Student Facebook
The Homeless by Pat Berger
Los Angeles-based artist Pat Berger’s poignant paintings of homelessness were originally inspired by her visit to a food and shelter outreach for the homeless in downtown L.A. around Christmas 1985.
What followed that eye-opening experience were at least five years of activism and a series of 35 paintings and lithographs intended to raise awareness about the plight of the homeless – many of whom shared their stories with Berger.
Her works on the homeless have since been exhibited in venues as different as homeless shelters, universities, museums and even California’s State Capitol Building in Sacramento.
Twelve of Berger’s homeless series paintings are now in the permanent collection of the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum in Buffalo, N.Y. Another painting is in the permanent collection of Los Angeles’ Skirball Cultural Center.
In Central California, Berger’s work was displayed in 2009-10 at the Bakersfield Museum of Art in an exhibit called “No Place to Go: Paintings of the Homeless.” Berger’s exhibit was one of five homelessness-focused shows happening concurrently, including the main exhibit, “Hobos to Street People: Artists’ Responses to Homelessness from the New Deal to the Present.”
-Louis Medina
EARTH RHYTHMS by Betty Green
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Betty Green is a fine artist whose work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. Green attended Cornell University and UCLA, where she studied painting under Richard Diebenkorn. In addition to painting, Ms. Green has worked as a graphic designer and is the winner of a Primetime Emmy Award for title design, as well as the recipient of an International Clio Award. She has created signature openings for many television and motion picture projects. Her contributions to the arts also include the development of an after school Art Enrichment Program at the Neighborhood Youth Association in Venice, California. She was
awarded The Certificate of Tribute – Accomplishments in the Arts by the City of Los Angeles for her work with these children. Green currently works in her Santa Monica studio where she experiments with a variety of mixed media techniques to create her canvases.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Betty Green’s mixed media series entitled Earth Rhythms presents a series of paintings inspired by the undulating patterns in nature and the pulsing energy connecting all living forms. Using natural and man-made materials, her canvases are layered with heavily textured materials such as sand, cord, wood scraps, steel wool, straw, and wire mesh to create an energetic surface. Color, applied by brush and palette knife, furthers the feeling of vitality. The combined effect creates a visceral liveliness, as shifting patterns play with our inclination to see recognizable objects in abstract shapes. Green’s paintings seek to create excitement and beauty on a tactile and emotional level. Her hope is that viewers will study her artwork and make their own discoveries and connections.
Click here to learn more about Betty Green.
New Cuts
by Corrie Siegel
“Wherever the relevance of speech is at stake, matters become political by definition,
for speech is what makes man a political being” - Hannah Arendt
New Cuts is an exhibition of flat and sculptural works created from single sheets of paper. Alternately delicate and spiked, the works are formed by overlaid matrixes of texts that are incised to obscure the original message and reveal a pattern composed of symbols. Each piece is built from statements made during the rise of the Third Reich or the Trump Administration. Through the form of a traditional paper-cut; these loaded texts are abstracted into jagged landscapes and fragile lace.
Corrie Siegel is a Los Angeles based multimedia artist who has exhibited nationally and internationally. Mining individual and collective histories, she uses labor intensive approaches to occupy a position between objectivity and interpretation. Her projects have been profiled in the Los Angeles Times, Mousse Magazine, Droste Effect, and Flash Art International. Siegel is currently an Armory Fellow, she was also awarded a Word Grant, Dream Lab Fellowship, Culture Lab Fellowship, and Six Points Fellowship. She is the director of the artist run gallery and community space Actual Size Los Angeles. Actual Size collaborates with established and emerging artists to animate the exhibition experience and engage the public. She received her BFA from Bard College and is currently pursuing an MFA with a concentration in Curatorial and Critical Studies from University of California, Irvine.
Mary Leipziger
India through a Jewish Lens
"The photographs show people in their spaces, already, but with the assurances that realism always illustrates what you haven’t seen yet, the connections, colors, the geometries suggested by human form and direction, the hidden hand, usually demeaning, and not signifying like a subject engaged and exposed, and both the photographer and the subject fully enjoying the surprise of human contact."
Mary Leipziger is a Los Angeles based Canadian Jewish photographer whose photographs have been published in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Philadelphia Enquirer, Dallas Times Herald, National Museum of American Jewish History and many other publications.
Ms. Leipziger holds an M.A. from California State University, Northridge, CA, a B.A. in Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture Los Angeles, CA and a B.F.A. from Boston University in Boston, Mass.
