Otis Fine Arts Senior Thesis Shows 2021

How's your clock going? by Junhui Lin

March 28—April 3, 2021

Guang Zhou, China

Time has always been one of the major themes that artists have reflected on. It is such a famous topic because it is universal and started for humans when we saw the change of day and night.All the works in my exhibition “How’s your clock going?” were inspired by the fact that I live in two countries with a fifteen hour time difference: I live in Guangzhou, China and I take classes online at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. It has made a complete mess of my life and biological clock. I began to think about the clock and time.“Why do we need a clock?”“Is time meaningful or meaningless?”The clock is a medium used to calculate time. The movement of a clock represents the passage of time. Day and night, a clock represents a person's life.Time is universal because everyone can relate their experiences to it: everyone is born, matures, and dies. We all reflect through the meaning of time when we think of the experiences that made us the way we are today. 

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COME TO OUR BEDROOM by Courtney McGinnis, Brianna Saenz, and Julia Landis

March 28—April 3, 2021

Galef 209

In Loving Memory… by Scout Parkerson

March 29—April 2, 2021

Galef 219

            I’ll never forget the first time we met, when Sponge played that show at TF. You asked me to hold a snare drum while you climbed out of the skate ramp after your performance. I’ll never forget when I saw you fall out of a trash can at Kyle’s halloween party all those years ago. Or, when I saw you again later that night at Flip’s house. You didn’t even know my name yet, you just knew me as “Dead Milkmen shirt girl”. There were still so many more chaotic yet wholesome memories to come in that house. I’ll never forget when we got locked inside Tammy because no one wanted to stop skating. We all had to hop the fence and my belt loop got caught, so Josie had to help me down. I’ll never forget all those times we stole gas station wine together. Or that time you almost spilled red wine on Dani’s parents carpet because you were laying on the ground drunk and were trying to pull me by my leg onto the ground with you. Later that night you were going to make some crazy meal but you passed out in Dani’s parents kitchen with the fridge open instead. I’ll never forget getting high with you, we always had a laugh. You had the goofiest most contagious laugh. I’ll never forget when we would all wake up at Flip’s and start drinking first thing in the morning. That one time you tried making vegan pancakes for me but it went awry. That day you were nodding out and kept dropping your cigarette while Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” was playing. I’ll never forget passing out on Flip’s couch with you. I’ll never forget when you'd proclaim “party at Donut’s house” when his mom was out of town. Donut was never too happy about that. I’ll never forget the way you would pass out anywhere and everywhere, even in the tunnel. I’ll never forget going on beer runs, like the time that woman inside the CVS screamed and you and Josie ran out with two cases of Busch. You almost tripped and you had the goofiest grin on your face right before that guy punched Josie. We got away anyways. I’ll never forget riding in your van to Churchills, or the way you would go over and threaten anyone I said was bothering me. I’ll never forget going to the unit almost everyday, or that one time you shredded on Flip’s guitar so hard you cut up your fingers and there was blood all over the pickup. I’ll never forget how supportive you were when we started UHU, you gave me advice because I was so nervous to perform for the first time. You always came to our shows, and moshed harder than anyone. You were such a rockstar, you’d cut yourself and roll around all over the stage. But, I’ll never forget that you secretly loved bands like the Doors and Pink Floyd. I’ll never forget when you used to randomly call me all the time. One time we stayed on the phone for two hours and you were talking about your lucid dreams. You said you kept waking up in your room in your parents’ house over and over again but you knew you were dreaming because something was always scary and off. I ended up experiencing the exact same thing years later when I had sleep paralysis for the first time. I miss our talks. I’ll never forget when I moved to LA for college and didn't see you very often. At first we talked a lot, but as time passed it just got harder to keep in touch. I will never forget when I was home for the holidays and you and Donut saw me crossing the street towards Churchill’s. You stopped talking to whoever you were talking to and ran towards me, you both smothered me in the middle of NE 2nd Ave. Then you walked with me to your van and grabbed a beer from the cooler and handed it to me. I’ll never forget the way you would tease me, but I didn’t mind and you taught me how to not take shit from anyone. I’ll never forget how excited you were about the Invisible Audio zine when Flip and I brought you a copy on your birthday a couple of years ago, the year that you had that party outside on the street next to your parents’ house. I’ll never forget how much you'd say you loved my art, you always mentioned you wanted to make art together. I will always regret not having been able to do that. I thought you were so talented. I will never ever forget one of the last times I saw you, you'd royally fucked up and we had a long talk behind Connor’s van in the Lozer Lounge parking lot while I was in the midst of a panic attack. You apologized a million times and admit you’d fucked up. You said that I really understood you and who you were and that's why we’d been so close for so long. You gave me a hug, you told me you were clean now and didn’t want to see me go down that road. You said “that shits only good for validating your own misery”. You weren’t a very sappy person, and I of course already knew this without you having to tell me but that night you told me that you loved me. A few months I was in and out of the ER and hospital. Due to that I couldn't play that show I was supposed to play with you in January at lot 11. I went back to LA until the pandemic hit and I all of a sudden had to come back home. I will never forget that phone call from Billie on April 1st as much as I wish that I could. I will never forget seeing you on April 7th, embalmed in that casket, even though I wish I could. It will never not hurt. However, I will always remember you for who you were and what you meant to me. You really did leave an impression on so many people. I will love and miss you forever Austin Ashley, until we meet again someday. Rest in punk.

