Peruvian Bay Area-based artist Adrian Arias has curated Altar para mi Muerte/Altar of my Passing, a group show where twenty visual artists have been invited to create an altar for the dead. The artists were asked to adorn an altar with ephemera that captured what they imagine as an honoring of what their passing might contain.

A catalogue of the show will be produced and available for purchase. We anticipate a beautiful document of the artists' work that we hope you will enjoy and keep as part of your archive.  

On Sunday, October 25, the night of the opening reception, join us for performances with Amy LaCour, Ivonne Iriondo, and Meklit Hadero.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Alejandro Meza
Bob Marsh
Cheliz López
Danica Conneely
Eddie Madril
Hyeyoon Song
Indira Urrutia
Ivonne Iriondo
Jessica Brown
Mara Lea Brown
Marc Hors
Michael Warr & Patricia Zamora
Pancho Pescador
René Yañez
Renee Baldocchi
Susan Matthews
Todd Brown
William Brown
 

OPENING RECEPTION PERFORMANCES

Music
Amy Lacour
Ivonne Iriondo
Meklit Hadero

Dance
Jessica Brown

Silicon Valley De-Bug's Class Conscious Photographers and Studio Grand present Eyes on the Movement: Images from Bay Area Activist Photographers. 

At a critical time in history where racial tensions are at a head, photography is an important tool for radical social change, if it is produced by photographers who are part of the social movements they're documenting, and if their perspective is to expose the abuse of the system, to show how it can be changed, and by who. From immigrants rights, workers' rights, police accountability, to economic justice campaigns, this show features the stories and images of our vibrant social justice movements in the Bay Area -- powered by working class people of color and captured by photographers embedded in these struggles.  

Photographers

Brooke Anderson  |  David Bacon  |  Charisse Domingo  |  Elizabeth Gonzalez  |  Isabel Gonzalez  |  Najib Joe Hakim  |  Jean Melesaine  |  Abraham Menor  |  Karen Ng  |  Ronald Orlando  |  Leopoldo Pena  |  Daniel Zapien  |   

Brooke Anderson

Brooke Anderson is a former union organizer, now working with Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project to build a grassroots labor movement for climate justice. As an activist photographer, she documents the stories of the unsung worker heroes and heroines fighting to remake our economy to serve people and planet. Her work can be found at movementphotographer.com.
 

David Bacon

David Bacon is a California writer and documentary photographer. A former union organizer, today he documents labor, the global economy, war and migration, and the struggle for human rights. His latest book, The Right to Stay Home (Beacon Press, 2013). documents forced migration and the criminalization of migrants. A previous book, Communities Without Borders, documents migration through the eyes and words of transnational communities.
 

Charisse Domingo

Charisse Domingo is a photographer with Silicon Valley De-Bug, documenting communities and the power of everyday people to create change.  She is an organizer with the Albert Cobarrubias Justice Project and De-Bug, working with families with loved ones facing charges in the criminal justice and immigration systems to impact the outcome of those cases and transform the landscape of power in the court systems.

Liz Gonzalez

Liz Gonzalez grew up in San Jose and has been passionate about creating change in the community for many years working on issues ranging from worker rights to education and immigration. She is a writer, healer, and photographer and believes that when we better ourselves we will see that reflected in the larger world.  
 

Isabel Gonzalez

Isabel is a photographer with Silicon Valley De-Bug and one of the founders and co-creators of De-Bug's Darkroom, a photography lab for black and white film. She is passionate about her community of San Jose and is a mommy to a wonderful 4 year old son.
 

Najib Joe Hakim

Najib Joe Hakim is a photographer and photojournalist based in San Francisco. His work has been published and exhibited internationally. He is currently expanding a project, called: Home Away From Home: Little Palestine by the Bay - a multi-media exhibition juxtaposing recorded oral histories with B&W Portraits of the SF Bay Area Palestinian community.
 

Jean Melesaine

Jean Melesaine is a Samoan American documentary photographer for Silicon Valley DeBug in San Jose and is based in Oakland. Her parents are from the villages of Moamoa and Falealili, Western Samoa.
 

