ESMoA

ESMoA
Established 2013
Location El Segundo, California,
Coordinates 35°06′56″N 118°20′35″W / 35.11556°N 118.34316°W
Curator Bernhard Zünkeler
Website www.esmoa.org

ESMoA is an "art laboratory" located in El Segundo, California,[1] run by Brian and Eva Sweeney's[2] non-profit artlab21 Foundation.

ESMoA was originally planned as a space to privately store part of the Sweeney's collection, but at the suggestion of former El Segundo Mayor Eric Busch, ESMoA was created as a place where the public could view the couple's works[3] as well as exhibits curated by Bernhard Zünkeler.[4][5] It also contains space for an artist-in-residence program, and ESMoA is available to educational institutions Monday through Thursday.

Since the founders and curator see ESMoA as more of an art laboratory [6] than a traditional museum, it holds four experiences (i.e., exhibits) each year that include paintings, sculptures and video/digital works from various time periods and regions. Each experience is built around a question or theme that will allow viewers to create their own connections and interpretations.

Founder's collection

The Eva and Brian Sweeney Collection currently consists of about 500 works by artists such as Monet, Sisley, Pissarro, Klimt, Khnopff, Alma-Tadema, Klee, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Cornell, Rauschenberg, Doig, Warhol, Close and Estes. [7] Works from the Sweeney Collection have previously been loaned for display at Los Angeles based museums.[8]

Experiences

Experience 01: DESIRE – January 27 until April 28, 2013

Desire contains sculptures and paintings that look to exploit a number of dichotomies including bizarre versus beautiful,[6] meticulous craftsmanship versus spontaneity and conserving nature versus exploiting nature.

Featured works and artists:

Experience 02: ANTI-ARK – February 8 until April 8, 2013

Anti-Ark consists in an oceanfront display of works by German artist Michael Sistig that draw attention to the significant issues of sustainability in a very public manner. The public installation is based upon three paintings created by Sistig over the past five years. A combination of conundrums – that is, the containers, the polar bear, and the siren – is intended to spark the minds of viewers whose inevitable questions help ignite the works of art.

The installation involves washed-up shipping containers of an Anti-Ark created by Sistig. One container is topped by a sculpture of an emaciated polar bear, its beaten body affected by the devastating effects of global warming. On the other container is perched a siren whose song lured the skinny bear’s vessel too close to the shore.

Experience 03: TRUTH – May 12 until August 25, 2013

Though it might be one of the core values of society, truth seems awfully hard to find these days. Not on the Pacific coast of southern California, however, where nearly 500 years of artistic contemplation on veracity will be on display with TRUTH to show the naked truth.

Featured works and artists:

Experience 04: OBJECTIFIED – June 15 2013

Do the living spaces that surround us own us or do we own them? There seems to be a sort of cohesive relationship built between animate and inanimate objects in the home - Trina Merry says.

During this one-day only installation called Objectified, fine art body painter Trina Merry posed these questions and allowed viewers to come up with answers by creating a conversation with the self. Trina Merry and her team ART ALIVE Gallery collaborated with artist Theresa Because to create a 4 part installation:

Experience 05: FAME – September 8 until November 24, 2013

FAME explores the ambivalent soul of Los Angeles. One part dream machine and another part Vanity Fair, Los Angeles is home to dislocated whimsy and constructed memory. It is also the headquarters of the Wende Museum, which has the most interesting archives of artifacts from the almost forgotten Cold War. By looking closer at the unusual juxtaposition of artworks and artifacts from different eras and geographies, ESMoA will explore the multifarious foundations of what might make things famous and the possible connections between them.

Featured works and artists:

Experience 06: ELVIS WHO? – November 14 2013

ESMoA sponsored a professional Elvis impersonator contest at the Old Town Music Hall at 140 Richmond Street in El Segundo – conveniently located mere walking distance from the FAME exhibition. ESMoA Experience 06: Elvis Who? was being co-produced by Bernhard Kurz and Ed Bonja, Elvis Presley’s official photographer and tour manager from 1970-1977. The focus of ESMoA Experience 06: Elvis Who? was on the Elvis of the 1950s, with an international assemblage of professional impersonators staging an open concert.

Experience 07: STING – December 8 until January 19, 2014

STING employs art as a vehicle for change, using transversality (how spaces intersect) as a way of production, autonomy as a means for development, and cooperation as a substitute for the specialization model introduced by the centers of power. STING is a response to institutionally conditioned social processes that limit the organic development of society. From this perspective, we have transformed ESMoA’s exhibition space into a platform for the development and visualization of strategies that reveal how we understand transversality within our individual artistic practices.

Featured artists:

Experience 08: PRIDE CONSTELLATION – January 06 2014

PRIDE CONSTELLATION was a video projection on the tower facade of El Segundo High School produced by one of our STING artists-in-residence, Mauricio Abad, and ESMoA in collaboration with El Segundo High School students. Mauricio has been meeting with students from El Segundo High School to create this project in a truly collaborative fashion. Throughout the course of these meetings, Mauricio asks students what it’s like to go to their school; what are the expectations, challenges, and opportunities? What are the important symbols of their school; what matters to them? Working together, Mauricio and student participants have shaped the project both conceptually and visually. Students in art and Media classes have been working to create animations for the video mapping display, and Mauricio will tie it all together with his conceptual input and unique vision.

