Prospective artists are invited to submit samples of their work. The large courtyard offers sculptural possibilities. A link to online photographs is preferred. Artists Guidelines can be found here. If you have an upcoming show, also check out our Artist Tips for a Successful Art Opening. For tips on promoting your show, see our Cheatsheet for Promoting Events at SubRosa.
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May 2019
Ry Essi opens up the SubRosa space on First Friday, May 3rd, 6pm.
Arrive to catch vivid glimpses through Essi’s photography of the complex and lush experience that is queer love on the west coast.
Come to this soft opening and wonder at the blessings/beauty of the queer experience documented right here in our community.
And at The Fábrica, this time featuing hand-made animal masks from the May Day/Beltane event.
December 2018
August 2018 - October 2018
"Small Spells" by Abacus Corvus
June 2018
This is your chance to see some fantastic Oakland artists' work on display in Santa Cruz! This art show is brought to you by the Diversity Center, but will take place at SubRosa Community Space.
Forward Together is a nationwide organization that "focus(es) on changing the ground on which we fight for the rights, recognition and resources for all families and people." Part of their mission is to gather and promote artwork that challenges the status quo of power, and the collection they have put together for this show consists of artwork from Oakland based trans folks of color. It is a beautiful, daring, radically loving body of work to see! Come join us in celebrating the power of trans artists of color, to shake the foundations of injustice and to create something new.
Feel free to check out Forward Together's website to learn more about their work: https://forwardtogether.org/. There will be free snacks!
https://www.facebook.com/events/175936213066228/
http://www.diversitycenter.org/calendar/2018/6/1/firstfridayat-subrosa-forward-togethers-art-collection-featuring-trans-artists-of-color
May 2018
May 2019
Ry Essi opens up the SubRosa space on First Friday, May 3rd, 6pm.
Arrive to catch vivid glimpses through Essi’s photography of the complex and lush experience that is queer love on the west coast.
Come to this soft opening and wonder at the blessings/beauty of the queer experience documented right here in our community.
And at The Fábrica, this time featuing hand-made animal masks from the May Day/Beltane event.
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December 2018
Angry Black Girl Magical Realism
An Art Installation by Whitney Sparks
Whitney Sparks is an artist mother writer and queer Black femme agitator (organizer doula herbalist yoga teacher permaculturist) who grew up in Silicon Valley and Saratoga. She has lived nomadically all around the world and earned degrees from Yale and a Masters in Fine Art from Zurich University of the Arts.
Angry Black Girl Magical Realism is an installation in three parts:
Ancient Future: The Noose as Umbilical Cord ~ this collection of mixed media artwork from 2018 explores the cosmic realm of ancestral knowledge as a powerful magical and/or spiritual force of Blackness that can land on Earth in healing shifting ways/waves for their descendants in the Diaspora.
Migrating Womxn ~ portraits of people traveling in the caravan made to uplift their struggle and above all to RESIST the dehumanizing agenda that threatens their lives. ALL proceeds from these portrait sales will go directly to support the caravan refugees.
Mixed Messages ~Collage postcards by yours truly from around the world. Get $5 off a yearly subscription to these original works of art for 2019 by ordering with the code SUBROSA via whitneysparks@gmail.com, before January 1.
Artist’s Statement:
Ancient Future: The Noose as Umbilical Cord ~
Some of us ARE the daughters and the descendants of the witches and healers and midwives and sex workers who DID burn. Others present are the daughters and descendants of those who did the burning. Not just fittest who could not be burned survived.
What if … Those of us who are the descendants of the BURNED & LYNCHED were to RECLAIM those nooses? What would that mean? What would we do with the ropes? What if…
The Noose is a portal to the future:
portal to a cosmic womb space,
reclaimed and sacred
as umbilical cord, connecting us to truth.
As a dance,
As a net, what would it catch?
The knitted nooses of our ancestors, gathered back together…
As a net, what would it catch?
The knitted nooses of our ancestors, gathered back together…
Could we ever hope to haul in a different future? Different from the bleak one projected now?
To Migrating Womxn ~ My heart calls out with the cry of a nomad mother who has not felt safe in her homeland. I honor the time travelers and families fighting for a brighter future every step of the way! The Spirit of the Universe lives through you… May you be safe and comforted.
Art show opening Friday, December 7th, 6pm
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August 2018 - October 2018
"Small Spells" is a collection of paintings by Abacus Corvus. Each collaboration offers an image and intention, and the viewer's invited to use them like a lens to focus energy, or like a prism to broadcast blessings widely.
Abacus Corvus is the creative collaboration of Corina Dross and Jocelyn (Jo) Mosser—illustrators, writers, healers, sisters, and good friends. Corina Dross will be present at the closing reception on August 31st, with hand-sewn archival prints available that day only.
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June 2018
Friday June 1st, 6pm: Forward Together Art Show
This is your chance to see some fantastic Oakland artists' work on display in Santa Cruz! This art show is brought to you by the Diversity Center, but will take place at SubRosa Community Space.
Forward Together is a nationwide organization that "focus(es) on changing the ground on which we fight for the rights, recognition and resources for all families and people." Part of their mission is to gather and promote artwork that challenges the status quo of power, and the collection they have put together for this show consists of artwork from Oakland based trans folks of color. It is a beautiful, daring, radically loving body of work to see! Come join us in celebrating the power of trans artists of color, to shake the foundations of injustice and to create something new.
Feel free to check out Forward Together's website to learn more about their work: https://forwardtogether.org/. There will be free snacks!
https://www.facebook.com/events/175936213066228/
http://www.diversitycenter.org/calendar/2018/6/1/firstfridayat-subrosa-forward-togethers-art-collection-featuring-trans-artists-of-color
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May 2018
Friday May 4th, 6 - 9pm
Shady Lady: Friday Hiatus- Art Show Opening!
Take a hiatus this Friday and every Friday! On May 4th, from 6 to 9pm! Shady lady presents a collective of mixed media. A night of art, snackage and tunage. Embroidered patches for sale to contribute to Subrosa community space.
Free! Bring your kids, your grandparents, your neighbor, someone you met this morning at a yardsale! Anyone and everyone welcomed! https://www.facebook.com/events/610016909354953/
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April 2018
"Sh*t Grows Flowers!" may be the unofficial trademark // slogan for the fictional (and fully functional) Starbelly Trash Collective..
But on this evening, may they dazzle you with themselves in dispose!! Your guts will be grinning as they cordially invite you to..
"Smash Yer Head On The Junk Rock"!!
OUCHEE!! :'/
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March 2018
Join us 4 an intimate evening of art exhibition, friends hanging out in various areas within a room, vomit dreamzz, moldy masterpieces, refined palettes, and stinky chaos! ♥ ~
"Sh*t Grows Flowers!" may be the unofficial trademark // slogan for the fictional (and fully functional) Starbelly Trash Collective..