Click here for an interview with Mary Leipziger & The Daily Bruin
Student Fine Art Show
Hillel at UCLA will be having the Student Fine Art show opening in the Spring quarter of 2019. We invite all undergraduate students to participate in the contest and share their beautiful ideas and artistic work with Hillel and the public. We want students to have the liberty to create anything possible with their imagination so submissions can be anything. *No nudity* In previous years, we received paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, even collages, and strange and exotic pieces of work, and many more so we encourage students to get creative and get motivated! We will be giving out prizes to the winning students.
Prize title:
"The Phylliss and Lou Mann Prize for Excellence in the Arts at UCLA Hillel"
1st prize: $1000
2nd prize: $500
Deadline for submissions: Friday May 17, 2019
Contact Perla for additional information:
[email protected] | (310) 208-3081 Ext. 108
Generously funded by Mindy and Robert Mann & the Stratton-Petit Foundation
Student run exhibitions supported by the Dortort Center
By: Lexie Ravaei, Isabel Bina, Serena Yaghoubi
Revolutionary to its time, the heroic women of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings are characterized by their beauty, bravery, and wisdom. The authenticity and heroism of the Rudabeh, Tahmineh, and Gordafarid is highlighted through their unapologetic expressions of love and guileful endeavors. These multidimensional personalities defy conventions through their courageous efforts to actively claim control of their narratives. Ferdowsi’s rich exploration of Iran’s cultural heritage reveals a nuanced portrayal of women within ideological, sexual, and military realms of power.
As a 20- year-old Persian woman born and raised in Los Angeles, identity is a central tension in my life. I seek authenticity in a society where the promoted ideologies paralyze the individuals within my community into gender constructs. Through my photographs, I illustrate the power struggle I encounter between my personal aspirations and society’s expectations with the hopes of empowering my audience.
Keiana Snell, Rucha Modi, Joyce Chang
Reframe is a photographic exploration of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rooted in identity, narratives, and dialogue. This exhibition serves both as a presentation of the Winter 2018 UCLA Fact Finders trip and a platform for continuing discussion revolving around the subject and beyond.
Although the ten days of the Fact Finders itinerary comes nowhere close to completely clarifying the conflict, we have learned―and continue to relearn―that the political conflict is rooted in the people, rather than the institutions of media, academia, and polarizing belief systems so readily perpetuated. Our experience has challenged us to acknowledge the complexities of the conflict delivered through privileged access to mobility, positionality, and nuances; our goal is to convey and confront in a similar fashion through creative display.
If there is any conclusion to reach post-trip, we are certain about one: the importance of stepping into a process of reframing. From the literal adjustment of the camera lens, framing the image presentation, expanding perspectives, to shifting the culture of this conversation, we believe it is critical and necessary to share with honesty and vulnerability in this exhibition.
We hope to give our audience access to see the people and hear the stories that moved and challenged us in different ways. Our mission is that you would join in this process of learning and reframing with us.
Welcome to Reframe!
We are honored and thankful to complete this exhibition with our trip leaders Amit David and Michael Kagan, the participants on the 2018 Fact Finders Bus, Perla Karney; and the generous sponsorship of the Pamela and Randol Schoenberg Family Foundation.
PAST EVENTS
Tuesday April 30th at 7 pm
Free & open to the public
UCLA Gloria Kaufman Hall
In April, we are proud to present Stacie Chaiken’s acclaimed solo play The DIG with new music, composed and performed by world musician Yuval Ron.
The DIG revolves around a mystery: The Israelis have discovered a 4000-year-old burial in a sarcophagus in Jaffa. What is it? How did it get there?
But the real story is about Sally Jenkins, a world-renowned genetic archaeologist, who has been summoned to Israel to answer these questions. At the top of the field of ancient DNA, Sally has discovered a way to clean away eons of dirt and dust and replicate the material necessary to identify ancient burials, using infinitesimal fragments of bone.
Traveling to Jaffa the morning after her mother's death, she finds herself in a place where the mess of history — her own and that of the land she is working in — cannot be so easily cleaned away.
The world premiere of The DIG was produced at Los Angeles Theatre Center, Jose Luis Valenzuela and the Latino Theater Company.
The DIG received the 2017 Stage Raw Award for Solo Performance
for more information, visit theDIGplay.com
About the Play
In The DIG, playwright and actor Stacie Chaiken plays Sally Jenkins, an American archaeologist renowned worldwide for her ability to extract genetic information from ancient bones.
