Public Programs

A+P AT HOME: IN CONVERSATION: STAR MONTANA AND ALICIA PILLER WITH ERIN CHRISTOVALE

May 7, 2020
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

In Collaboration With

Hammer Museum

Join LA-based artists Star Montana and Alicia Piller as they speak with curator Erin Christovale on subjects explored through various works in Collective Constellation: Selections from The Eileen Harris Norton Collection. Montana is a photographer who uses her images to acknowledge and represent the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. Piller is a sculpture and installation artist who takes various materials to create large scale works that morph anthropology and historical trauma into abstract versions that make viewers feel like they are looking at whole events through a microscope.

Montana and Piller will be discussing ideas of community, history and identity with Christovale. Paying particular focus into the ways in which art features in the representation and history of communities. There will be a short Q&A after their discussion. Please join us.

This program will be taking place virtually via Livestream. This means that anyone interested in attending this program from anywhere in the world is welcome, all you need is an internet connection! Please RSVP (below) and the information for attending the program will be emailed to all of those on the list.

Please RSVP here.

This program is organized on the occasion of Collective Constellation: Selections from The Eileen Harris Norton Collection on view at Art + Practice through January 2, 2021. Collective Constellation: Selections from The Eileen Harris Norton Collection is presented by Art + Practice in collaboration with the Hammer Museum and organized by their Associate Curator Erin Christovale.

LEFT TO RIGHT: Star Montana, Frankie, 2019. Photo by Star Montana. Alicia Piller, Nature of a stately being. Outstretched arms, bursting with newborn stars., 2019. Mixed media. 135 x 107 x 53 inches. Photo by Ruben Diaz.
Star Montana, The Earth Cries for Louisa, 2019. 12 x 12 feet room installation. Photo by Star Montana.
Star Montana, Frankie, 2019. Photo by Star Montana.
Alicia Piller, Nature of a stately being. Outstretched arms, bursting with newborn stars., 2019. Mixed media. 135 x 107 x 53 inches. Photo by Ruben Diaz
Alicia Piller, Along the wavy edge of this penumbra. Emerging from the depths. Transformation trajectories., 2019. Mixed media. 86 x 77 x 83 inches. Photo by Ruben Diaz.
Alicia Piller, Bulging veins. Stately being in its forthright mood, mottled with a tortured history. (side view), 2019. Mixed media. 117 x 125 x 79 inches. Photo by Ruben Diaz.
Alicia Piller, Across the wasteland, a twisted melody. Matter and spirit. (front), 2019. Mixed media. 96.5 x 156 x 225 inches. Photo by Ruben Diaz.

Speakers

Los Angeles based artist, Alicia Piller envisions historical traumas, both political and environmental, through the lens of a microscope. Her sculptures and installations conceive of past atrocities, suffering, and accomplishments as biological forms–broken down to a cellular level. A variety of materials including vinyl, latex balloons, and photographs, are employed to examine the energy around wounds societies have inflicted upon themselves and others. Her subject matter is often informed by her studies in anthropology and her sculptural process by her time in fashion and leatherworking. Alicia Piller received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in the spring of 2019.

Erin Christovale is the Associate Curator at the Hammer Museum and the co-founder of Black Radical Imagination with Amir George. Notable exhibitions include a/wake in the water: Meditations on Disaster (2014) at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Memoirs of A Watermelon Woman (2016) and A Subtle Likeness (2016) at the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, S/Election: Democracy, Citizenship, Freedom (2016) at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, the critically acclaimed Made in L.A. 2018 (2018) with Anne Ellegood and belonging (2019) at the Hammer Museum.

Star Montana is a photo-based artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She was born and raised in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles, which is predominantly Mexican American and serves as the backdrop to much of her work. Her work has recently been exhibited at Charlie James Gallery (2019, 2016); Residency Art Gallery (2018); LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes (2018); Occidental College (2017); The Mexican Center for Culture and Cinematic Arts at the Mexican Consulate General of Mexico (2017); The Main Museum (2017); Ballroom Marfa (2017); and Vincent Price Art Museum (2016). Montana will be an artist-in-residence at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in 2020. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Art from the University of Southern California, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the School of Visual Arts, and an Associate of Arts in Photography from East Los Angeles College.

Other Programs in this Series

Wed 22 Apr

A+P AT HOME: IN CONVERSATION: DR. KELLIE JONES AND DR. BRIDGET COOKS

April 22, 2020
5:30 PM - 7:00 PM

This event has passed, WATCH THE ARCHIVED LIVESTREAM

Thu 21 May

READING THE CONSTELLATION WITH ADDY ZOU

May 21, 2020
5:30 PM - 7:00 PM

This event has passed, WATCH THE ARCHIVED LIVESTREAM

Mon 10 Feb

IN CONVERSATION: AMY SHERALD AND ERIN CHRISTOVALE

February 10, 2020
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

This event has passed, WATCH THE ARCHIVED LIVESTREAM

Intro Info Select Works Speakers Other Programs