INVISIBLE LANDSCAPES premiers at The Visionary in Mount Vision, NY

September 9th & 10th, 2022 at 8pm

GRAYSCALE, a contemporary dance company based in Los Angeles under artistic director Jessica Kondrath, premiers an evening length piece titled Invisible Landscapes. This new work is an interdisciplinary piece combining dance, film, visual arts and architecture. Drawing inspiration from poems by Mary Oliver, Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies, repetitive geometry, and the juxtaposition of reality and imagination. Invisible Landscapes crafts an immersive environment for the viewer to investigate the narrative terrains that exist between each of us.

Spin (After Sol LeWitt) 

Yumi Janairo Roth

March 5 – June 12, 2022

PROGRAMS – Collaborative programs throughout the exhibition will take place with:
AArrow Sign Spinners
The Spindustry Podcast hosted by Joey Castanon, with first episode confirmed guests LAXART Director Hamza Walker and Spinner Justin Charles Michael Brown
GRAYSCALE with Artistic Director Jessica Kondrath, with dancers Chandler Davids, Holly Goodchap,
Musician and composer Robin Sukhadia aka Tablapusher

Drawing on a background in anthropological and archaeological research, Yumi Janairo Roth uses her art practice to unite different communities in situations that bring attention to the value we place on various aspects of everyday material culture. Spin (after Sol LeWitt) is an exhibition of sculpture, video, photography, and performance by Colorado-based artist, who has collaborated with professional sign spinners since 2017.  

Roth creates resonant juxtapositions between the physical presence of street-corner advertising and the work of one of America’s founding conceptual artists, Sol LeWitt (1928-2007). “Spinners take great pride in their ability and athleticism,” she says, “yet are sometimes vilified and outlawed for distracting drivers, ‘cheapening’ municipalities, and accepting seemingly low-skill jobs.” For Spin (after Sol LeWitt), she sets out to challenge those assumptions by working with spinners to replace the advertising slogans on their signs with maxims from LeWitt’s genre-defining 1968 text, Sentences on Conceptual Art. Spinning the signs on street corners, they surprised passers-by with LeWitt’s ideas about the importance of irrational judgments and logical mysticism.

Spin (after Sol LeWitt) invites us to question the divisions we create between the exclusivity of conceptual art and the inclusive public life of street corners, parks, and competitive spectacle.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Yumi Janairo Roth was born in Eugene, Oregon and grew up in Chicago, Metro Manila, the Philippines and suburban Washington DC. She received a BA in anthropology from Tufts University, a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts-Boston and an MFA from the State University of New York-New Paltz. She currently lives and works in Boulder, Colorado where she is a professor of sculpture and post studio practice at the University of Colorado. Roth has exhibited and participated in artist-in-residencies nationally and internationally, including Grand Central Art Center, Santa Ana, CA; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Smack Mellon, and Cuchifritos in New York City; Diverse Works and Lawndale Art Center in Houston; Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, ME; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Barrick Museum of Art, Las Vegas; Vargas Museum, Metro Manila, Philippines, Ayala Museum, Metro Manila, Philippines; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Germany; Galerie Klatovy-Klenová, Czech Republic; and Institute of Art and Design-Pilsen, Czech Republic.

With GRAYSCALE on April 2nd and May 7th from 7-9pm

Floor Drawings is an improvisational score created by GRAYSCALE artistic director Jessica Kondrath in response to and in collaboration with visual artist Yumi Janairo Roth’s work Spin (after Sol LeWitt). This score utilizes Sol LeWitt’s written instructions for how to recreate and install his numerous line drawings. Taking direction from Roth’s reimagining of LeWitt’s ‘Sentences on Conceptual Art’, Floor Drawings blurs the line that often defines what is a ‘dancer’. This score is designed for both dancers and sign spinners to encounter each other and the space both physically and conceptually. Floor Drawings is performed with a soundscape by musician and composer Robin Sukhadia aka Tablapusher.

SUPPORT

The artist would like to thank professional sign spinners Joey Castanon, Christian Altamirano, Davis Davis, Kadeem Johnson, Bryan Savas, Kevin Williams, and Justin Charles Michael Brown; Max Durovic, CEO / Spinventor of AArrow Inc.; AArrow Sign Spinners; choreographer Jessica Kondrath; dancers Chandler Davids, Mamie Green, Holly Goodchap, Jen Hong, and Morgan Raynor; composer and musician Robin Sukhadi; Director of LAXART Hamza Walker; John Spiak and Tracey Gayer of GCAC for making this project possible; and special thanks to Carol LeWitt for her continued support of Spin (after Sol LeWitt).

Spin (after Sol LeWitt) was developed through Yumi Janairo Roth’s multi-year artist-in-residence at Grand Central Art Center.  Support for this exhibition is provided by AArrow Sign Spinners and a generous grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in support of the Grand Central Art Center Artist-in-residence program.