Abraham Menor

Abraham Menor is a community organizer/worker and photographer based in San Jose, California. With a background in sociology and a love for photography, Menor realized that he can combine the two together.  His love for the camera began in the late 90’s.  His subject matter was initially graffiti.  Menor sought to document the culture surrounding such an art form.  Shortly thereafter, he developed a passion to document his daily interactions with people, places, and things.  Menor’s goal is to tell stories using his camera.
 

Karen Ng 

Karen Ng is an immigrant and is working as a community advocate at the Asian Law Caucus. She strives to use photography as a tool of empowerment for the immigrant community.

Ronald Orlando

Ronald Orlando is a  freelance photographer based in San Jose, CA.
 

Leopoldo Peña

Leopoldo Peña was born in Michoacán, México and has lived in Los Angeles since 1992. Currently, he is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at University of California, Irvine. He also works as a freelance photographer/language educator and on personal photo projects and spends most of his free time with his son. 
 

Daniel Zapien 

Daniel Zapien also known as Ookie or Baylingual. Is a photographer from San Jose Ca.

We are grateful for the support of the Diane Middleton Foundation and the Akonadi Foundation's Beloved Community Fund for helping to make this exhibit possible.

Fotos y Recuerdos is a compilation of pieces that represent visibility for Xicanas through fine art. In this exhibit, Galindo captures the images of women who have influenced her throughout her life. As a Xicana and Yaqui in the growing up in the US, the exhibit celebrates the many faces she saw growing up; offering tribute to the music that shaped a generation of Xicanxs through tragedy, love, pride, and loss. One of her biggest inspirations from her childhood was Tejano singer Selena. This show celebrates Selena as well. This year marks twenty years since Selena’s untimely death and it’s the month of her birthday.

Studio Grand is delighted to have Crystal’s work in the space. She represents and expresses a voice in California that is unique to the history of this region and the migration of Mexican and indigenous people. The vibrancy and sentimentality of her work captures the spirit of the people she depicts. Crystal, herself, has generous spirit. Her commitment to celebrating women in her community and cultural icons comes from a deep dedication to uplifting the spirit of a community that has experienced much strife and through that strife remained resilient and beautiful.

ABOUT CRYSTAL GALINDO

Crystal Galindo was born to Martin and Carmen Galindo in Visalia, California in 1983. She was raised in Exeter, California in a house her parents helped build along with other members of their neighborhood.

Watching her father draw tattoo style sketches, Crystal decided at the age of three that she wanted to be an artist. Her first drawings were in coloring books and the blank pages of bedtime stories shared among her three siblings. Determined to perfect her skill, she spent countless hours filling lined notebooks with her studies of figures, ranging from close-ups of faces to cholo style portraits.

Crystal remained self-taught until 2004, when she enrolled in drawing fundamentals and beginning painting at College of the Sequoias. Coupling her innate understanding of the human figure and technical instruction, Crystal's skill quickly evolved, supplementing the conceptual projects that began to take shape in painting form. Moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, her work began to reach a larger audience, with social media helping to propel her exposure. She quickly became recognized for her bright, “confrontational” self-portraits and celebration of her culture. While still an undergrad at Sonoma State University, her portraits traveled the State in various group exhibitions and galleries.

Crystal's latest series spotlights women (friends, family and fellow artistas) in a way that focuses on the power, pride and overall "Xingonismo." Aside from her current series, Crystal also enjoys paying homage to Selena in many of her works, in recognition of the late singer's powerful influence on Xican@s of all ages.  In the few short months following her graduation, Crystal's work has been shown in numerous venues across the state of California and currently continues to expand to galleries across the country and world.

