Though Boston Court is primarily known for bold and adventurous music and theatre, visual art has long been a manifestation of our mission. We seek to extend the themes of the performances into our lobby, where our rotating visual art exhibits often comment on those themes, and also explore the role of visual arts in a performing arts setting.
ART UPFRONT COORDINATOR
Stephanie Sherwood is an artist and curator living in Los Angeles. Her curatorial projects have been on view at the Torrance Art Museum, Durden and Ray, Finishing Concepts, LTAC Studio and Angels Gate Cultural Center among others. Her artwork has been shown internationally and in the United States, including the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, LA Artcore, The Brand Library and Art Center and DAC Gallery. Sherwood’s work and curatorial projects have been included in several publications including Artillery, Art and Cake, ArtHabens Contemporary Art Review, LA Weekly, Murze Magazine and Voyage LA.
ArtUpfront is made possible through generous support of Z. Clark Branson.
Arezoo Bharthania + Sijia Chen + Diane Williams
layers of belonging features three Los Angeles-based artists whose works address their experience of immigrating to the United States. Each sheds a unique light on what it means to “come from away.”
Arezoo Bharthania’s work expresses the slippery notion of being in-between two places: her native country of Iran and Los Angeles. By combining luscious moments of painting with photo-transfers from both Los Angeles and Iran, Bharthania creates artfully composed works on canvas.
The work of Sijia Chen, who immigrated from China, incorporates ephemera from the immigration process to make gorgeous collaged landscapes that speak to the diversity of experiences that shape our cultural identities.
Diane Williams crafts works that address the notion of being “othered” as a Filipinx immigrant. In particular, her Monsters and Aliens mask series seeks to address cultural stereotyping and urges people to see her for who she is.
Together these three artists speak deeply to the experience of leaving your home country and seeking home, or at least some layers of belonging, in a new place.
Arezoo Bharthania is an Iranian-American multi-disciplinary artist based in Los Angeles, CA. Her works reflect the experience of creating a home while existing in a state of in-between. It is a narrative formed through layers and gestures that blends her childhood and early adulthood in Iran with her current life in Los Angeles. The space she occupies is navigated through the bodily experience of womanhood and a balance of dichotomies: public and private, psychological and physical environments, here and there. She makes mixed-media work to communicate, mutate, and abstract layers of memory along with elements of the home with the knowledge that both are inextricable from political and social contexts. As Gayatri Spivak wrote, using the displacing gesture as a reversal is a way to reclaim the dubious privilege of having a voice. She aims to build a ground from which she can speak.
Sijia Chen is a multimedia artist specializing in painting, sculpture, installation, and public art. Drawing inspiration from her family’s heritage in calligraphy and papercut art, as well as her experiences studying and living in the United States, her artistic practice merges these different traditions. Chen’s work bridges cultural divides, nurturing empathy and fostering appreciation, while encouraging meaningful dialogue and cultivating a shared understanding among viewers. Themes of cultural identity, community, and interconnectedness resonate deeply within her creations, inviting individuals to reflect on their place within the intricate tapestry of human connections. She holds an M.F.A. degree from Tyler School of Art at Temple University and a B.F.A. degree from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in China. Currently based in Los Angeles, she has presented her work in solo exhibitions in China and the United States and has also participated in exhibitions and biennials across North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Her public sculptures can be found in cities such as Portsmouth, Wichita, North Kansas, Claremont (USA), as well as Guangzhou, Shantou, and Jieyang (China).
Diane Williams is a Filipinx interdisciplinary artist, living and working in Los Angeles, Ca. Diane creates mixed-media, textile based, wall-hanging, suspended and free-standing sculptural weavings. In her work, she often asks how the Filipinx can contend with the impossibility of retrieving the stories of people who have been forgotten or omitted in history. Her research-based work examines memory production through embodied memory as a source of legitimacy, relating to the legacies of colonialism and empire. She uses materials sourced from family and friends and weaves them into her work as a way of reconstituting lost histories and narratives. She employs pre-colonial dyeing methods from plants endemic to the Philippines, food scraps and minerals to reconnect with her indigenous Filipinx culture. Having been raised in the Philippines, Williams is not a mere observer, but an active participant in the artistic discourse around Colonialism. Her practice is not a prescription for repair but a pathway to integrate Filipinx identity and culture into contemporary art and historical practice.
Visit our Archive call_made for past exhibits.