FULL PROGRAM SCHEDULE

March 5

The Spindustry Podcast with host Joey Castanon, LAXART Director Hamza Walker, and Spinner Justin Charles Michael Brown

March 5, 7-10pm

Spinners at opening 

March 19, 1:30-4pm

Rehearsals with spinners and dancers

March 26, 1:30-4pm

Rehearsals with spinners and dancers

April 2, 7-10pm

Public performance with spinners, dancers, musician/composer

April 23, 1:30-4pm

Rehearsals with spinners and dancers

April 30, 1:30-4pm

Rehearsals with spinners and dancers

May 7, 7-10pm

Public performance with spinners, dancers, musician/composer

June 4

The Spindustry Podcast with host Joey Castanon, guests TBA

We are hosted this March 31st and April 1st by the incredible RE|Dance Group in Chicago!  Join us at the Hamlin Park Fieldhouse for performances of Fleeting, The Wit of Small Things, and In total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly.  RE|Dance Group's Executive Director Lucy Riner will be premiering her evening length work What Brings Me to This Place.  For more information on RE|Dance Group, please visit redancegroup.com.

And for tickets to this event, please visit Brown Paper Tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2497368

Come join us and many many other companies from across the nation in Santa Barbara the weekend of March 27-29th!  We will be presenting Fleeting on Friday (7pm), In the Presence of Shadows on Saturday (7pm), and the solo from The Art of Breathing on Sunday (2pm).  We hope you can join us for some or all of the weekend!  See you in Santa Barbara at Center Stage Theater!

Ticket information:

General $21

Student $16

Festival pass: $55 [3-day entry, is transferable]

VIP Festival pass: $65 [3-day entry with early entry 30 minutes prior to showtime to reserve seats

Come see new company member Taylor Worden perform her moving solo from Fleeting as part of Nancy Evans Dance Theater's F/F/D/F at Porticos Art Space in Pasadena, CA.  

Performances are Saturday January 31st at 8pm and Sunday February 1st at 4pm.  

Coming on the heels of the 20th anniversary of the Dance Center at California State University, Long Beach, this evening of dance celebrates the work of invited alumni choreographers who have returned “home” to their creative stomping grounds: Delyer Anderson, Bobby Avalos, Kim T. Davis, Jessica Kondrath, and Erin Scheiwe Rockwell. They present new and restaged dances alongside a premiere by Master of Fine Arts candidate, Kathleen Helm, bridging generations of artists who have fostered their talents at CSULB. In addition to innovative choreography, Homecoming features evocative lighting and costume designs by Elisha L. Griego (Interim Technical Director) and Liz Carpenter (Costume Designer.) 

Homecoming: An Alumni Dance Concert opens Thursday, October 16th, and runs for four performances, closing on Saturday, October 18th. Performances are Thursday-Friday at 8pm and Saturday at 2pm and 8pm in the Martha B. Knoebel Dance Theater on the CSULB Campus (located near the Pyramid on Atherton). Tickets are $20 for general admission and $16 for seniors, students (with valid ID) and Dance Resource Center Members. For tickets and information please call (562) 985-7000 or visitwww.csulb.edu/dance

I am excited to say I will be performing with Carol McDowell in her most recent improvisational score at Looking Left in Santa Cruz on April 11 & 12, 2014.  I am thrilled to be back dancing with Carol and the cast and looking forward to being back in Northern California.  Come out and see us in April!

The Collaborative is proud to present the work of this year’s artist fellows - Margie Darrow, Jeff Foye, Jessica Kondrath, Annie Stromquist and Kurt Simonson. These local artists represent a unique cross-section of the Long Beach artist community. Together their work spans a broad variety of media, including video, photography, painting, mixed media, dance and wood cutting. The variety in background and artistic practice emphasizes the diversity for which Long Beach is known.

Margie Darrow
Nature, history and counter culture inspire Darrow’s artwork. In the breadth and scope of her art remains a common thread - the underlying desire to tell a factual story of the earth’s inhabitants and their transitory etching upon it.

Jeff Foye
For the past six years Jeff Foye has been making video and performance work in collaboration with Gordon Winiemko under the name JEFF&GORDON. Foye’s artwork engages with the social customs and cultural idioms that underlie both how we distinguish ourselves as individuals and how we relate to each other in the social sphere.

Jessica Kondrath
Kondrath’s choreography is primarily derived from the musical score. Her works craft a visual representation of the music so that the work may be experienced both visually and aurally. She creates movement that is both beautiful and awkward at once, utilizing counterpoint to illuminate the visual presence of elasticity within the body. Kondrath's work also investigates and seeks to bring awareness to the relationship between audience and performer.

Annie Stromquist
Stromquist’s mixed media on paper explores the human condition through a poetic lens. Her images are abstract and minimalist with empty space used as an active presence. The scale, typically small, reflects a desire to create images whose evocative power unfolds within an intimate viewing context.

Kurt Simonson
Simonson’s photography is a lyrical and strange family album, a collection of photographs that speak to his search for home, a journey to find a sense of belonging, a sense of place and ultimately a deep desire to find a connection to family and community. His body of work revolves around the tensions and questions that surround this search.

The Artist Fellowship honors a selection of Long Beach’s living artists. These awards recognize exemplary artists for their recent work. Eligible artists must reside in Long Beach and demonstrate an active exhibition and/or production record of at least three years. Awards are granted based on artistic merit and professional achievement. 

The exhibition runs through March 22, 2014.

Join us for Friends/Family/Dance/Festival 2013 presented by the Nancy Evans Dance Theater at the Porticos Art Space in Pasadena on November 23 & 24th.   We will be showing excerpts from our new work Fleeting.  Visit their webpage for more information on all the companies performing at http://nancyevansdancetheatre.com/FFDF13.html 

I will choreographing a new work in this wonderful project directed by Robert Salas.  Looking forward to working with new dancers and joining the fantastic group of dancemakers involved with the intensive.  Dance is happening in Simi Valley!