Adam (Box) Weber, Polished Turd, 2021. Otis College of Art and Design.
Palos Verdes Art Center / Beverly G. Alpay Center for Arts Education is pleased to announce that Jacqueline Weisbaum, an entering MFA candidate at California Institute of the Arts, has been named the 2021 recipient of the Alpay Scholarship. Also acknowledged for honorable mention are Graciela Uriegas of Grossmont College and Alicia Serling, Otis College of Design.
Now Trending, currently in its fifth iteration, was created by Dr. O. Allen Alpay through the Beverly G. Alpay Memorial Education Fund and implemented by Palos Verdes Art Center for the advancement of young artists enrolled in Southern California art schools. This annual exhibition was designed to provide a leg-up for students to help launch their careers. In addition to a juried exhibition, the Alpay scholarship of $5,000 is given to one artist showing talent and dedication.
This is the first year that PVAC presents this exhibition solely online, due to COVID-19 mandates. Although we all prefer to experience art in person, this new platform has provided a showcase for many more burgeoning artists than could otherwise be presented in our physical galleries setting.
Juror, Dennis Keeley, has provided his expertise as an artist and academic to select eight videos and a total of 51 sculptures, installations, and 2D works. We are grateful to Mr. Keeley for contributing his time and astute insights.
PVAC is honored to promote and invest in the following selection of artists. Their voices echo the pulse of our present day, while their vision paves a bold path into our collective future.
Aaron Sheppard, PVAC Curator
All works are for sale unless noted NFS. Please contact PVAC to facilitate purchases: info@pvartcenter.org, 310-541-2479.
Matthew Pagoaga, Crises / The Convex Lens, 2021, Video, Duration: 3:37 min.
California Institute of the Arts
“Crises / The Convex Lens” examines crisis and time, portraying four visual datasets of crises, while drawing aural and diagonal parities in sound and theme. Though these crises differ in time and immediacy, the now distorts them, condenses their ends, enlarges their middles, coalesces them to a hum.
Eliana Levi, Wasabi Little Mix Dance Cover, 2020, Video, Duration: 1:38 min.
Los Angeles Valley College
Being on the autism spectrum means that it can be hard to express yourself. Dance was always my favorite way of connecting with people. “Wasabi” resonates with me because it says that no matter what you do, there will always be people talking about you, so you may as well stay true to your talent.
Işık Kaya, Monuments, 2019, Video, Duration: 5:15 min.
University of California, San Diego
“Monuments” depicts the infrastructures of speed that form gigantic concrete layers that dominate the Southern California landscape at night. These are the accidental monuments of the car culture we live in. Sound: Recording of seismic air gun blasting used for finding oil underneath the ocean floor.
Işık Kaya, Crude Aesthetics, 2021, Video, Duration: 10:15 min.
University of California, San Diego
“Crude Aesthetics” is a film that depicts the complex web of oil infrastructure in LA. It is an Audiovisual meditation on the conundrum of progress and self-destruction inherent to capitalist societies. All footage was shot at night, and the soundtrack is a recording of a pumpjack.
shima taj bakhsh, The Absence of a Name, 2021, Video, Duration: 6:13 min.
California State University, Long Beach
Installation view. This project is ongoing and includes documentary research, oral history, and a biographical investigation manifested in different mediums such as sound, video, and installation. Starting from an anonymous gravestone at the cemetery at Qom, Iran.
Marina Weiner, Hydrant Sundial, 2021, Video, Duration: 1:43 min.
California State University, Long Beach
Video documentation of a drawing made in collaboration with a fire hydrant, the sun, clay, and the number 45 bus at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Anaheim in Long Beach, CA.
Jacqueline Weisbaum, An Empty Lot Is Still A Lot, 2020, Video, Duration: 2:23 min.
California Institute of the Arts
No silence without sound, until lost we remain unfound. In syncs and signs may we learn to read between the lines.
2021 Alpay Scholarship Recipient
Jennie E. Park, 2020 Vision, 2020, Video, Duration: 8:08 min.
California Institute of the Arts
This kinetic sculpture references practices or technologies of ascertaining, manipulating and interrogating vision (like an optometrist’s eye exam), challenging viewers to examine assumptions and contradictions operative in their own world views. (The sounds are the actual motor sounds recorded.)
Sydney Acosta, Tyler Buczko, Maria Carmier, Carlos Rene Castro, Luis Hernandez, Audrey Hernandez-Peterson, Salina Holguin, Işık Kaya, nicola lee
Robmarie Lopez, Mackenzie Rae Lord, Celeste Munoz, Maryam Orujova, Oscar Pearson, saylor petzoldt, Noe Pina, Claire Richards
Sterling Sanders, Alicia Serling, Ritika Singh, Brandon Sutliff, shima taj bakhsh, Phoebe Takeda, Carlos Tellez, Marbella Trujillo
Graciela Uriegas, Shruti Walker-Radzik, Renae Wang, Adam (Box) Weber, Marina Weiner, Jacqueline Weisbaum, Mirabel Wigon, Diane Williams, Emily Yamaguchi, Zimo Zhao
Juror’s Statement
It was my honor, privilege and pleasure to jury the work submitted to the Alpay Scholarship this year. The diversity of ideas I observed in the works renewed my faith and hope from this last year of social isolation. Looking at the work and ideas expressed in both traditional and new art forms displayed an innate yearning all artists have to find and connect with an audience that is as receptive to art as artists are compelled to make work.
As important as the people who make art, those who help create the environment for the support of the Arts are equally critical. Without them, great artists might often fail to make the wonderful work that challenges, enhances and enriches our lives. A scholarship is a Mitzvah. An unexpected blessing in a world that all too often forgets that good things grow from investment and care.
All art begins in the artist’s imagination. Often it points towards something missing in the world or just a curious idea. Creativity combined with practice becomes a remarkable skill set that helps make a mirage into a miraculous drawing, a great painting, a monumental sculpture, a surprising performance, a memorable movie or something indescribably new. School is often where artists develop their original and creative practices.
Support for students who want to study art has always been a complex discussion for societies based in practicalities, but Art has always shown itself as a great influence or an inspiration for change in history. We know that students are the future of this world, but Art students are educated to know everything that everyone else knows but think differently and create opportunities for everyone to see things in new ways.
I want to thank everyone at the Palos Verdes Art Center, especially Aaron Sheppard, Dr. O. Allen Alpay, Daniela Saxa-Kaneko and Gail Phinney for all their care and direction. We spoke at length about PVAC’s mission to help young artists pursue education and careers in the Arts. In closing, I would like to congratulate and recognize everyone who submitted work for this consideration.
Dennis Keeley
