FA4 Collective

FA4 collective is a group of artists who follow their creative calling as individuals and work together to establish a network of support, education, and personal growth. Part of our intent as a collective is to deconstruct each other’s artistic processes, provide constructive criticism, and keep one another accountable on our artistic journeys. FA4 collective is to serve as a forum of professionals that strives to elevate our experience as artists and participants in a greater community. We aim to encourage creative engagement by working inside and outside of art institutions through exhibitions,educational workshops, and cultural events.

FA4 collective is based in Los Angeles, CA. Since 2014,

Members: Chris Hernandez, Cynthia Luján, Daniel Antonio Rivera Echeveria, Galileo Gonzalez, Gloria Elisa Margarita Sanchez, James PneuGnosis, Jeff Dulla, Jerry Peña, Marcos Andrade, Marlene Tafoya, Monica Andreina Martinez, Pati Lomeli, Romina Del Castillo, Sea Althaea, Sean O'Brien, Tida Lek

Website: https://fa4collective.com/

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FAR Bazaar Project

RE-SPAWNING

Description: Respawning || re·spawn || /rēˈspôn/ The recreation of an entity after its death or destruction, perhaps after losing one of its lives. All player characters typically spawn at the start of a round whereas some objects or mobs may spawn after the occurrence of a particular event or delay. FA4 Collective will be responding to current events through a variety of mediums, philosophies and approaches to installation and collaboration. We seek to spark dialogue within our communities. Viewers will be entering a multi-layered visual experience and provoking dialogue.

Location: FA30

Participating Artists: Chris Hernandez, Cynthia Luján, Daniel Antonio Rivera Echeveria, Galileo Gonzalez, Gloria Elisa Margarita Sanchez, James PneuGnosis, Jeff Dulla, Jerry Peña, Marcos Andrade, Marlene Tafoya, Monica Andreina Martinez, Pati Lomeli, Romina Del Castillo, Sea Althaea, Sean O'Brien, Tida Lek, Nsrgnts, Alvaro A.S.F

Romina Del Castillo is a painter living and working in Long Beach, CA. She was born in Lima, Peru and immigrated to the United States at the age of 16. She obtained her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts with an emphasis on drawing and painting at California State University Long Beach in 2014. She is fascinated by the natural world and the human psyche; landscapes, animals, and humans are often the protagonists of her colorful compositions. She works in a variety of mediums that include oil, acrylic, graphite, and charcoal, with observational drawing at the core of her practice. Romina was a recipient of the Orval Dillingham College of the Arts Scholarship (2014) and her work has been included in group exhibitions at Torrence Art Museum, the Museum of Latin American Art, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, the University Art Museum at California State University Long Beach, and The Brand Library in Glendale among others.

Ciana Lee, after switching her academic path from International Studies to Art Education, began to realize the true value of expression. As an Instructor, she is fascinated by the process of enabling others to interact with mixed media, poetry and performance as a means of communication and catharsis. Through visual artistry, She explores the movement of story and color through surreal portraiture and abstracted environments via oils, acrylic, mixed media and sculpture. Inspired by the likes of Carvaggio, Vincent Van Gogh and Frida Kahlo her work is often pulsing with varying motifs, patterns, movement and story. She has recently become inspired by the socio-cultural potential of public art, and actively pursues incorporating it into her practice as a means of inspiring passerby to reflect on their own personal power. She identifies as: Xicana, Hawaiian, Humanitarian, Community activist, Earth Healer, Peace Warrior, Artist and Educator.

Cynthia Lujan is a recent BFA undergrad from Cal State, Long Beach. She’s a nomad who’s based out of Long Beach, Signal Hill, Norwalk, Whittier and other parts of LA County. Overall her artwork explores the themes of sub-cultural identity, rituals, the extension of power through inanimate objects and entropy. Through her studies she had the privilege of traveling to Russia, China and Japan. Since traveling, she’s become interested in public signage due to its traits as a common language to direct people in public space. Her she embraces imperfection and spontaneity through found materials, paint and glitter. Another concept she is interested in is archiving social identities within her generation through portraiture. Often times, drawing is used in a playful and unreserved manner. Cynthia has been fortunate to show at museums and galleries including, Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, The Brand Library, LA><ART, Art Share L.A., among others. She aspires to attend graduate school where she hopes to merge her interest in languages with her passion for fine arts by pursuing opportunities that encourage her skills as an archivist, multi-linguist and most importantly as an artist.