In the performance, Sally is summoned to a dig in Jaffa where the Israelis have discovered something they fear might topple the precarious political, historical and religious balance in the region. Sally is the only person in the world who can tell them what it is.
Her partners in this adventure are Israeli antiquities operative David, Arab-Israeli expert in text and artifacts, Rashid, and Mo, the lizard she finds in the bathtub in her suite in a five-star hotel.
Based on Sally’s findings - scientific and otherwise - she, David and Rashid together make a choice that is uncharacteristic, possibly reprehensible, and certainly transformational.
The DIG seamlessly traverses the worlds of archaeology; science and biochemistry; Biblical text; Jewish history and identity; the history/story of the land of Israel Palestine; modern Israeli culture, ethics; genetics; epigenetics; mother-daughter meshugas (craziness); the Holocaust and generational trauma - in the realm of families and nations and peoples.
Written and Performed by Stacie Chaiken | Original Music Written and Performed by Yuval Ron | Sound Score by Tim Labor | Directed by Pamela Berlin
Running Time: 60 mins
Reviews:
"Chaiken has created an intricate, multi-layered tale that combines archeology, religion, Israeli-Palestinian politics and personal issues, with each strand of the narrative reflecting back on the others. Her play deals with the complexities of Israel during the Second Intifada, her relations with her co-workers David and Rashid, and her growing relationship with the lizard she found in the bathtub of her luxury hotel." - Neil Weaver, Stage Raw
"The DIG is a little gem and will both enlighten and entertain audiences." - Elaine Mura, LA Splash
Awards:
Los Angeles Stage Raw Theatre Award - Solo Performance
Los Angeles Stage Raw Theatre Award - Sound and Projection Design (nominated)
About the Creators
Stacie Chaiken is a writer-performer and the principal creative force behind The DIG. The Los Angeles-based Chaiken's work has included a variety of solo performances as well as leadership of several devised-theatre projects with diverse communities, including immigrants, recovering drug addicts, LGBTQ youth, interfaith youth and Orthodox women. Her current work includes consultation and leadership of other creative projects in Los Angeles, including acting as Story Consultant for New Ground: a Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change and as facilitator of story workshops for the organization's fellows. A Fulbright Senior Specialist in the field of Performance and Story, she was formerly on the performance faculty of the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts.
Yuval Ron is an internationally renowned and award-winning World Music artist, composer, and record producer. In addition to his leadership of The Yuval Ron Ensemble music and dance group, Ron has created scores for a number of plays, television series and films, including the Oscar-winning short West Bank Story. His music is influenced by his continual research into various ethnic musical traditions and spiritual paths. This research has included producing field recordings in the Sinai Desert with the Bedouins, archival preservation recordings of the sacred Yemenite, Moroccan and Andalusian Jewish traditions, and the album of a famed Sufi master musician, Omar Faruk Tekbilek. Ron's musical achievements have been recognized with a a variety of awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Composers Forum, California Council for the Humanities and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Pamela Berlin is a New York-based theater director. Her credits include dozens of plays in New York and across the Northeast and Canada as well as several operas. She has participated in the Sundance Playwrights Institute, Chautauqua, Theatreworks Palo Alto, Cape Cod Theatre Project and the New York Theatre Workshop Dartmouth Summer Residency. She taught directing in the MFA program at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University for twelve years, acting in the MFA program at Brooklyn College, and frequently directs at Juilliard and the NYU Graduate Acting Program. She is a long time member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre and served as the President of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers from 2000 to 2006. Berlin received her BA in American History and Literature from Harvard University and her MFA in Directing from Southern Methodist University.
Tim Labor is an award-winning Professor in the Department of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Riverside who specializes in music composition and sound design for theater and film. Prof. Labor's pre-recorded score for the 2016 premiere production of The DIG at the Los Angeles Theatre Center helped earn the production a nomination for the 2017 Los Angeles Stage Raw Theatre Award for Sound and Projection Design. At the April 30th production, a trio of world musicians from the UCLA community will perform live Prof. Labor's musical score for the play. As a film and media composer, Labor has collaborated in composition or sound design for a variety of projects, including computer games, video, dance, and theatre and has been recognized for his work with a number of prestigious awards.
Bios & excerpts by Jack Schwada
Jack and Babette Weir
Estelle Fisher