OPENING RECEPTION  
Friday, April 10th 
7PM - 9PM

The Making of Instruments: A Process of Failures, Prototypes, and Works in Progress
Works By Sung Kim – Improvisor, Sculptor, and Instrument Builder

Studio Grand is honored to announce a residency with Bay Area based improvisor, sculptor, and instrument builder, Sung Kim. Kim’s original instruments will be exhibited from September 1, 2014 through March 2015. In addition to the exhibit, the Studio will be hosting performances by Kim and collaborating musicians. At the performances, Kim will perform a solo demonstration of the prototype instruments that led to the evolution of the instrument that will be played as part of an ensemble.

Kim’s work as an instrument builder was born out the necessity to create a voice for himself, one that he could articulate and compose from. His instruments are all works in progress and by treating them as such, this allows him to constantly develop and build in an organic manner. Many of the pieces begin as individual as individual components built as Kim develops solutions dealing with mechanics, playing techniques, and resonance. These components are then combined, modified, or discarded, as needed.

ABOUT SUNG KIM

Sung Kim (1975) is an improvisor, sculptor, and an instrument builder born in Seoul, Korea and raised in Washington, DC. In 1989, Kim studied ceramic sculpture at the Corcoran School of Art. It was at Corcoran that Kim started building his own variations of the guitar.

Kim received his BFA in sculpture from The Art Institute of Chicago in 1999. It was in Chicago where Kim began to deviate from the guitar to explore other techniques, tonalities, and sympathetic resonance. It was also in Chicago where Kim started his collaboration with musicians to explore his instruments in an improvisational context. Kim facilitates his musical and sculptural endeavors by owning and operating an architectural woodworking design/build studio in the San Francisco Bay Area.

ABOUT THE ARTIST RESIDENCY

Throughout the Residency, the Studio will be hosting hosting performances with Kim and collaborating musicians. At the beginning of the evening, Kim will start with a solo demonstration of the prototype instruments that led to the development of the instrument that will be used for the second part of the evening. The instrument will be played in an ensemble setting with visiting musicians. Please visit the Studio’s website to stay abreast of performances that will be added throughout the Residency. Dates are included below for events that have been confirmed.   

The Making of Instruments: A Process of Failures, Prototypes, and Works in Progress
Works By Sung Kim – Improvisor, Sculptor, and Instrument Builder

Studio Grand is honored to announce a residency with Bay Area based improvisor, sculptor, and instrument builder, Sung Kim. Kim’s original instruments will be exhibited from September 1, 2014 through March 2015. In addition to the exhibit, the Studio will be hosting performances by Kim and collaborating musicians. At the performances, Kim will perform a solo demonstration of the prototype instruments that led to the evolution of the instrument that will be played as part of an ensemble.

Kim’s work as an instrument builder was born out the necessity to create a voice for himself, one that he could articulate and compose from. His instruments are all works in progress and by treating them as such, this allows him to constantly develop and build in an organic manner. Many of the pieces begin as individual as individual components built as Kim develops solutions dealing with mechanics, playing techniques, and resonance. These components are then combined, modified, or discarded, as needed.

ABOUT SUNG KIM

Sung Kim (1975) is an improvisor, sculptor, and an instrument builder born in Seoul, Korea and raised in Washington, DC. In 1989, Kim studied ceramic sculpture at the Corcoran School of Art. It was at Corcoran that Kim started building his own variations of the guitar.

Kim received his BFA in sculpture from The Art Institute of Chicago in 1999. It was in Chicago where Kim began to deviate from the guitar to explore other techniques, tonalities, and sympathetic resonance. It was also in Chicago where Kim started his collaboration with musicians to explore his instruments in an improvisational context. Kim facilitates his musical and sculptural endeavors by owning and operating an architectural woodworking design/build studio in the San Francisco Bay Area.

ABOUT THE ARTIST RESIDENCY

Throughout the Residency, the Studio will be hosting hosting performances with Kim and collaborating musicians. At the beginning of the evening, Kim will start with a solo demonstration of the prototype instruments that led to the development of the instrument that will be used for the second part of the evening. The instrument will be played in an ensemble setting with visiting musicians. Please visit the Studio’s website to stay abreast of performances that will be added throughout the Residency. Dates are included below for events that have been confirmed.