda Montano, Passing Through (version 1); April Bey, You About To Lose Yo Job ‘Cause You Are Detaining Me, For…

Mariee Sioux, “Black Snakes” music video; Karen Finley, Vote Like Your Life Depends On It; Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Dreamocracy In America; Linda Montano, Passing Through (version 1); April Bey, You About To Lose Yo Job ‘Cause You Are Detaining Me, For Nothing; Merritt Johnson, DIY: NoDAPL; Penny Slinger, Heavy Lifting-2; Charles Schneider director, music video for “Animals Eat The Sky” written and performed by Christine Shields.

INVOCATION DEMOCRACY a Political and Mystical Virtual Exhibition
Presented by Pro Arts Commons, Curated by Monet Clark
October 30, 2020 - January 20, 2021, Inauguration Day


This exhibition is accessed through multiple 3D virtual galleries which will be embedded into the Pro Arts website, making it available to audiences globally.

Art provides us with a liminal space wherein momentary suspensions from our patterned thoughts and identities can be experienced, allowing for us to align with new states of awareness. Art can reveal cultural biases and their impacts, function as a catalyst for change, and it builds culture. As we nationally and globally navigate through this time of political, social, environmental and health crises the voice of the artist is needed now more than ever. With a nod to Holistic Theory and Intersectional Feminism or what I like to refer to as Holistic Intersectionality, and through the synergy of the sum of its parts, INVOCATION DEMOCRACY provides a virtual space to reflect on and envision the preservation and repair of our democracy. Joining together performance artists, video artists, recording artists, painters, and interdisciplinary artists from across the nation, INVOCATION DEMOCRACY provides an interstice for grief, a necessary step for action, and suggests that all of our intentions, actions and our votes matter, especially during this time of transitioning power structures.

INVOCATION DEMOCRACY proposes that a healthy democracy protects not only all of the people within its borders, but also the land within its boundaries, through policies which promote proper land stewardship and management, which includes protections of animals with respect to local and global ecosystems. It maintains that healthy regional democracies engage in practices which contribute healthfully to the global climate both socially, politically and environmentally. It explores the links between Climate Change and misogyny, empire, white supremacy and cultural biases that are dismissive of indigenous perspectives globally, the mystic, the intuitive, the feminine, and the sentience of animals and nature. INVOCATION DEMOCRACY contemplates the impacts of all of these on our ailing democracy, and just what it may take to transform it. — Monet Clark, curator

Featuring works by: April Bey, Karen Finley, Edgar Fabián Frías, Frightwig and Timothy Crandle, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, John Dileva Halpern, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, Jamil Hellu, Dale Hoyt, Merritt Johnson, Minnette Lehmann, Sang Chi Liu, Jennifer Locke, Darrin Martin, Ann McCoy, Lady Monster, Linda Montano, Shalo P, Charles Schneider, Christine Shields, John Sims, Mariee Sioux, Penny Slinger, Emily Harris and Dano Wall, Liz Walsh, West Facing Shadows / Lydia Greer and Caryl Kientz, Monet Clark

https://proartscommons.org/invocationdemocracy

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