Juventino Aranda
Walla Walla, WA
206.624.0770 (Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA)
www.juventinoaranda.com / @juventinoaranda
b. 1984 Walla Walla, WA
Education
2010 BFA, Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA
Solo Exhibitions
2021 Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA
2019 In Dreams I Once Believed There Was a Future, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA
2018 Pocket Full of Posies, Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA
2017 Weed the Lawn and Feed the Roses, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA
Group Exhibitions
2020 Making a Better Painting: Thinking Through Practice, Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR
2017 ¡Cuidado!, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA Out of Sight 2017, Vital 5 Productions, Seattle, WA
2016 NW Art Now @TAM, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA Out of Sight 2016, Vital 5 Productions, Seattle, WA
Award
2016 James W. Ray Venture Project Award, Raynier Institute & Foundation, Seattle, WA
Publications
2018 Brendan Kiley, “Juventino Aranda’s Gallows Humor Lands with the Crushing Force of Grief at Seattle’s Frye Art Museum,” Seattle Times, July 6
2016 Erin Langner, “Considering What Art Can (and Can’t) Do in a Survey of Northwest Artists,” Hyperallergic, August 31
Collections
Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
Microsoft Art Collection, Seattle, WA
Represented by
Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA
My status as an “other” puts me outside of traditional notions of an artist, working within systems that are not created for me. I combine traditional and nontraditional media that result in a reverse trompe l’oeil. One example of this is my use of textiles like Pendleton blankets and velveteen as a substitute for canvas. In Western painting, canvas is a support and often a forgotten or overlooked aspect of a painting. By using textiles as the canvas and embroidery as the paint, I am mirroring my attempt to uncover and celebrate those cultures and communities who are the foundation of a society but are often covered up or whitewashed by mainstream narratives. My wall-works are simultaneously paintings and sculptures. They include and combine paint, urethane resin, oil sticks, bronze, mirror, birch panel, and corrugated cardboard. This media mixing is both high and low, native and foreign, other and accepted. This interplay mimics the complex entanglements of kitsch and modernity that is the pastiche of Latinx experiences.
Kate Barbee
Los Angeles, CA
323.461.3311 (Kohn Gallery)
katebarbeeart@gmail.com / www.katebarbeeart.com / @katebarbeee
b. 1994 Dallas, TX
Education
2017 BFA, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Professional Experience
2019 Curator, Hygiene & Other Surplus, gallery ALSO, Los Angeles, CA Curator, Sensible Ecstasy, gallery ALSO, Los Angeles, CA
Group Exhibitions
2020 Frieze Art Fair, w/Kohn Gallery, New York, NY Armory Art Fair, w/Kohn Gallery, New York, NY myselves, Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Wylde Classic, O’ Project Space, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Sweet Primal Things, James Wright Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Labyrinth of Language, wәrkärtz, Los Angeles, CA
Publications
2020 Balasz Takac, “Identity, Structured or Fabricated: Notable Contemporary Artists Gather at Kohn Gallery,” Widewalls, September 11 (online) Barry Samaha, “State of the Art Industry in the Time of Coronavirus,” Harpers Bazaar, May 7 (online)
Represented by
Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
The palpable tension in my work is born from a flurried, dysmorphic relationship to my body and the visceral power within it. Each painting is comprised of fragments of art-historical symbols, acts of raw sexuality, archival scraps of textural fabrics, and clippings from my own reality. I see every piece as a singular autobiographical moment depicted through a perspective that is removed from the actual experience—floating somewhere in proximity.
I begin with either a light color wash on the canvas, or no treatment at all, abstaining from any preparatory sketching. Instead, I dive into improvisational outlining, taking acrylic directly to the surface to lay a foundation. I search for the rhythm of the painting by rummaging through a big box of dismembered pieces, then sew in the scraps, often revitalizing the color of their new surface.
This process is a way to remain private, presenting a disorientation of forms snatched from personal experiences. Each visual and conceptual fragment included within the work reflects aspects of memories both detached and intimate.
Matt Belk
Portland, OR
m.13elk@gmail.com / www.becausedraw.com / @battmelk
b. 1988 Omaha, NE
Education
2010 BFA, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
Solo Exhibitions
2019 Stumptown Coffee, Belmont, Portland, OR
2017-19 Whiteaker Block Party, Eugene, OR
2013 Installation, Bare Bones Café and Bar, Portland, OR
2011 Entrance mural, Goldsmith Building, Portland, OR
2010 Vicarious Encounters, Parallax Space, Lincoln, NE
Group Exhibitions
2018 First Friday, New Zone Gallery, Eugene, OR
2016 Design Conference, Oso Bay XIX, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, TX
2014 Last Thursday, Steele Door Gallery, Portland, OR Last Thursday, Streetcar Bistro, Portland, OR
2013 Circus Show, People’s Art of Portland Gallery, Portland, OR
2011 BFA Final Show, Eisentrager-Howard Gallery, Lincoln, NE
I create an intricate system of open-ended narratives that lodge themselves in a myriad of conceptual drawing and painting techniques. My goal is to use unusual things to shed an unusual light on the way we live. I’m going to make a picture, then I have all these tools and ideas built up and I harvest them. Like a chameleon, I change my skin based upon my atmosphere. I allow for outside forces and source material to enter my work by setting myself up to