Galileo Gonzalez is an artist residing in La Puente, California. He has shown work in locations such as Cerritos College, which houses one of his paintings as part of their permanent collection, the Regent in Downtown Los Angeles in 2011, the Art With An Agenda show in Fullerton in 2012, and a solo show at the AVD Gallery on October 2015. Much of his work is inspired from his surroundings of the Los Angeles urban landscape, focusing his attention on the ongoing issues of gentrification and displacement of its residents, urban blight, graffiti cover-up, his upbringings in Southeast Los Angeles, the adjacent gang culture, and the Hardcore Punk subculture that he’s currently active in. His work, while visually abstracted, has its roots in a figurative style, using observation and on-location drawings to use and organize his compositions. Currently, Galileo is earning his BFA in Fine Arts at Cal State Long Beach, with a focus onDrawing & Painting.

Gloria Elisa Margarita Sanchez b.1985 Working and residing in the Harbor Area / South bay of Los Angeles, Gloria “Gem” Sanchez earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting with a minor in Art Education from Cal State Long Beach in 2014. She is a multimedia artist that mainly works in painting, weaving, mixed media, printmaking, and sign making. The theme of imitating nature through cycles of destruction and reconstruction are intrinsic elements in Gloria’s process. Her interests in decolonization and non-western cultural aesthetics drives Gloria to gather research and inspiration from Filipin@, Mexican, and Indigenous cultures and their given environments, past and present. This is her way of connecting with and reclaiming her personal, cultural identity as a Xicana-Pinay Womyn. Her work exudes a colorful, feminine effervescence that is both energizing, calming, stark, yet inviting. She is dedicated to her art practices as a means of spiritual survival and art for healing. Gloria has worked within her local community to promote and generate grassroots art actions. She was part of WECAN (Wilmington Enrichment Community Artist Network) from 2009-2011, as well as Ell@s collective from 2011-2013. Both groups have been featured in ‘Sessions’ video series produced by LACES (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition Space). In 2012, Ell@s collective were guests Art facilitators for STAC (Slanguage Teen Art Council) at LA<>RT as part of Slanguage Studio’s participation in the first MADE IN LA. Since 2012, Gloria has been an Alumni and Affiliate of Slanguage Studio, founded in 2002 by Mario Ybarra Jr. and Karla Diaz. Gloria has recently exhibited work at Pasadena City College, LA<>ART, Museum of Latin American Art, Mini Art Museum, and Art Share LA. She aspires to continue as a practicing artist, attain her Masters in Fine Arts, and become an educator.

Marlene Tafoya is a Chicana artist, performer and maker from the Harbor Area. She received her BA in Studio Art with an emphasis in Photography from California State University Long Beach in 2015. Her work explores various concepts ranging from personal, social, and environmental. Marlene was the recipient of the Joy of Life scholarship from the University Art Museum and although most of her work is quite serious, she prefers to lighten up the mood for her audience. As a recent graduate, Marlene has been fortunate enough to show at various museums and galleries including, Museum of Latin American Art, Vincent Price Art Museum, LAX ART, Mini Art Museum, and Marcas Contemporary Art Gallery among others. Trying her best to live by words from Oasa DuVerney, (in Five Ways to Disrupt White Supremacy in the Mainstream Art World) Marlene hopes to be “gangsta” and continue creating for the current and future generations to come.

Monica A. Martinez, born in 1989, lives and works in San Pedro, CA. Monica is a visual artist who graduated from California State University of Long Beach in 2013 with her BFA in Illustration, emphasis in Animation. Her practice is more of a multidiscipline art where she has done work with video performance, installations, animation, painting and drawing. She creates work dealing with mundane moments that creates dialogue about communication and interests in psychological behavior. She has been in the art collective group called Slanguage, created by Mario Ybarra Jr and Karla Diaz founded in 2002, since 2013. Now part of FA4 Collective since Spring 2016. Slanguage Noise/Light (2015) was her first group exhibition, with her series of larger sketchbooks and projection titled Command Plus (2015). Exploring the concept found in the realms of the analog, the digital, the abstract and the representational; at Pasadena City College. She was also part of Slanguage residency at 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica called Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost (2015). Three months residency exploring identity through science fiction with drawing, writing, cosplaying, video and sound workshops. She’s had presented work at LA><ART, Mini Art Museum, and among others. Monica also works for LA’s Best After School Art Program and is a current member of ACTIVATE, an advocacy training and leadership development program of Arts for Los Angeles.

Jerry Pena is a recent graduate of California State University Long Beach with a bachelor's in studio art emphasizing in drawing and painting. He primarily works in painting but also incorporates mixed media, photography, and printmaking. One key component in his artistry is the juxtaposition of traditional and nontraditional materials to reach a non conducive organic outcome. This painter’s oeuvre focuses on using found objects that reside only in lower income areas as well as materials used in labor oriented work alongside traditional methods of painting and sculpture. This allows him to explore his fascination in the interaction of materials but also allows for the work to have a cultural identity. This subversive asteism allows for a display of cultural identity that makes commentary on social economical issues within lower income populations. He has recently shown at the Midnight Gallery, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and the Torrance art Museum.