 The deceased live through those that loved and continue to love them. 

            Here lie pieces of you in effigy.

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The Loss of a Loved One by Molly Dickler

March 28—April 3, 2021

Galef 218

Otis College of Art and Design is thrilled to announce Molly Dickler’s solo exhibition, The Loss of a Loved One, consisting of seven photographs and one video featuring her as the model in which she is remembering and re-enacting loss and pain in her life. A sculpture and the title piece, a video about her father, round out the show.

Dickler’s interests span visual art, performance art, and fashion. Dickler attended California College of the Arts where she studied fashion, then switched to photography, which she has continued studying at Otis College of Art and Design, in Los Angeles, CA.

Dickler explains her unusual style as partly circumstantial. “Being a photographer, I have dealt with models cancelling at the last minute. That was until one of my mentors from Otis, Alex Slade, gave me the idea of producing self-portraits. Right away, I decided to take photos wearing my late grandmother's clothes. The series was called Housewife and I began to think of my grandma’s behavior, pose, and things she would do in order to imitate her in this work. While performing and shooting Housewife, I began to feel sad. The more I took photos of myself in her clothes telling her story, the more I realized that I wanted to tell my own story.

I thought a lot about what I wanted for my final project. I knew I was going to use myself as the model in whatever series I did, and I knew I wanted to revisit events that for me were traumatic. One idea was to restage whole scenes. I soon realized that would be impossible, but as I looked through my photo library, I found I had taken lots of photos of these events and then decided I could project them on the wall and then use props and costumes I already had to complete the scenes. The advantage of this approach is that it made the events look like memories of the events instead of documentary photographs of events. It made them look like how I feel about them. I was dragging something from my past to the present; I was dragging time.“

I dedicate my show to my beloved father, Howard Dickler (1949-2021).

Dickler was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. The Loss of a Loved One will run from March 28-April 3, 2021 at Galef 218, Otis College of Art and Design. Virtual Exhibition walkthrough, Tuesday, March 30, 5:30-6:30 pm, through zoom (ID 979 8993 6898).

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There is a place… by Camila Cáceres

Galef 228

The work I present in "There is a place..." give rise to mental maps of a time I spent in a location where wire fences turned into walls. 

Locks secured every door. 

Bars secured the windows. 

A place my body navigated aimlessly, looking desperately for a way 

out. 

Interrupted by people in white uniforms who provided me with sweet injections that left me to s 

c 

a 

t 

t 

e 

r. 

The door is locked, the key is gone. 

The balance in composition and line demarcates a sense of place, reminiscent of a board game; after all, you are already inside the game. A god's eye view dominates, and there is circling within the canvas. Stairs allow movement, fence wires restrict it, and floor plans sit on the surface, creating directional cues. 

The action of drawing in the paintings is cathartic for the blueprint of memory. Nevertheless, my memory is always being rewritten, and my recollections are often manifestations of my present desires. In this sense, 'There is a place...' does not simply unearth the past; it attempts to straddle and contain contradictory and compartmentalized components of my mind. 

The paintings in "There is a place..." are used to investigate what emerges when care covers for indoctrination. The work is influenced by experience; it deals with themes of memory, trauma, and loss while creating space for individual and collective mourning.

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Sydney Busic Presents: SPLAYED

March 14th - March 20th, 2021

Galef G228 @ Otis College of Art and Design

Sydney Busic was born and raised in San Diego, CA. Her experience as a queer woman is one that she shares in her paintings, as it has shaped her empirical knowledge of the world around her as well as how her body is situated in it. Sydney currently lives in Los Angeles and will graduate in 2021 for her BFA with a focus in painting and a double minor in Art History and Graphic Design.

