For its newest exhibit at the Rod Briggs Memorial Gallery, the Long Beach Creative Group cast a wider net than it ever has before—welcoming submissions from all over Southern California.
The “Inspired By” exhibit features 83 works by 54 artists from throughout Southern California.
This exhibit is the first time Long Beach Creative Group has put out an open call for art from artists throughout the Southland, previously limiting their calls to artists with a connection to Long Beach, Signal Hill, Lakewood or San Pedro.
“We have a fantastic, broad spectrum of different artists, styles, materials and etcetera,” said Marka Burns, board president of the Long Beach Creative Group.
The exhibit includes oil, acrylic and water paintings, as well as sculptures and mixed media pieces, such as “Fall” by Karena Massengill, which utilizes different types of glass, gold leaf, acrylic and resin.
Massengill’s abstract piece consists of a reflective teal background with a square adhered to the surface, with half of the square being transparent and the other half black filled with gold leaves to show “our over-changing seasons with their extremes,” Massengill wrote on her Instagram.
“I am super happy that they included my pieces in the show,” said Evan Cespedes, an art student at Cal State Long Beach.
Cespedes has two pieces of abstract digital art included in the exhibit, dubbed “Flowing Reef” and “Dragon Nerves,” inspired by ideas of aliens, fantasy and other worlds depicted in media. The pieces invite the viewer to contemplate what an alien world and its inhabitants would look and be like.
Fellow CSULB student, Lizbeth Roque, submitted a ceramic owl that was inspired by small marble animal figurines she bought from vendors on her yearly trips to Acapulco, Mexico after her mother was deported.
“I recreate found objects or mementos in order to feel physically closer to my mom,” Roque said in a statement to the Signal Tribune. “[…] These figurines have become very special to me and increasing the scale of these small objects have made them more impactful and meaningful for me.”
The 83 artworks included in the exhibit were chosen out of 242 submissions by three judges: Cory Bilicko, Ellen Butler and Carlos Cordero.
For previous open calls, jurors would give each work a score online and the highest ranking submissions overall would be selected, according to a statement by the Long Beach Creative Group. For “Inspired By,” the jurors met in person at the end of the selection process and were able to advocate for any works that didn’t receive high scores.
According to Burns, the first weekend “Inspired By” opened to the public, it attracted over 200 viewers.
The Long Beach Creative Group is able to use the Rod Briggs Memorial Gallery on an ongoing basis thanks to the Briggs family. The group uses the space to uplift the work of unknown artists.
“We wanted to give opportunities to people who have never shown rather than the ones that show all the time,” Burns said.
“Inspired By” will be on view until Oct. 22 at the Rod Briggs Memorial Gallery (2221 E Broadway). The exhibit is open to the public Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
2 comments
Comments are closed.