But on this evening, may they dazzle you with themselves in dispose!! Your guts will be grinning as they cordially invite you to..
"Smash Yer Head On The Junk Rock"!!
OUCHEE!! :'/
Cast & Crew of Starbelly Trash Collective:
/ RiP Florence \ of { _-_-_ }
# il la lo #// P.D.C.
~ immobilizedcat ~ // P.D.C.
^ Rozene Enloe ^
** hAni** // P.D.C.
$ Reyna Gallardo / VoidSprout $
Caitlin Jones AKA "Finley!"
)Rooney Farris / a lucid glue(
On Friday April 6th we will be showing some of our various art works at SubRosa in Downtown Santa Cruz from 6pm until 9pm. https://www.facebook.com/events/181463789326492/
We will be handing out zines that detail the art show & provide legends for our little game of "spot da splotch!"
We would luv 4 u to stop by & be thy luving trash cats 2 our litter critter island.
Recycle yr Identity w us? ♥
$free$ / donations to SubRosa & ourselves would be greatly appreciated..
: all ages :
no sticklers / bozos / pro alt right freaks
lgbtq+ etc etc safe space
farewell / adieu,
S. B. T. C.
AKA
Rooney, Rip, Roz, Reyna & Caitlin
March 2018
A lucid glue art show opening!
Friday, March 2nd, 6pm - 9pm
come to the cozy SubRosa space to see some waxy watery weirdo paintings and enjoy some tea, some snacks, and an availability of free consensual hugs. there will be a friend-rock library/exchange so bring your old favorites to share and meet some new inanimate pals, crystals, and texture objects to take with you. this is a celebration of the forgotten aliveness of the everything else - what lies between, what connects, what holds up the stuff we usually call "alive" - the bones among the body, if you will. glitter will be provided. looking forward to seeing you there! ♥ rooney
$ free $ // an all ages event! ♥ // https://www.facebook.com/events/194452717954157/
come to the cozy SubRosa space to see some waxy watery weirdo paintings and enjoy some tea, some snacks, and an availability of free consensual hugs. there will be a friend-rock library/exchange so bring your old favorites to share and meet some new inanimate pals, crystals, and texture objects to take with you. this is a celebration of the forgotten aliveness of the everything else - what lies between, what connects, what holds up the stuff we usually call "alive" - the bones among the body, if you will. glitter will be provided. looking forward to seeing you there! ♥ rooney
$ free $ // an all ages event! ♥ // https://www.facebook.com/events/194452717954157/
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February 2018
TAKE BACK THE FIGHT
Resisting Sexual Violence from the Ground Up
Art Opening Friday, February 2nd, at 6pm
at Felix Kulpa II, 209 Laurel St
& more at SubRosa, 703 Pacific Ave
Exhibition Dates:
February 2, 2018 –
February 24, 2018
"We do not believe that rape can end within the present capitalist, racist, and sexist structures of our society. The fight against rape must be waged simultaneously with the fight against all other forms of oppression."
C. ~ 1970's Letter to the Anti Rape Movement From Santa Cruz Women Against Rape
SubRosa is collaborating with Felix Kulpa II, Interference Archive, Lesbian Herstory Archives, and What Goes up must come down, to exhibit Take Back the Fight: Resisting Sexual Violence from the Ground Up. Opening Friday February 2, at 6pm. https://www.facebook.com/events/1996675690552677/
Echoing present tensions within feminist organizing against gender violence, the above quote is pulled from the Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn, New York. It's a 1970's statement of local Santa Cruz organizers, in opposition to trends they saw in mainstream rape activism. This letter will be up at SubRosa for the month of February, grounding our conversations about the history and ongoing struggle of the fight against gender and sexual violence.
Also around the corner at Felix Kulpa II (209 Laurel Street) will be a more in-depth archival exhibition of this dynamic history. https://www.facebook.com/events/196286754445155/
For more information about the exhibit & related events please visit: https://
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April 2017
Art by Campbell Steers
From Campbell Steers, In the current political climate it can be difficult to find a positive message to hold onto. It is also difficult to express distain with brevity. This political haiku project challenges that, and is meant to give the viewer a bold, empowering message. This started out as a way for me to reach out to my family and friends and encourage positive headspace and find out what issues were important to them. Then I opened it up to the greater Santa Cruz community, and at a Third Friday event at the MAH this handmade book with typewriter adjacent was available for passersby to express themselves. Here is what is important to us, in seventeen syllables.
Art is up the month of April at SubRosa! Come to SubRosa and check it out.
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March 2017:
Dye/Resist, a new textile work by A Bond
Dye/Resist, a new textile work by A Bond, was made by thinking and
feeling through processes of feminized labor made invisible and isolated
by a variety of conditions: gender, age, disability, anxiety,
depression, PTSD, poverty and precarity in general. To effect a similar
kind of negation, the artist submerged a previously bright, colorful,
floral patchwork piece into a black dye bath. All the contrast negated,
the marks of painstaking work that produced it rendered barely
perceivable. What remains are traces, tiny sites of resistance where
form emerges on an otherwise monochromatic landscape of shadowy textures
and hues.
A Bond is an artist with a background in music, craft and fashion,
drawing from the deep influence of DIY punk, queer feminisms and
magick.
So
come to SubRosa Friday March 3rd, 6-9pm for the art opening, and make an evening of being in the company of inspiring
art and good folk. Art and creative expression is an important part of
engaging in these times! https://www.facebook.com/events/398014957233415/
February 2017:
Songs For Silence // artwork by Gabriel Saloman
Songs For Silence // artwork by Gabriel Saloman
Art Show Opening: Songs For Silence // artwork by Gabriel Saloman, 6-9pm // https://www.facebook.com/events/1261773747276670/
On May 1, 2012, anarchists and other anti-captialist, anti-racist and queer activists took to the streets of Seattle attacking corporate property and vandalizing the courthouse building in a wild and uncontrollable display of resistance and resentment. In the months that followed a federal grand jury investigation led to the harassment and arrest of dozens of anarchists in the Pacific Northwest. Several were forced into prison in an attempt to coerce them into collaborating with the state. Most of them refused and became celebrated internationally as “the Silent Ones.”
Songs for Silence are a collection of artworks made during this time that reflect on the difficulty of articulating anger at the police; the violence of the grand jury system, the police and imprisonment; the visual cultures of protest and the ways in which the police attempt to respond by their own “exhibitions” of evidence.
GABRIEL SALOMAN is a Santa Cruz based musician, artist, writer and educator. As an artist he has exhibited internationally, both individually and in various collaborations such as Red76, The STAG Library and the Lower Mainland Painting Co. Recent exhibitions of his work have taken place at 221a, Unit/Pitt Projects (both Vancouver) and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (Toronto) and he is the co-creator with Justin Langlois of Neighborhood Time Exchange (Philadelphia). His current work focuses on the production of visual artworks from time-based phenomena such as sound composition, dance, social practices and protest. He received an MFA from Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts and is currently a PHD candidate at University of California Santa Cruz’s History of Consciousness program.