Experience 09: SILENCE – February 2 until May 4, 2014

SILENCE explores the path of abstraction in art. Still waters run deep, the saying goes. There is a parallel in abstraction in general. Lying deep in our ways of perceiving the world and understanding the way of things is a great connection between the use of line, color, contrast and pattern. Artists may use bright colors and action in painting, but their analytical clearness can be as sharp as a cold blade. This clarity offers a chance to look way beyond the surface.

Featured works and artists:

Experience 10: PHYTOMAGNETIC – March 02 until March 08, 2014

The German artist Amely Spötzl unleashed PHYTOMAGNETIC at ESMoA on Main Street in El Segundo. The art experience from the art laboratory transformed the old Post Office located directly adjacent to ESMoA with a silver line drawing of a plane leaf inspired by a nearby tree. The effect of Spötzl’s work will be visually dazzling, as the drawing reflects sunlight from different angles throughout the day. PHYTOMAGNETIC goes beyond mere outline to an indicator of the power of drawing to influence our visual conception of surroundings. Distinct from color, which keeps a shape intact, the lines of Spötzl’s plane leaf will divide the Post Office building and interfere with the visual perception of outlines and contrast. The phenomenon is similar to the way the surface of water can be viewed distinct from the ground beneath it: Viewers will be able to focus either on Spötzl’s plane leaf or the outlines of the building that frames it.

Experience 11: SCRATCH – June 08 until September 21, 2014

Many of LA’s most influential graffiti and tattoo artists covered the walls and floors of ESMoA to publicly launch their 21st century encounter with an artistic tradition: The Getty Graffiti Black Book. The Getty Black Book Project was the brainchild of donor and art collector Ed Sweeney, who approached the GRI with the idea and brought the graffiti artists together, ultimately donating the book to the Getty Research Institute. In 2013 more than 150 of LA’s leading graffiti artists responded to a 16th century manuscript from the vaults of the Getty Research Institute called a liber amicorum (book of friends) by contributing works on paper to be bound into a single book and created the Getty Graffiti Black Book. The contributing artists decided to give the Getty Black Book the title, LA Liber Amicorum, to capture the spirit of its transformation of rival ‘writing-crews’ into a Los Angeles Book of Friends. ESMoA and the Getty Research Institute have invited Getty Black Book artists Axis, Cre8, Defer, Eyeone, Fishe, and Miner to co-curate those crews of creative friends from the LA graffiti art community and turn the art laboratory of ESMoA into an open black book. Graffiti and tattoo artists will transform the space into a cathedral of urban art for the first presentation of the LA Liber Amicorum to the public with SCRATCH.

Featured works and artists:

Education

ESMoA is closed to the public Monday through Thursday, but it is open to schools (public, private and fine art) and other groups by advance appointment. Besides the main gallery, schools and groups also have access to classroom space on the second level.

School programming - ESMoA educators have developed age tailored programs and classes that stimulate creativity and interest in art. Among the activities, school students are invited to sketch their own version of the art piece and to create their own piece of art inspired by the experience using various materials like clay, paper or water color pencils.

Adult programming – ESMoA teams with dining and drinking establishments to host events that inspire creativity in adults. Select evening programs may also include talks, cooking classes, workshops, performances, and screenings.

Family programming – Select Sundays are dedicated to Family Fun at ESMoA, with the art laboratory inviting every generation to pop in for free programming led by its experienced art educators. Programming puts creativity and enjoyment on equal levels to engage growing and mature minds alike. Programs may include tours, family activities, sketching, and scavenger hunts.

Building

ESMoA Interior.
ESMoA Interior.

Construction on ESMoA started in 2011 after the Sweeneys ran out of space for their growing collection. The modern building occupies a 25' x 140' footprint and features material such as stainless steel and white concrete blocks.[2] It was designed by Eva Sweeney with Culver City architect John Milander. Its main gallery features adjustable solar lighting via light tubes, and it is built to hold sculptures and paintings over two stories tall. The artist-in-residence space contains living quarters and a studio where artists can create works up to eight feet tall by 20 feet wide. Illumination to the gallery is provided by adjustable light tubes that filter natural solar light and create a light-filled atmosphere that changes with the changes of the external metereological conditions. The interior space can be broken up into individual galleries allowing the art curator to build a new different setting for each experience exhibition. The gallery’s walls and ceiling are reinforced to hold sculptures and paintings over two stories tall. The artist-in-residence space contains living quarters and a studio where artists can create works up to eight feet tall by 20 feet wide.

Artist-in-Residence

In addition to the gallery and classroom spaces, there is room for an artist-in-residence program on site. Every three months, a different international artist will live and work at ESMoA, although one artist a year will be selected by the local Otis College.[3] The first artist in this program is Michael Sistig from Germany. Sistig is also the creator of ESMoA's first environmental piece based on his work Anti Ark.

References

  1. ↑ Simmons, Stephanie. "Free, Non-Profit Art Laboratory Opens In El Segundo". CBS KCAL 9. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Wiseman, Paul. "The Creative Couple Behind ESMoA". Los Angeles Confidential. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Simon, Brian (28 June 2012). "El Segundo Gets First Look at New Art Museum". El Segundo Herald. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  4. ↑ Roman, Marcus. "New Leipzig School in the Coking Plant". LabKultur. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  5. ↑ "Get Closer New Art Made in Germany". Taiwan Contemporary Art and Taiwan National Culture and Arts Foundation. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Goldman, Edward. "The United States: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  7. ↑ "A New Year, A New Museum: ESMoA To Open in 2013". The Art Reserve. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  8. ↑ Stephan, Annelisa. "Drawings by Contemporaries of Gustav Klimt in W104". Getty.edu. Retrieved 18 January 2013.

External links