Chris Hernandez was born and raised in Wilmington, California. His mother emigrated from Guatemala and his father emigrated from Mexico when they were both 18 and 19. Raised in a lower class Hispanic town, he honed his creativity and art to stay away from gangs and violence. He is fluent in Spanish and has visited his parents’ homeland to familiarize with his roots and his parents cultural upbringing and influence his artwork. Though influenced by his upbringing, his process painting recall everyday symbols and icons that become abstracted through his hand. The ideas become wringed through gestures, lines, structures, shapes and color as they then stand in as jumping off points to repaint, retouch, erase or add on to the surface creating a layered yet direct all-over composition.He has shown in various galleries in the South Bay area, including the University Art Museum of California State University Long Beach and the Los Angeles Harbor College Fine Arts Gallery in his very own town of Wilmington where he was also a part of a group artist lecture. He has recently received his Bachelors of Fine Arts in the CSU School of Art of Long Beach with an emphasis in Drawing and Painting.

Daniel A. Rivera Echeverria is a Salvadorian American, he grew up creating his own toys by hacking and experimenting with old ones. Even though most of his “childish” experiments failed, this experience planted a seed of curiosity. Since then the seed has grown to become his creative force to be an active citizen in transforming and reshaping the conditions, thinking, and structures that mold our lives. He has recently graduated from California State University of Long Beach in 2016 with his BFA in Drawing & Painting. His most recent work questions societies contentment with the status quo and the thoughts that govern fear, uncertainty and the idea of purity. Daniel creates paintings and sculptures that can be altered by the viewer and encourages interaction with his work.

Jeff Dulla graduated from Cal State Long Beach in 2014 with a bachelors in fine art with and emphasis in drawing and painting. Jeff is a multidisciplinary artist with talents in woodworking, sign painting, collage and canvas painting. During his time at CSULB he concentrated on a series of repurposed collages made from leftover paint from his job as a sign painter at Trader Joe’s. He really had a gift for taking the mundane and discarded and making it into something visually pleasing. He has even incorporated this concept into the making of high end wood furniture. Since graduating he began to paint the landscape, not from observation, but from his imagination. He calls these creations his “mindscapes.”He allows himself to go into a flow state of mind where one mark turns into the next and the image begins to take shape. This results in fluid mark making and color transitions. He starts with a blank black canvas where he builds up the image with color light. He does not start a drawing with the intention of creating something specific, instead it is his mind manifesting itself on the canvas through a fractal process.

Patricia M. Lomeli completed her Bachelor in Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting at CSULB on December 2013. She was born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1984. She immigrated to the U.S. when she was 17 years old. In 2004 she received the SOHA (Society of Higher Arts) award for her participation in the art program called "Visions" while she was in high school. In May of 2010 she received a scholarship to attend a summer class at Art Center Pasadena, CA. She has received several scholarships that include the SOHA (Society of Higher Arts Award) , the Osher Scholar Award, the Los Angeles County Hispanic Managers Association Education Foundation, and the Orval Dillingham Scholarship Award. She also participated at the Second Annual Spanish Graduate Student Symposium in 2013 called War and Revolution at CSULB. Her work has been included in group shows at SMOCA Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art at Scottsdale, AZ in 2003 where she sold her piece to the curator of the museum. Other group shows include the Art Center, Pasadena, CA in 2010, a collaborative show called Light Transmission with Rina Nakano at Marily Werby Gallery in 2012 and the BFA group show in 2013. She recently has been collaborating in projects with photographer Cecilia Santos and painter Juan Carlos Macias in Guadalajara, Mexico. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

Marcos Andrade’s work is mostly based in photography though also includes aspects of drawing and painting as well as other media. He is inspired by counter-culture, childhood memories, human psychology, landscapes, conflicting thoughts and living in the Harbor Area of Los Angeles. His work is informed heavily by his immediate surroundings. He often uses materials such as old photographs, household items and office stationary in his art work. This combined with photographing in a sparse and visceral fashion provide for a work that can be nonsensical and dissonant. He combines ideas of “straight” documentary style photography to construct images that allude to something unsettling and strangely familiar. He takes a cognitive approach to art making rather than intellectual one; leaving room for mistakes and discovery. Marcos was born in 1989 in San Pedro, California . He currently lives and works in Wilmington, California; an old port town located in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, where he also grew up. He has been fascinated with art from a very young age. His interest in photography came when he was gifted a Fischer Price camera as a child. In 2013 he received his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Photography. He has been making mistakes and discoveries ever since.