On May 1, 2012, anarchists and other anti-captialist, anti-racist and queer activists took to the streets of Seattle attacking corporate property and vandalizing the courthouse building in a wild and uncontrollable display of resistance and resentment. In the months that followed a federal grand jury investigation led to the harassment and arrest of dozens of anarchists in the Pacific Northwest. Several were forced into prison in an attempt to coerce them into collaborating with the state. Most of them refused and became celebrated internationally as “the Silent Ones.”
Songs for Silence are a collection of artworks made during this time that reflect on the difficulty of articulating anger at the police; the violence of the grand jury system, the police and imprisonment; the visual cultures of protest and the ways in which the police attempt to respond by their own “exhibitions” of evidence.
GABRIEL SALOMAN is a Santa Cruz based musician, artist, writer and educator. As an artist he has exhibited internationally, both individually and in various collaborations such as Red76, The STAG Library and the Lower Mainland Painting Co. Recent exhibitions of his work have taken place at 221a, Unit/Pitt Projects (both Vancouver) and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (Toronto) and he is the co-creator with Justin Langlois of Neighborhood Time Exchange (Philadelphia). His current work focuses on the production of visual artworks from time-based phenomena such as sound composition, dance, social practices and protest. He received an MFA from Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts and is currently a PHD candidate at University of California Santa Cruz’s History of Consciousness program.
January 2017: PRINT | ORGANIZE | PROTEST
"PRINT | ORGANIZE | PROTEST is a nationwide campaign that brings artists and print shops together to provide images of resistance and empowerment to the public. For P.O.P. events we work with local artists and open our doors to invite the public in to come and print shirts, signs, posters, make buttons, and encourage people to actively participate in local organizing events, including city council meetings, town halls, marches, demonstrations and protests."
Featuring:
Abby Troxell, Amanda Payne, Bart Longacre, Campbell Steers, Chiraag Bhakta, Chris McNally, Craig Dansfield, Deborah Lader, Derek Pratt, François Luong, Janina A. Larenas, Kat Geng, Koak, Kyle McKinley, Lane Sell, Luke Thomas, Melody Overstreet, Mickey T, Mik Gaspay, Sue Demel, Tess Pugsley, Thi Bui, Wesley Allsbrook, Wyatt J. Hesemeyer
https://www.facebook.com/events/1680659772225466/and https://www.printorganizeprotest.org
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April 2016 Artists: Nick Shoulders & Shawnee Miller
Come here stranger here outcast here heartacher and gentle
otherling and take this searchlight this talisman this beacon this
one is for you.
Where from shadowed hillside and you on your lonesome some dim light shines from noreastern faced G L I M illuminates the black fluorescence you're hailing from.
Be it photocopied snailmailed dog-eared hand annotated or handed down this work is your ticket stub your weaving pattern your smile in the darkness your road map to the backroads that shows the way home. This is the last dirge of the heartland's soft slow death to those hard new gods.
Nick Shoulders draws from haunted hollows, where hidden histories seep out of caves like cold springwater, forgotten to most but known to those who remember how to look. This work is one voice in the solid gold country choir, tasked with singing the last song of the dying land. This is a hand drawn map of the long road home. It starts (and ends) on a dead end dirt road in the Ozark Mountains, a lone light on a black ridge. This is for the laughably lost and powerfully confused, this one's for the old at heart.
Shawnee Miller (b 1991) plaits knot grass in the shadow of towery highrise. Consistently overcomes improbable inertia perpetuating highly inefficient processes. Learning to love best the things that leave, she will be on the broken-down front porch waiting for the day all this falls in to the sea.
Yeah! It all begins at 6pm! Also, come enjoy music with Matty Walts and Jacky Utah, and snacks and beverages. https://www.facebook.com/events/1698255637095200/
Where from shadowed hillside and you on your lonesome some dim light shines from noreastern faced G L I M illuminates the black fluorescence you're hailing from.
Be it photocopied snailmailed dog-eared hand annotated or handed down this work is your ticket stub your weaving pattern your smile in the darkness your road map to the backroads that shows the way home. This is the last dirge of the heartland's soft slow death to those hard new gods.
Nick Shoulders draws from haunted hollows, where hidden histories seep out of caves like cold springwater, forgotten to most but known to those who remember how to look. This work is one voice in the solid gold country choir, tasked with singing the last song of the dying land. This is a hand drawn map of the long road home. It starts (and ends) on a dead end dirt road in the Ozark Mountains, a lone light on a black ridge. This is for the laughably lost and powerfully confused, this one's for the old at heart.
Shawnee Miller (b 1991) plaits knot grass in the shadow of towery highrise. Consistently overcomes improbable inertia perpetuating highly inefficient processes. Learning to love best the things that leave, she will be on the broken-down front porch waiting for the day all this falls in to the sea.
Yeah! It all begins at 6pm! Also, come enjoy music with Matty Walts and Jacky Utah, and snacks and beverages. https://www.facebook.com/events/1698255637095200/
January 2016 artist: Mori Minjoe
Hooray! New art on the walls. While at SubRosa in the month ahead, be
sure to take some time to check out the new art show...and this is
another important aspect of SubRosa, to have a space that is available
for all kinds of creative expression. And although this page has not been updated in awhile, we do strive to have monthly art shows, so if you have something you would like to share, let us know.
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Mori Minjoe is a local printmaker, occasional photographer and
full-time cat lover. Chosen mediums are most frequently intaglio and
lithography.
The content of my work often
varies too widely to make a generalized statement; sometimes the only
thing my pieces have in common is that they're made by me. Lately I've
been working with the repetitions of simple patterns and integrating
them into a singular cohesive unit. Other times I use my work to channel
frustrations, pass along bits of information, or visualize my
experiences navigating the world as a queer and mixed race person.
(they/them, she/her)
Román O'cadiz &
Whitney Humphreys
SubRosa
Art Opening
Friday November 7th at
6:30pm
Featuring art by:
Román O'cadiz
Depictions of the Human Condition and Complexities of Modern Life
Whitney Humphreys
Come to see the new art show, hang out with good folks, and
enjoy some snacks and beverages.
September 2014: with art by Imri Vasale
June 2014: Featuring Artwork by the Women of the Santa Cruz County Jail
Art Opening
Featuring artwork, talent
The Artistic Rehabilitative Therapeutic* (ART) Initiative is a UC Santa Cruz student-run organization that conducts weekly therapeutic art projects with the women in the Santa Cruz County Jails.
Our mission is to pair art creation with coping skill education in a supportive and collective space in order to tackle issues regarding recidivism and idleness.
This program provides a reciprocal learning relationship with the
inmates and facilitators, aiming to educate and heal through creating
self-esteem, fostering creativity, and empowering a critical
consciousness within a supportive community.