The forms depicted in her paintings and drawings include representations of figures that are manipulated and contorted through perspectival tools that allow the body to come forth and recede into the canvases. Grotesquely foreshortened fragments of painted flesh lurch out from the canvas displaying muscle and splayed feet, while entire figures are reduced to recoiled forms that radiate through voids of black paint.

From one work to another, the painted bodies become violent and terror stricken. Through these improvisational sites, the body compliments, reflects, and responds to itself. The work does not try to make sense of the self, but rather lends itself to the complexity of the self as it is represented through a body. Through the experience of seeing the painted figures, it is my goal that the viewer is able to viscerally recognize how it would feel to assume the gesture of the figure in question.

SPLAYED is an exhibition that will be open March 14th – 20th, 2021, in room G228 on the second floor of Galef at Otis College of Art and Design. Due to COVID-19 and limited access to campus there will be a virtual walkthrough at 5:30 – 6:30PM PST on March 17th through Zoom: Meeting ID = 979 8993 6898 | https://otis.zoom.us/j/97989936898

Contact:

Instagram: @sydney_busic_art

Website: sydneysbusic.com

It Is Power by Kyaw Min Htet

March 14–20, 2021

Galef 219

Kyaw Min Htet, born and raised in Yangon, Myanmar, is an artist working in photography and sculpture. His work deals with everyday and mundane objects that populate and inform our surroundings in trans-national contexts.

The camera is a primary tool by which he sees and contextualizes his world. Photographs allow him to experiment with a range of visual tropes and modes of representation. Whether found and appropriated sources, or constructed studio sets, Htet uses photography as a pliable medium to make images that create new meanings.

Htet utilizes photography’s multi-layeredness to deconstruct and construct meaning in his images. From the capturing of an image to the printing of that exposure, photography allows for pliancy through software, and Htet’s physical process-oriented labor of constructing the scene of the photograph also informs his images and practice. Elements are transformed in his photographs, whether as a reconstruction of a physical object using photographs, or the construction of photographs combining multiple tropes. He makes objects out of photographs, and makes photographs of objects he alters.

Htet believes image-making is a form of relating, especially in the age where a picture’s representation can change what it communicates. The same image will have different interpretations for different viewers and in turn, build different relationships.

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Good Time, Fun House by Lukas Mitchell 

March 14–20, 2021

Galef 107

Good Time, Fun House

Artist Statement  

My primary purpose is to convey information  captured through a photographic process.        

states of being, memory, and potential. 

Creating is an amalgamation; the inherent use of past, present, and future materials. The use of locations, and memories to build small components that run and evolve into larger, over arching experience. the arrangement, the play, the task that creates evocative thoughts, if only for a short period. 

Lukas Mitchell of the Otis Fine Arts graduating class 2021 presents: Good Time, Fun House, an art show! The show will be @ 9045 Lincoln Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045. (Galef, room 107) A dirty little thingamajig. A grab bag of thoughts, images and ideas. Plz N’joy.

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To fill a desperate need by Erick Cortes

March 14–20, 2021

Galef 218

I am erick cortes. 

I am a photo-based artist.

I take photos and I take photos. 

From family to online and public archives, to undeveloped film found in forgotten kodak point-and-shoots, or from cameras found in thrift stores, my practice is as much about what I make as what I’m looking at.

I love the camera because of its capacity to capture what was there. A tool for documenting history. History of the light read by the camera, and in some instances, actual historic proof of what happened. This interest in history is another facet of my practice. History as it relates to my person, the communities I find myself in, and society at large. How does history, while always changing and revealing itself to us, inform our present? And what is our role in this history, if any? What does truth mean? A lot of what I do is an attempt to answer these

Contact:

IG: @opinminedid

So... Any plans after graduation ?? by Moon

March 7th - 13th, 2021

Galef Room #107

What do you even do after school's out??

Find a job doing what you love or just to survive.

Travel for your own leisure, business, or due to other circumstances.

Race towards your goals or take it nice and slow since you already know that you'll get there.

Meet as many new faces as possible or keep a tight circuit of them.

Have a family of your own or fuck that and enjoy being single or have a partner with no kids.

Get a dog, a horse, a snake, a hedgehog, or a nice turtle.

Go to concerts, movie premieres, comedy shows, a friends show, support movements or stay in

reading a good book, binge your favorite shows or films, work on your art or yourself.

