freeparking

freeparking

A small group of Long Beach artists have opened a new studio in a First District industrial area along Daisy Avenue and are eager to announce their arrival with a pop-up art show, entitled FREE PARKING, this Saturday, December 3 from 6:00PM to 10:00PM.

On display will be the works of three of the four artists who have their workspace at FREE PARKING, Ryan Sanchez, Adrien Edwards and Steven Urubek, along with a handful of other creatives.

Sanchez and Edwards curated the show as a studio warming, choosing from their network nine other artists whose work they believe is accessible to both the artist and the viewer. Unintentionally, each of the artists selected have at one point been a student at Cal State Long Beach (CSULB), said Edwards. Most of them keep their studio practices either in Long Beach or the Greater Los Angeles area, said Sanchez.

Alter-Space III

Luján’s Alter-Space III from her Allery installation.

FREE PARKING is not an event any self-proclaimed Long Beach arts aficionado would want to miss. It’s a four-hour opportunity to check out how a sliver of the 20- and 30-something crowd of local creators are navigating the contemporary art world in an effort to establish themselves.

The name of the show, FREE PARKING, came from a discussion on what to call the studio space. Before landing on that decision, the four studio artists jokingly threw around “Free Pizza Gallery” and “Free Beer Studios” as ideas, considering what would draw people in, if not the artwork itself.

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Screenshot of 1501 Daisy taken from Google Streetview.

They decided to name the studio after something they could actually promise, said Sanchez. Because the studio is located in an industrial zone, by the time the artists have started working (usually on weekends and evenings) the area’s workers have already gone home, leaving plenty of street parking for the artists and any visitors.

“The name also refers to the coveted Monopoly corner space,” said Sanchez. “Depending on the rules you follow, landing on this space could mean that either you win a usually hefty jackpot (house rules); or absolutely nothing happens (official Hasbro rules), and you just get a breather from the more hectic and frustrating gameplay.”

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Adrien Edwards, Fallen, ceramic casts from mold made of digitally scanned objects.

“I really think that [alternative spaces] are important because there are so many artists in Long Beach and Los Angeles and I feel like we need to make room for ourselves and show our work as best we can,” said one of the participating artists, Stephanie Sherwood, referring to the studio’s creative use of an unlikely location.

Sherwood, who graduated from CSULB in 2012, lives in Culver City and works out of her studio in Hawthorne. She will be showing paintings from a series she has been exploring for over two years, where meat and all its fleshy textures are unquestionably the main subject.

“I think a lot of people like how visceral they are and like the color palette of the paintings,” said Sherwood. “I’ve had a few people be really uncomfortable with them, which I think makes the most sense because I am, too, more or less.”

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Stephanie Sherwood, Touch Toes, 2016, enamel on canvas. 

At the beginning of the series, Sherwood said she was merely exploring an interest in the subject matter and had yet to realize why she was so fascinated with meat.

“It makes sense now looking back at it,” she said. “I’m a vegetarian and I have been since I was 13 and[…] what it was, was me processing all of that uncomfortableness and tension into something that I found beautiful.”

Elena Roznovan is a student in the Sculpture/4D Program at CSULB on track to receive her MFA. Originally from Moldova, a small Eastern European country, Roznovan moved to the US at age 16 and has since lived in Ohio, Maryland and New York. She moved to Southern California specifically to study Sculpture/4D.

“As an artist who is interested in human perception, I believe it’s inevitable to work within the language of immersive experiences,” said Roznovan. “I think it’s limiting to stay within the realm of a rectangular canvas, paper or pedestal.”

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Elena Roznovan, Untitled, video projections, dirt, screen

Roznovan says her work is heavily inspired by the Light and Space movement that originated on the west coast in the 60s, prompting her move to Los Angeles. She is currently exploring human perception, phenomenology and time, all subjects she deems relatable to those viewing her work.

“[…]These topics are fundamental and accessible to almost any viewer, without much knowledge of art history, one can just experience the piece and analyze what it does to him/her,” she said.

For more information about FREE PARKING, visit the Facebook event page here.

FREE PARKING is located at 1501 Daisy Avenue.

Asia Morris is a Long Beach native covering arts and culture for the Long Beach Post. You can reach her @hugelandmass on Twitter and Instagram and at [email protected].