More information is available at http://www.theartinitiative.org/
It's been awhile since this has been updated, although we did have a great show up the last month and a half...
Well, we have a new show for April, 2014 (no joke)...
Art
Opening
featuring creations
by Beck Levy of Astropress
Beck Levy is a letterpress printer and illustrator devoted to maintaining the longstanding connection between printmaking and radical community. Recently relocated to Oakland, CA from Washington, DC Beck prints original and commissioned work under the imprint Astropress.
Beck's interests include prison abolition, science-fiction, and
chocolate. When she's not sorting lead type or wrestling with a
2,000lb press, she draws comics as part of the Animal Kingdom
anthology and works as associate editor of Antigravity Magazine.
http://astropress.tumblr.com/
Friday, April 4th at 7pm
Art Opening with Snacks and Music & Good Folk
Beck will will down from Oakland, and there will also be prints for sale.
July 2013: I Cannot Slow Down, Forrest Ripley-Phipps
September 2014: with art by Imri Vasale
Friday
September 5th, 6:30pm- Art Opening! with art by Imri Vasale & music with matt b & banjo at 7:30pm
Though illustration is not my main passion or priority in life, it has allowed me to translate obscurities in my mind into physical artifacts that i can share with other people, concepts that i would otherwise be unable to clarify with words. The themes that hover around my work include the apathy of younger generations to environmental and social degradation, escapism, the juxtaposition of individualism and collective conscience, the intricacies of human relationships, and sometimes purely botanical illustration. None of my pieces though, thus far, relate to a specific current event, person, place or thing-they are rather abstractions by definition. I work with mostly pen and ink, mainly on illustration and mat board.
Though illustration is not my main passion or priority in life, it has allowed me to translate obscurities in my mind into physical artifacts that i can share with other people, concepts that i would otherwise be unable to clarify with words. The themes that hover around my work include the apathy of younger generations to environmental and social degradation, escapism, the juxtaposition of individualism and collective conscience, the intricacies of human relationships, and sometimes purely botanical illustration. None of my pieces though, thus far, relate to a specific current event, person, place or thing-they are rather abstractions by definition. I work with mostly pen and ink, mainly on illustration and mat board.
Come join us for this art opening!
6:30pm with food and beverages
7:30 music with matt b.
6:30pm with food and beverages
7:30 music with matt b.
Art Opening
Featuring Artwork by the
Women of the Santa Cruz County Jail
Friday June 6th from 6-8pm
Featuring artwork, talent
and stories from the women.
plus snacks and beverages.
The Artistic Rehabilitative Therapeutic* (ART) Initiative is a UC Santa Cruz student-run organization that conducts weekly therapeutic art projects with the women in the Santa Cruz County Jails.
Our mission is to pair art creation with coping skill education in a supportive and collective space in order to tackle issues regarding recidivism and idleness.
More information is available at http://www.theartinitiative.org/
It's been awhile since this has been updated, although we did have a great show up the last month and a half...
Well, we have a new show for April, 2014 (no joke)...
featuring creations
by Beck Levy of Astropress
Fri. April 4th,
7pm
Radical Relief &
Letterpress Prints
Radical Relief &
Letterpress Prints
Beck Levy is a letterpress printer and illustrator devoted to maintaining the longstanding connection between printmaking and radical community. Recently relocated to Oakland, CA from Washington, DC Beck prints original and commissioned work under the imprint Astropress.
http://astropress.tumblr.com/
Friday, April 4th at 7pm
Art Opening with Snacks and Music & Good Folk
Beck will will down from Oakland, and there will also be prints for sale.
July 2013: I Cannot Slow Down, Forrest Ripley-Phipps
Art Opening Friday, July 5th 6pm
Subrosa Community Space
When I do art I cannot slow down. I make thick lines and layer thicker lines over those, smearing dirt and lead over the piece as I go. I would like to think that the rough quality of most of my pieces speaks to the process I went through in creating them, or at least gives a little clarity to the place I was emotionally at the time. I really try to let go and draw what I feel at the time, usually ending up in a cartoony mess that seems like personal truth to me. My favorite mediums are wood scraps and paper with pencil or chalk/charcoal, though I also have a fondness for pen, oil pastels, and acrylics. This show is made up of art that I created over the year-and-a-half-ish I lived in Oakland and hopefully encompasses some of what I experienced on a day-to-day basis, or more importantly, what I was dealing with in my life and how I felt when I eventually ended up in my room again surrounded by art supplies
-Forrest Ripley-Phipps 
Art Opening Friday, June 7th 6-8pm
Subrosa Community Space
I am always making art, I would not call myself an artist so much an an interpreter. I am constantly searching for new ways to look at, interpret, and depict my ever-changing surroundings. this is my first show I have had on my own, and the body of work in it is compiled from a few different stages of art making in my life. my art is my voice, and I am still working out the kinks of my language so that everybody can understand it.
- Althea James
Art Opening Friday March 1st at 6:30 pm
Please join us for live music and good food!
at SubRosa, 703 Pacific Ave.
(n)A(tu)R(e)
(cul)T(ure): a series of photographs taken over the past three
years
juxtaposing the world as it is and the world humans have created.
juxtaposing the world as it is and the world humans have created.
Most of the images were taken in cities, where concrete is ubiquitous and plant life scarce. I enjoy exploring the intersection of urban spaces with the luscious landscapes found in California. I find a fascinating contrast between the world that survives without us, and the world that survives because of us. My photography is intended to be a form of storytelling - to tell you about bodies, flora, boundaries.
gracie was born and raised in brooklyn, new york. in college, gracie studied sociology, visual anthropology, psychology and art. she is inspired by sunsets and children. she has lived in northern california since 2010. gracie is a traveler, feminist and a passionate birth doula.
February 2013: Relics of an Old Soul by Liliane Coppolina
Relics of an Old Soul is a sequence of posters,
illustrations and drawings that I have done for friends
and the community over the past few years. All of my posters/fliers are hand drawn, using pen and ink with heavy contrasts, and watercolor. Most of the images in my illustrations, are extractions from the natural world and the mythical. I've always been attracted to renaissance and pre-raphaelite art; beautiful, delicate and dark. I especially like using certain flowers, fruits and various images that have an underlying symbolism derived from astrology, greek mythology and other lore. I've definitely developed a style, that evokes all the beautifully dreamy and dark aspects of my visions. I, also have a love for sign making and lettering. I absolutely love drawing up designs for my friends, it's challenging and so exciting.
Liliane was born in Santa Cruz but grew up on the east coast for the majority of her childhood and teenage life. In 2005, she made her way back to Santa Cruz, studying art history, watercolor, typography and figure drawing at Cabrillo. She has worked closely with Blackbird Raum, Free Skool Santa Cruz, Traditional Dancers of Santa Cruz, Ecology Action, Black Mesa Indigenous Support (SC), Gloam, and various other entrepreneurs to help with all their visual and aesthetic needs. Her posters are relics of past events, and some lost forever, unsigned and mysterious. Here is her collection that she, fortunately, held on to and kept close.