Your path is set for you or you'll make it up as you go.

Leave what you've known behind, go off the radar, or stay close and KEEP IN TOUCH, thrive in

what you know.

If you don't know what to do, here are some ideas.

If you do have a plan, well here are some options anyways:

So… Any plans after graduation??

With a series of acrylic paintings and `photographic images I'll represent

some of the possibilities that the future may hold in our lives along with some internal feelings that

accompany these ideas.

When I was 17 years old, I signed up to join the military to get away from all I know and to travel more.

During my service between 2011 - 2019 I traveled a lot.

Some soldiers have a hard time when getting orders to relocate or getting shipped overseas

but by then I was used to it.

In my childhood I remember moving a lot whether it was back and forth between old homes or to a

new place altogether I have memories of being on lots of roads.

Looking through the glass at the world in wonder and thinking of what lies ahead when we get to our

destination??

Mer Au Dessus (sea above/see above) by Lindsay Stollman

Sculptural installation

Rope, cotton, avocado dye, yellow onion skin dye, newspaper, glue

March 7–13, 2021

G218

The role of the artist when recontextualizing marine biology and ocean conservation is one that relies heavily on her application of aesthetics. “Mer au dessus” which translates to “sea above” in English, is a play on words that deals with oceanic themes and the fact that artwork hangs from above. It is an experiential installation that emphasizes the lasting tangible effects of coral bleaching we face in our oceans today. Much like the playful nature of a children’s science exhibition, this immersive installation is designed to break the barrier one might have with these issues. Lindsay Stollman, who is a Los Angeles based artist, is interested in creating installations as a continuation of her oil painting practice, to encourage a confrontation with her audience regarding themes of ocean conservation.

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We Come in PPC by Katie Irish

March 7–13, 2021

Galef 219

We Come in PPC is a collection of optical, surrealistic, screen-like, and graphic paintings which aim to bring attention to the inaccuracy of the digital world by creating illusions in a real-world space. The exhibition will be on display from March 7th-13th in Galef 219 at Otis College, and shirts will be sold on site for those who want to take home part of the show. There will be an exhibition catalog link posted by @624katie.art on March 7th for those who cannot attend in person since after all, this is 2021

We Come in PPC aims to encapsulate the strangeness of living in a world consumed by media and digital manipulation, when our hereditary, human biology was not designed to look at a screen for endless hours every day. Where people are covered in synthetic clothing, inside manufactured building structures, looking at cell phones, with A.I. technology owning more data about us than we even know about ourselves. 

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Black Paradise by Delany Jackson 

March 9th-March 12th, 2021

“But bein alive & bein a woman & bein colored is a metaphysical dilemma I haven’t conquered yet.” (No More Love Poems #4 Lady in Yellow)  By Ntozake Shange

If our bodies are vessels for our souls and mothers are vessels for birthing those souls, where do we come from? Where do we exist before we are pulled down from the heavens into life? 

        Black Paradise, a solo exhibition by Delany Jackson, is comprised of embroidered oil paintings and a video installation called Black Paradise: A Visual Representation which is a collection of personal and appropriated footage of movie and television clips, interviews of prominent Black figures, stand-up comedians, and music videos. The show is partially inspired by the 1974 “choreopoem” by Ntozake Shange, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf,” and figuratively deals with abstracted thoughts of existence that Shange brings up to question the metaphysical dilemma of Blackness.

Jackson is an Inglewood-born, multidisciplinary artist who spends most of her time questioning her existence in the world as a Black woman living in America. Her work focuses on her perception of reality and obstacles Black women encounter in relationships, self-discovery, and coming of age. Embroidery, an essential aspect of Jackson's practice, is a craft her grandmother passed down to her. The embroidered oil paintings combine modern-day Black hairstyling with pre-colonial braiding and threading. These portraits' productions take hours, sometimes days to complete, similar to the experience that caring and maintaining Black hair requires. In a sense, the use of thread in these paintings reiterates Black women's experience dealing with random people who touch their hair.

Contact: 

IG: @lanyjackson

BEENBOONM by Augusta Kokas

March 7–13, 2021

G228

Cubrete Ahorita (cover yourself right now) by Tiffany Gutierrez

March 1–6, 2021

Galef 228

I grew up mixed raced in a LatinX household where I was told to “cover myself” by my family and people within the neighborhood. Comments such as, “you’ll get sick,” “men are watching,” and “you will get jumped and raped,” are all too familiar. Being taught obedience over respecting my elders, I later learned that they are two different things. Remaining silent and saying “yes” to any order, did not teach me to be respectful, it instead taught me to be submissive. Patriarchy in Latin America exaggerates certain standards regarding women’s appearances and behavior in such an oppressive way that it can divorce them from their own sexuality.

