DIRECTORS AND FOUNDERS
Gioj De Marco is an Italian artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Her current focus is on the ecology of the imaginary and the role of dreams as a resource for embodying new futures; this has led her to establish The Collective Dreamworld Project, co-authored with Loris D’Acunto, an online experiment that uses artificial intelligence and allows hundreds of participant to dream together. De Marco also runs Blowing in the Wind, an exhibition space dedicated to new and experimental works in the San Fernando Valley.
Elizabeth Withstandley is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on community-based works and video installation. She is from Cape Cod, Massachusetts and lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She received a BFA in photography from Pratt Institute and an MFA in photography from The University of Alabama. Withstandley is one of the co-founders of Locust Projects, a not-for-profit art exhibition space, in Miami, FL.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Shannon Tool is a queer Californian by birth. Attended Mills College, Oakland, CA, where she received a BA in ethnic studies. Tool has a Juris Doctor degree and a Masters in entertainment Law from Southwestern Law School. She currently works as a coverage attorney, is wife, sister, and friend to artists.
Corey Reeser is a partner and co-founder of Altimeter, an entertainment company with a focus on documentary and narrative film. He has produced projects including Where’s My Roy Cohn?, about the Svengali behind Joseph McCarthy and Donald Trump, Studio 54, about the famed New York City nightclub that became a cultural phenomenon, Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, and Home, a multi-part documentary series for Apple.
Elizabeth Wild is a multidisciplinary artist born in Richmond, Virginia and currently residing in Los Angeles, CA. Wild has an undergraduate degree in Art and Art History from The University of Virginia and received her MFA from The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. Ms. Wild has created a number of public artworks in Southern California including works for the Department of Cultural Affairs/LA, the Community Redevelopment Agency/LA and the Art Council of Long Beach. Wild is the founder and director of Winslow Garage, an artist-run project space in Los Angeles in operation since 2002.
Westen Charles is a Miami-based artist, teacher, and researcher who co-founded the non-profit art space Locust Projects. Charles is known for creating multi-layered, subtly psychological artwork. His elaborate installations are unsettling and unforgettable. Characterized by his adept ability to create conceptual twists with sophisticated economy, Charles delivers a quirky, visually riveting allure through manipulating form and function with razor-sharp ingenuity.
ADVISORY BOARD
Ciara Ennis is the Director and Curator of Pitzer College Art Galleries. Ennis’ exhibitions attempt to intervene into existing histories by re-imagining alternative outcomes. Ennis’ scholarly work explores the appropriation of Wunderkammer tactics as a means for rethinking contemporary curatorial and exhibitionary practice. Ennis has been a panelist/moderator/guest speaker for the College Arts Association; American Studies Association; the International Sculpture Conference; the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries; the California Community Foundation; the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam; and the Victoria and Albert Museum.Ennis has an MA (RCA) from the Royal College of Art, London, in Contemporary Curatorial Practice and a PhD in Cultural Studies/Museum Studies from Claremont Graduate University.
Alan Nakagawa is an interdisciplinary artist with archiving tendencies, primarily working with sound, often incorporating various media and working with communities and their histories. He is currently the artist-in-resident at the Gerth Archives, California State University Dominguez Hills assigned to the newly acquired Los Angeles Free Press/Art Kunkin Collection. His first book, “A.I.R.Head: Anatomy of an Artist in Residence” was published in January 2023 by Writ-Large Press and maps his artistic trajectory that led to his nine artist-in-residencies in six years.
Monica Rodriguez is a Los Angeles-based Puerto Rican artist. She obtained an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 2011, was a fellow at the Whitney Independent Study Program, New York in 2012-13. Rodriguez has exhibited her work internationally, group exhibitions include Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis (2022), TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Santa Cruz, Spain (2021); Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, Richmond, VA (2020); Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR (2019); Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA (2019); LACE Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA (2019); Glass Curtain Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago, IL (2018); 19th Contemporary Art Festival Videobrasil, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2015); among others.