I'm very lucky to have the friends I've got.
Art Opening Friday February 1st at 5:30pm
Please join us for live music and good food!
December 2012:
Variously Selected Moments n' Things Made by Lyn-Z
Lyn-Z Mizock is a super freak who just moved to Santa Cruz from San Diego, and is now studying art and Italian at UCSC. She's been taking photos since she was a lil' one, and enjoys looking at her friends naked with kittens all day long. She also went on a WWOOFing trip to Italy this summer, which inspired many of her photographs.
Art Opening Friday December 6th at 8pm
with A Year Without a Summer
http://ayearwithoutasummer.bandcamp.com/
November 2012: "The Other Ocean: selected photos from the longest summer"
"The Other Ocean: selected photos from the longest summer" is a collection of photographs from the last few months, documenting a cutsie crusty summer of 2012, navigating the spaces between privilege, punk, traveling, heartbreak, failure and success, unemployment, cigarettes, porches, and glorified self destruction.August was born in oakland but moved to santa cruz in 2006 where he currently lives in a closet nook with his cat, kitty purry, and a growing collection of brewing tinctures. he has been taking film photographs for over ten years, and will never stop.
between april and september of 2012, August traveled over 15,000 miles across the united states and back.
“I used to think that I could never lose anyone if I photographed them enough. In fact, my pictures show me how much I’ve lost.”
Nan Goldin
Art Opening Friday November 5th at 7pm
"I am not searching for an identity with these drawings, I am trying to shape one. This collection documents the side of my existence that is only seen from my eyes looking in. This is my hidden world and secret tongue, a portrait in pieces of how I see myself when I'm not in front of a mirror, the language of my thoughts against the language I am spoken to in. These illustrations capture two conflicting desires: to escape the body I was born in vs. to crawl deeper into the body and discover who or what I am capable of being".
Ryan Lucas Fleischer is a young artist currently residing in Oakland, California. Raised on a dairy farm as a child, Ryan
has spent most of his adult life exploring the urban and suburban
landscapes of northern California through photography, pen to paper, and
street art. His work continues to evolve and expand in how it
explores, deconstructs, and reconstructs the absurd isolation of youth.
In his other life, Ryan works a mundane job, where the rupture of his art threatens to boil over into any given night shift. Tick tick tock.
September 2012: Between Two Mysteries
Featuring work by Annelise Kinney and
Jacob Ander Simowitz.
Prints, drawings, photographs, snacks and maybe other surprises. This show will be up for the entire month of September!
This month's show features accumulated works, past and present, of two artists. photographs, prints and drawings narrate a reality both imagined and tactile of life in the forests, on the coasts, and within many cities. Annelise and Jake reside in Santa Cruz for now....
Annelise's work is both elegant and scruffy, using visuals from the natural world and the human body.
Jake's photographs being displayed are created moments from periods sprawled in his life and in the states. A collection of dusty memories and negatives revisited and distorted with new processes.
Art Opening Friday September 7th at 7pm
August 2012: Triple Spooning: Drawings of Crushes & Cats by Elbow
Triple Spooning is a collection of drawings from the last few months about coping, crushing, getting crushed, adventures with homies, art department dreamboats, running back & forth between front porches on Storey & High Street, mega-dweeb moments & brutal realities of helping out on a goat farm, closet screen printing dates, the castle risograph's endless paper jams & cats cats cats. Elbow currently resides in a small castle in Santa Cruz with three cats & one dreambabe roomie. Studying printmaking/public art at the UC. Studying all kinds of crafting, cooking, farming, biking, muralling, lovin' & doodling at da skool of lyfe.
Art Opening Friday August 3rd at 6pm
yummy food!
old time music!
fabulous folks!
April 2012: "Fateful" by Naali Aelfgifu
"I
am at this time primarily a watercolor artist. Only one of my paintings
is acrylic. My paintings on paper almost always incorporate colored
pencil, standard pencil and/or ink. I love how so many accidents or
surprises are possible with watercolor. My themes are a reflection of my
travels-geographic or other. Many of them are portraits of people I
felt were irresistible to paint-who made my very fingers itch. Often
this is because of their complex regalia-I am always drawn to intricacy
which is obvious in my choice of crafts (beadwork and basketry). And
just as often, because some spirit in a person or arrangement of
features spoke so concretely as to be irresistable for painting. Many of
these portraits are old-this show reflects in fact, an entire decade of
painting, and I hardly remember what I was thinking when I painted some
of these things. I can say that I feel influenced by the struggle of
wild places to stay wild, the wild spirit's brutal, daily struggle
against the colonization of the spirit, by other worlds and ancestral
memory. The more recent, larger paintings are highly personal and I
don't expect people to be able to glean their "meaning". Nor do I think
that is necessary but that by quieting the analytical mind, one can just
experience the effect on one's spirit. I get told sometimes-"I don't
understand your paintings". And I say that analytical understanding is
not the only way to understand and appreciate art. So ask me for the
story if you feel like you need to-I'll probably tell you, but you can
also choose to use your emotions and senses for "understanding."
A
note on the framing: Some of my paintings are framed using basketry-in
both pine needle and cedar. I am especially drawn to wilderness skills,
and basketry seems to be the one that has been drawing me the strongest
of late. I can't say why except that intricacy, repetitive deign, teensy
tiny stitches, always capture me. I love to teach basketry and other
wilderness skills. Let me know if you are interested in a certain
subject, because a workshop might be able to be arranged."
"Fateful" by Naali Aelfgifu
April 2012
Artist's reception Friday April 6, 2012 (Time TBA)SubRosa, 703 Pacific at Spruce St
March 2012: "Lore-Tilling" by Ramille Baguio
"I have always felt communicating with others through a compelling visual means has always been more natural and genuine. This is not to say that I am incapable at other forms of expression, I just find that the most engaging way of interacting with the world around me is through the images I create. With my work, I convey my interests, anxieties, and opinions without fear of embarrassment or miscommunication.
Ideas and emotions are represented within my images in allegory, each riddled with hints of morals, hubris, and folly in narrative form. These images act as storytelling with the subject matter for each being pulled from various legends, lore, myths, and tales around the world. Here, I attempt to reignite stories and characters that have withstood time yet recently seem to have become enervated, and re-signify their meanings within the contemporary space that we preside."
"Lore-Tilling" by Ramille Baguio
March 2012
Artist's reception Friday March 2, 2012 7:30-9PM
SubRosa, 703 Pacific at Spruce St
July 2011: Selected Works of Ian Whitaker
Ian is a twenty-two year old humanoid who
just can't stop making stuff. The focus of his art is a character
named Dirty Maggie-Mae, who wiggled into his work (and consciousness) in
January of this year. She is now the protagonist of a story he is
writing titled A Lightbulb Blooming. Ian works with pen, pencil,
acrylics, pastels and cans on paper, wood and canvas.
