Image courtesy of PUMP.
PUMP, standing for Public Urban Multi-Sensory Presentations, will feature works by over 50 emerging and mid-career artists from throughout Southern California in Long Beach starting Saturday, October 7 through October 21.
Works will be exhibited in a range of non-traditional spaces, from storefront windows and a small park, to a former showroom for Packard automobiles built in 1926 and the massive interior of what used to be an ice storage warehouse near the Port of Long Beach.
The festival seeks to serve as a solution to the problem: “All too frequently, those artists who are able to make the transition from bohemia to the ‘Art World’ […] count Long Beach as home with some pulling up stakes and moving elsewhere and others residing but no longer exhibiting here,” a solution to the city only serving as “a way station and conduit, moving some of its best art and artists to more exclusive, prestigious, and lucrative markets.”
PUMP is a project from FLOOD (the creators of SoundWalk), a group of artists testing the limits of artistic expression through experimentation, in collaboration with Millworks, the Arts Council for Long Beach, Ice House Arts Complex and the Long Beach Community Foundation, with additional support from Work Evolution Laboratories and the Port of Long Beach.
“Striving to serve as a conduit, not only of local but also of regional and international expressions of imagination and artistic practice, our hope is to engender a sense of overlap and tension that will foster, within Long Beach’s dynamic art scene, an ecology rich in influence and exchange,” stated the description.
“We really wanted to develop something that would make Long Beach standout artistically, earning the recognition it deserves as a city that loves and produces unique, forward thinking art,” Kamran Assadi of FLOOD, said in a statement. “PUMP will be an opportunity for everyone in Long Beach to be and experience something different.”
Three PUMP opening receptions will take place Saturday, October 7 from 5:00PM to 10:00PM at The Packard, located at 205 Anaheim Street, The Co-Op Gallery, located at 1330 Gladys Avenue, and The Ice House, located at 625 West Anaheim Street.
On opening night at The Packard, guests can expect performances by Hunter Janos and Narae Kim, phog masheeen and Margaret Noble as well as be the first to see installations by nearly 15 different artists.
At the Co-Op Gallery and Studios, TIMBER/TIMBRE, an interactive visual and sound installation by Jennifer Gunlock, Hillary Norcliffe and Katie Stubblefield will entice viewers of all ages to contemplate their connection with the natural environment, alongside large-scale oil paintings by Alexander Onley.
The Ice House will feature performances by Takeshi Kanemura with Chris Law and Mei Hotta, NewTown Arts, Radio Machine Magazine and Beck and Col Stafford, alongside nearly 10 different artists’ installations.
Associated with, but beginning earlier than PUMP’s official start date, is a residency at Work Evolution Laboratories with Yoon Chung Han starting today, September 21 and running through October 21. Han expects to finish “Causes and Effects,” a visualization of the unexpected strandings of the California Sea Lion, declared by the NOAA as an Unusual Mortality Event (UME), to create a new understanding of the environmental issue.
“Anticipation and excitement are two things that we want to help generate around the arts in Long Beach,” Griselda Suarez, executive director of the Arts Council of Long Beach, said in a statement.
PUMP will take place at The Packard, Ice House Arts Complex, The Collaborative, Pacific Court, Artist Co-Op Gallery, East Village Arts Park and Work Evolution Laboratories.
All exhibitions and events related to PUMP are free and open to the public. Parking fees may apply for some locations. Check out the featured artists and learn more about PUMP via the website here, Facebook page here or reach out to [email protected], and follow the festival’s progress on Instagram @lbpump.
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