I have experienced censorship. Cubrete Ahorita represents the aftermath of women once they break free from their oppressive and conservative life that was caused from generations of patriarchy. The paintings in this exhibition show body parts that women should not dare to expose, especially when people yell, “cubrete ahorita” each day. Within patriarchy, female bodies are censored mainly by their families who say the same phrase, “cubrete ahorita.” Being exposed to images of “sexy women” in the media and witnessing my mother and every woman in my family obsess over them, these paintings ironically represent a sexualized view of a woman’s body: sensual female forms that resist the conservative mindset of people who oppress women.

The largest painting in the show is a self-portrait. The smallest size paintings are of my nipples. The self-portrait depicts me sitting on a bean bag chair with my legs exposed to the light representing the sensuality of the sunlight hitting my legs. The stare I, as the model, give to the viewer lets them know that I am conscious of their presence and inviting intimacy with them. Another painting depicts a close-up of my hands gripping the skin and muscle of my buttocks, focusing on the distorted image that many women might envision their own objectification. The Latin media fetishizes big butts. My paintings use abstract compositions of body parts to point out the sensuality of women’s bodies—a resistance to pornography. On each side of the gallery doorway, I will hang the two “nipple paintings”—hung like breasts of the architecture.

Tiffany Gutierrez grew up and lives in Torrance, CA. Cubrete Ahorita will run from March 1st to March 6th in Galef 228 with a zoom walkthrough on March 3rd from 5:30–6:30pm: Zoom Meeting ID 979 8993 6898 | https://otis.zoom.us/j/97989936898

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Detritus. by Jason Burns

February 28—March 6, 2021

Galef 107

Shape of Mood by Yiwen Hu

February 28—March 5, 2021

G219

“Shape of Mood”

——FASHION PAINTINGS BEAT BOREDOM IN THE PANDEMIC 

I'm an emerging multimedia artist, releasing eight new works.  I combine painting and fashion in works of mood-swinging beauty that are perfectly designed to beat back the blahs during the pandemic. Drawing inspiration from life-experiences, my works with techniques developed from fashion design, interior decorating, and home furnishing. Using fabrics, paints, and a wide palette of colors, I explore the connection between aesthetics and human moods. Equal parts inspiration and therapy, the “Shape of Mood” solo exhibition is sure to change the way you look at painting and fashion.

 Just as the human body has a relation to the space it occupies, fashion interacts with space according to the type of color, fabric, and texture that is worn. These expressions seamlessly merge into our expression of self-identity and become organic expressions of our moods and feelings. Geometry and space dictate our orientation to the world around us, and I want to remind us that these geometric spaces are filled with emotion. When we act in the world we paint with the colors of ourselves. I understand the power that the artist has to control and guide the viewer to enter through an emotional and visual doorway to psychological spaces and experiences that stand outside of the mundane flow of life. 

We may be isolated and masked due to the current pandemic, but under this exterior we keep the same magnitude of passion and capacity for joy that we have always known. Sometimes it takes an artist of not only skill, but courage, to persevere in positivism while the world around them stands at the edge of despair. By creating works that stem from deeply personal experiences of nature and the mysterious world of dreams, I give voice through richly textured images for the emotions and experiences we all share but are often unable to name.

 Seeing these universal images of joy and affirmation is a way to reconnect with the creative and healing energies we all need during these stressful times.I have specifically searched out the combination of shapes, textures, colors, and design strategies to reignite many of the emotional and aesthetic responses that may have gone numb during the pandemic. This means reconnecting with many of those daydreams and hopeful emotions that you used to take for granted. Think of this as a chance to reconnect with your inner optimist, as well as a chance to experience works of stunning originality.  

Make a point of scheduling a visit to the exhibition while it's open. These paintings are more than eye-candy, they are triggers for just the kind of “high” you’ve probably been craving but that no drug can really supply. At its best, art reminds us that we are deeply connected to nature and that this connection offers a practically limitless array of sensations, experiences, and insights, many of which can only be symbolized through color, geometry, and textures carefully placed by a gifted maker. This is precisely what I offer in the “Shape of Mood.”

Contact: 

Email: [email protected]