Selected Works by Ian Whitaker.
Musical performance by Sam Solo and Ragtail
Musical performance by Sam Solo and Ragtail
July 1st -31st
Artists Reception Friday, July 1st 6-10pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific at Spruce StJune 2011: Subrosa Staff shows their Stuff
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May 2011: Anywhere but Here/Nowhere Else to Go, Selected works by Maya Weeks
Mustard, eel grass, periwinkle. Aubergine, cerulean, eggshell. A born scavenger, Maya Marie Weeks will make meaning out of anything. Her favored subjects include communication, morals and the natural world. anywhere but here / nowhere else to go is a body of geographically-motivated images. Maya is currently at work on a book called Talking About The Weather.
Anywhere but Here/Nowhere to Go
Selected Works by Maya Weeks. Musical performance by Scott Ferretter and Friends
May 6th-30th
Artists Reception Friday, May 6th 6-10pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific at Spruce St
April 2011: Selected Works by Annelise
Annelise draws and paints pictures, makes prints and takes photographs too.
Her work features lots of ladies and woodland creatures. Artist reception will include art exhibition, appetizers, wine and live musical performances. Selected Works by Annelise
April 1st-30th
Artists Reception Friday, April 1st 6-10pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific at Spruce St
February 2011: Selected Works by Danielle O'Malley
In February, SubRosa features the work of Danielle O'Malley. Join us for the First Friday, opening reception.
Danielle O’Malley utilizes printmaking, sculpture, narrative and installation to bring her audience into her own underground society. She regurgitates miscellaneous childhood memories to create and describe a society of fictional creatures, their morals, and their relationships to themselves and their world. Homeless houses roam wild and lost, female witches sacrifice pop culture, and her creatures sustain themselves through grotesque black magic, and black markets. This society explores ideas of utopias, dystopias, and the fine line between the two. These mutants attempt to find paradise between the cracks of their nightmarish realities, and vice versa. Themes of innocence and childhood attempt to sugarcoat their misery, while at the same time, emphasizing the terrors of their world. This imaginary world ultimately describes her internal and external conflicts, and her reflection on our generation and our environment.
Selected Works by Danielle O'Malley
February 4th-28th
Artists Reception Friday, February 4th 6-8pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific at Spruce St
January 2011: Adaptations of Affection
Selected Works by Hannah Matzner
Miss Matzner's collection is an exploration of the things we put ourselves through for the people we love. It is a visual and lyrical manifestation of the insanity brought about by desire. It attempts to express all phases of a relationship, from that intoxicating honeymoon to the eventual downfall, all the while maintaining a sense of beauty and appreciation for the experiences had. In other words, this show is the capturing of one artist’s joy and sorrow, all expressed with a tinge of nostalgia.
Adaptations of Affection
Selected Works by Hannah Matzner
January 1st-31st
Artists Reception Friday, January 7 6-8pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific at Spruce St
November 2010: The Making of Amerikans
Restlessness defines the American spirit. Speaking to the “improvised character of American experience, historian and former Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin has said, ‘everyone [has] to be prepared to become someone else.”’ Like characters in a Gertrude Stein novel, we are living in the present progressive tense, existing in a continual state of becoming that’s both affirming and altering who we are. Celebrating such indeterminacy, these portraits treat identity as an activity, as something contextually situated, making for a seriously playful meditation on this generation’s selves.
Works Cited
Lapham, Lewis. Hotel America: Scenes in the Lobby of the Fin de Siecle. New York: Verso, 1995. Book.
The Making of Amerikans
Nicky Tiso, Bryan May, Chloe Minervini
November 5th-30th
Artists Reception Friday, November 5th, 6-8pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific at Spruce St
Nicky Tiso
Nicky Tiso was born and raised in Southern California and graduated from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA in June 2010 with a B.A. in Liberal Arts. There, he studied aesthetics and politics primarily through the medium of creative writing. His work has been published in XYZ, and he currently interns with Siglio Press, a new and independent press in Los Angeles dedicated to publishing uncommon works that live at the intersections of art and literature. You may follow his poetic self at nickytiso.blogspot.com.
Bryan May
Bryan May is a California native named after the guitarist of Queen. He’s currently a cat-lover, a late-night guerilla radio DJ, and is a great shoulder to cry on over late night burritos. His work is an intimate and anthemic exploration of West Coast punk/fringe culture from an insider’s perspective. His style is as youthful and exuberant as his subjects; it captures an attitude of resistance in the cross hairs of intoxication, where partying meets protest. Check out his bad website at www.restlesslegs.tk.
Chloe Minervini
Chloe Minervini grew up in Cotati, CA, home of the annual accordion festival. She has an acute love for cats, burritos, and talking about feelings. When she isn’t busy reading the classics, making artisan espresso drinks, playing a wee bit of music or crushing on cuties, she is probably taking pictures that encapsulate her lust for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
September 2010: Justin Angelos
Disaster Information
Flood, tornado, earthquake, job loss, bankruptcy, oil spill, death. Disasters come in all shapes and sizes. We are reminded of this daily.
Culled from abandoned property, roadsides, flea markets, mass media and the debris of passed family members this latest collection of work is a response, escape and even shelter in the wake of life changing events. Attempting to find beauty in discarded objects and breath new life into images long forgotten, a new world emerges from the ruble of the past. Demi-gods, heroes and evil-doers alike inhabit a landscape of shape, color and pattern.When disaster strikes where will you run for shelter?
Disaster Information
The Art of Justin Angelos
September 1st-30th
Artists Reception Friday, 3rd, 5:30-8pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific at Spruce St
Justin Angelos was born in 1971 in Los Angeles, Ca. After spending many years on the road with a job in the tradeshow industry Justin now lives in Santa Cruz, Ca where he is a fulltime stay at home dad and artist.
Life, death, loss and rebirth play a major role in the forming of many of his ideas. Inspired by the current state of our world and the debris man leaves in his wake, Justin’s palette is often made up of found and discarded objects collected in abandoned houses, vacant lots, roadsides and second hand stores. Primitive culture, the animal world and today’s fast paced and disposable society, continue to add fuel to his work.
July 2010: Five Easy Pieces:
Archiving Gabriella Ripley-Phipps
After you die, how will you be remembered? If you were to create an archive, a historical record of your existence, what objects would you choose to be remembered by? What five items would you start with in building your archive?
In 2009, Gabriella asked ten friends to answer these questions by selecting five objects they considered the most important or essential in communicating who they are. The guests were invited to a dinner party, thrown by Gabriella, and the items were used in an interactive performance. Now, Gabriella asks herself the same questions and chooses the first five items of her archive. July 2010, the walls of SubRosa display a simple and incomplete record of Gabriella's life, in five easy pieces. Through these items (Road Kill, Human Hair, Family Relics, Trash, Receipts, Ink Drawings), a complex existence is simplified while the viewer is invited to construct a comprehensible narrative.
SubRosa is honored to offer the work of Gabriella Ripley-Phipps. Please join us for a show and opening reception:
Five Easy Pieces:
Archiving Gabriella Ripley-Phipps
July 2nd - August 30th
Artist Reception Friday, July 2, 5-8pm
SubRosa: A Community Space, 703 Pacific at Spruce St
Our identities are tied to and mediated by the physical objects we keep around ourselves. Objects are bought, worn, used, left on shelves, tacked on walls. Each object says something about us: who we are/were, what we do, even who we want to be. A part of our selves is placed into each object, but we do not get to choose how those parts are represented. Our objects hint about an exchange, a moment, or a relationship in the material world. They evidence a certain time in our lives and point to who we were in that instant. And yet although our objects are entirely specific to each of us, they manage to live beyond us. They invite interpretation; they beg to be aligned cohesively within a narrative that is actually always incomplete. Our selves are created when others look upon our objects and imagine what we are like — our archives are merely guide-posts or suggestions, attempts at self expression in good faith.
June 2010: Petal Power
The Art of Louise Chen
Join us on First Friday when we are excited to offer the work of Louise Chen. Petal Power, Louise Chen’s newest installation of drawings and paintings, evokes rejuvenation, renewal, and refurbishment. From a pile of compost - discarded materials; an apple core, coffee grounds, last night’s pasta - flowers erupt and insist a beautiful contrast between light and dark, between life and death. The ability for nature to renew itself is amazing. Chen’s drawings apply the same attitude towards life and human interactions; transformations, from jealousy to admiration, from break up to break through, from violence to embrace, and our ability to get up tumultuous and steep hills with our own “petal power”.Petal Power
The Art of Louise Chen
June 1st-30th
Artists Reception Friday, June 4th, 5-8pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific at Spruce St
Louise Chen is a Los Angeles based artist currently living in Santa Cruz. Her work has been featured in galleries across the United States, including Giant Robot galleries in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Her artwork is inspired by botanical and scientific drawings, vintage floral patterns, antiques, the universe, animals, and the people and artists that move around her. Her work plays with positive and personal reflections as well as universalities, sometimes conveying adult hardships through childish fantasies.
April 2010: Trenton Rembert
On Friday, April 2, SubRosa will welcome the art of Trenton Rembert to its walls. Trenton’s art is a unique intersection of seemingly opposed elements. The viewer is greeted by gritty and chaotic fields punctuated by enigmatic figures.
This mixture of realism and abstraction creates a contrast that exposes the subjectivity of living, exploring how emotions, fears and beliefs mold the way we perceive the world. Themes such as dreams, weather, death, the seasons, and apocalypse constructed from hair, leaves, trash, and other found objects juxtaposed with painted elements further suggest the question: what is real, what is created?
Trenton calls his process “a mixture of spontaneity and careful planning. I enjoy the discipline of realism and the expressiveness and freedom of gesture. It’s a kind of controlled accident or action-reaction.” His process allows him to accumulate layer after layer of acrylic washes mixed with raw materials, such as dirt or ground plants and wood, to build color and texture. The end product is somewhere between painting and collage.
Trenton’s works create a haunting feeling of loneliness and desperation, but also of magic and wonder. His work is influenced by the landscapes that Trenton has lived in: the Sierras of his childhood, the Santa Cruz redwoods he now calls home. Rather than landscapes, his pieces capture portraits both of the places Trenton has lived and the isolation of modern existence.
Trenton Rembert at SubRosa
April 1st-30th
Artists Reception Friday, April 2, 6-8pm
SubRosa: A Community Space, 703 Pacific at Spruce St
March 2010: Dark Hyphy Mist
The Art of Swampdonkey
In March, please join us as we offer the unusual work of Swampdonkey.
"We don't know much about Swampy other than he/she was raised by a young pack of African wild dogs that escaped from the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans in 1983. Swampy dabbled in southern human cults during the mid 90's until he/she found themselves on a northbound Norfolk Southern junk train headed full speed into the dark hyphy mist."
Dark Hyphy Mist
The Art of Swampdonkey
Opening Reception
Friday March 5th 5pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz
The Art of Swampdonkey
Opening Reception
Friday March 5th 5pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz
November 2009: Russell Brutsche
- Wigwams by Russell Brutsche
In November, we welcome the acrylic on canvas work of Russell Brutsche to SubRosa's walls. Santa Cruz artist Russell Brutsche loves socio-cultural ironies. Works such as those in his recent show "Unlawful Gatherings" make painfully apt juxtapositions that expose the social injustice of our everyday world.
The Art of Russell Brutsche
Opening Reception
Friday November 6th 5pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz
One of his images shows Jesus of Nazareth chasing away very contemporary money changers from the temple, only to be descended upon by a heavily armed SWAT team. Another shows the Nativity taking place in what might be considered a modern-day manger, under the Highway 1 overpass at the San Lorenzo River. Other paintings prominantly feature images of treesits, hobo campfires, and trains.
Brutsche has been painting since early childhood, later studying under Eric Oback, Robert Freimark (student of Henri Matisse) and Sam Richardson, graduating with scholarship honors in 1968. He has been in numerous one-person and group shows throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and in Colorado, Arizona and Japan. Brutsche currently participates each October in Santa Cruz Open Studios, and other shows throughout the year.
"I've been impatient with the art world," said Brutsche. "Artists really have a responsibility to speak out against social injustice. Instead, artists have become small businessmen. I know if I would leave out some of that social commentary, the likelihood would be a lot greater that my work would be hanging over someone's couch."
October 2009: The Santa Cruz Anarchist Doll-Making Collective
The Dark Night of DIY Ragdolls and Monsters
On Friday, October 2nd, at 5pm, SubRosa is excited to introduce the recent work of the Santa Cruz Anarchist Doll-Making Collective. The show entitled The Dark Night of DIY Ragdolls and Monsters features the work of a dozen artists working individually and collaboratively to create homemade and recombined dolls and monsters.
The original Dark Night arose out of a series of Free Skool Santa Cruz workshops on doll- and monster-making. Artists built dolls and monsters by hand out of scraps from their workshops, items gathered at the city dump, and materials scavenged from Bargain Barn. During a series of Dark Nights, artists drank tea, made dolls, and stayed up all night sewing and watching dark doll movies from filmmakers the Brothers Quay, Jan Svankmajer,and Henry Selick.
Peering into the mad workshop of mad doll creators I saw feverish hands working away, some delightfully creepy movie playing on an old tv set, doll parts and needles strewn about the cutting floor, Frankenstein doll creations coming alive!
Historically, dolls are some of the oldest discovered toys, the earliest found in Egyptian tombs dating back to 3000 B.C.E. Dolls depicted humans, animals, and imaginary creatures and have been made of every conceivable material: bisque, celluloid, china, clay, cloth, corn husks, paper, plastic, polymer clay, porcelain, resin, rubber, vinyl, wax, wood, bone, ivory, papier-mâché, and leather.
Join us for an opening show and reception on this Dark Night.
Art Opening: The Dark Night of DIY Ragdolls and Monsters
Friday, October 2nd, at 5pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz
Friday, October 2nd, at 5pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz
September 2009: Michael Orick and Tom Calderone
Recent Collages
On Friday, September 4th, at 5pm, SubRosa is excited to welcome collage artists Michael Orick and Tom Calderon. Calderon and Orick have been hosting a weekly gathering of artists for more than three years, creating a wide variety of collage art. Each, in distinct stylistic approaches to life and art, will be presenting pieces created at Collage Night, and viewable on the walls of SubRosa and at CollageNight.com.
Orick applies values and guides meanderings with his jaunty approach to dismantling social interaction. His claims of art for art's sake, is couched in a literary tradition of blanched intellectualism mixed with pale understandings of things: things such as color and time, silly similies and woman's underwear. His past is yesterday's now. Orick is gliding gracefully, with limbs akimbo.
Calderon, with his understanding of politics and religion, attempts to create visions of the reality behind the accepted spectacle. His imagery is savage and calm, shockingly beautiful and sadly real, steeped in water like a fine tea, flavored something excellent.
Collage, considered by some the premier postmodern art form, has remained as fresh as local produce, and a clear link to the time before Nike and Coca-Cola. Weilding their exacto-knives and glue sticks, collagenight provacateurs Calderon and Orick, hope to push the agenda of dreamers everywhere.
Art Opening: Michael Orick and Tom Calderone
Friday, September 4th, at 5pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz
Friday, September 4th, at 5pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz
July 2009: Adriane White
Getaway Sticks and Spaghetti Landscapes
On Friday, August 7th, at 5pm, SubRosa is excited to welcome the art of Adriane White to our walls. These paintings portray her myriad feelings on performance art from weekly performances to burlesque to turn of the century stage set design.
The dozen canvases in this show represent two whimsical series combined. One is of part animals, part humans, who’ve been forced into the show business against their will. The other is of a spaghetti landscape fantasy where meatballs are moons and a lone dancing foot is the star attraction.
Ms. White says, “I have been in the performance arena for a long time whether it be working at a Caberet restaurant, singing in a karaoke competition or performing my own act in a burlesque show. I can’t seem to shake it, I suppose, cause here it is haunting me in paint form. Maybe I just need to get it out of my system.”
Adriane White is a long time lover of the arts and has dabbled in its many avenues. She’s studied dance and music most of her life and has appeared in over twenty theatrical plays and musicals. After receiving her B.A. in studio art, with an emphasis on photography she undertook some commercial work. Following a freak bike accident which left her injured, she turned to painting to occupy her creative energy.
Art Opening: Adriane White
Friday, August 7th, at 5pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz
Friday, August 7th, at 5pm
SubRosa, 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz
For prints on canvas of these paintings, contact her at HotWaterArt@gmail.com or HotWaterArt.etsy.com.
June -July 2009: Deena Brabant
Beautiful Malaise: Paintings and Sculpture
"I use pictures as a marker of time, to consider our relationships to the past, present, and future, and to find ways to forge an existence within this shifting terrain. My portraits are orientation markers, a way of capturing a moment between where one has been and where one is going. In a transient world where nothing is certain, it is all too easy to wash my hands of the past and present in moments of frustration. In doing so, I would rid myself of the only valuable thing I own: my experiences and memories.
I am fixated on the human form and face, in life and in art: its structure, psyche, and hidden secrets. All of this I envision devoid of environment, as if all my subjects could exist in any given space and time. In a material world, I find that what I cling to most when in search of sincerity are the fleeting emotions of myself and others. My figures are snapshots of these transient emotions, a look to remember when the feeling is gone."
May 2009: The Beehive Collective
Cross Polinations
A swarm is coming! The Beehive Design Collective- a non-profit, volunteer driven, political arts organization based in eastern Maine is SubRosa’s featured artist for May. The group’s mission is to “cross pollinate the grassroots” through the creation of images as an effective medium for deconstructing and educating the public about complex geopolitical issues.
Most interesting is their methodology. The bees create collaborative, hand-illustrated posters of dizzying intricacy which are patchwork “quilts” of personal stories related to them in their travels. Before setting pen to paper, the hive does extensive touring and field research.
Interviewing community members about the effects of globalization on their situation is a crucial component of the collective’s investigative process. “We feel it’s extremely important to gather our information from as close to the source as possible,” an anonymous worker bee says. The topic of each graphic campaign is researched thoroughly, including the specific species of animals and plants conveyed, and the ideas and facts critiqued by many people before the projects are completed.
The posters on display at SubRosa are from the FTAA, Plan Columbia and the Resist the G8 graphics campaigns. Like what you see? Prints are available for $20 each at SubRosa.
March 2009: Benjamin Osen
Workbench Progeny: Objects and Unventions
Benjamin Osen is a craftsman of sculpture and object who injects whimsical possibilities into the ordinary articles of life. Born and raised in Feather River country, Northern California, Osen is an artist interested in histories as they are told by objects. Formally trained as a sculptor, his work praises the unnoticed beauty all around us, while inescapably engaging the world of fine art.
Workbench Progeny exhibits Osen’s ability to create aesthetically beautiful works that remain grounded by their references to function and usefulness. Challenging the function-over-form mentality of DIY and Homebrew culture, he envisions the homemade object as an outlet for artistic refinement. Focusing on the tools of his trade, Osen transforms memories from his background in construction into tangible items that stand as works of their own.
February 2009: Kyle McKinley
Mixed Media Work
SubRosa features the mixed media work of Kyle McKinley. Opening show, 5pm March 6th.
Kyle McKinley's art and activism are focused on community-based appropriate technologies. For the past five years that has taken the form of working in organizations that teach people to maintain their bicycles.
Kyle completed a double major in Sculpture and World Literature at UC Santa Cruz. At that time his artworks were installations that offered embodied equivalents to Post-Structuralist theory.
More recently Kyle's has made 'zines that appropriate the idioms of early twentieth century children's literature to form social commentary. These publications, the art-objects that accompany them, and any future works are rooted in radical collaboration.
December 2008 and January 2009: Ann Alstatt
Recent Prints
SubRosa features the prints of local artist Ann Altstatt.
I think of the art I make as lying at the intersection of science and mysticism. I present personal creation/destruction myths next to studies of trash off the floor of the Bargain Barn — to me they hold a similar, monumental importance.
These images could be seen in some way to be fragments of a whole-- some are jokes, some are dreams, some are portraits of the forgotten or unseen, but all describe something that is just beyond my ability to see or say: the meeting point of the big joy and the big sadness.
November 2008: Charlie and Hunter
Recent Mixed Media Work
SubRosa features the mixed media works of local artists Charlie and Hunter.
