Migration

China Adams | Alexandra Grant | Alexandra Wiesenfeld | Jae Hwa Yoo | HK Zamani

November 18 - December 23, 2023

CMay gallery is pleased to present Migration a group exhibition featuring five Los Angeles-based artists including China Adams, Alexandra Grant, Alexandra Wiesenfeld, Jae Hwa Yoo, and HK Zamani.

The show delves into the Los Angeles art scene by spotlighting artists who have relocated to the city. This showcase does not aim to provide an exhaustive overview of the broader artist migration to Los Angeles. Instead, it serves as an exploration of a select group of artists and their unique narratives about what has drawn them to this captivating metropolis.

China Adams was born in San Francisco and came to Los Angeles to attend UCLA to study art. Adams received her MFA for UNLV but would make Los Angeles her permanent home after finishing her studies.

Early in her career Adams showed with the renowned ACE Gallery where she continued to exhibit for over a decade doing numerous large-scale ground-breaking solo exhibitions. The gallery known for its large gallery spaces offered Adams the opportunity to create several museum scale exhibitions that would definitely impact the direction and ambition of her work.

Alexandra Grant another transplant to LA was born in Ohio but traveled extensively with her family and living in Mexico, France, and Spain before moving permanently to Los Angeles.

In an interview she said “I really wanted to be in Los Angeles because of John Baldessari, Barbara Kruger and Ed Ruscha.”  These artists inspired her because their use of text in their work. In 2007 Grant had her first solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, curated by Alma Ruiz.

Alexandra Wiesenfeld was born in Germany but moved to the USA and attended the Pomona College where she received her BFA. Later she attended Montana State University where she received her MFA.

Wiesenfeld would make Los Angeles her permanent residence and was part of the early Chinatown gallery scene where she showed with the Happy Lion Gallery and exhibited her ground-breaking show of portrait of prisoners on death row.

Wiesenfeld continues to exhibit in Los Angeles but has also had many shows in throughout the United States and Europe.

Jae Hwa Yoo was born in Korea where she attended the renowned Hong Ik Art School, Hong Ik University, Seoul, Korea.

Yoo’s practice reveals a heavy influence from this early period showing a long standing focus and commitment to a practice of mark making reminiscent of the renowned Korean Abstractionist movement “Dansaekhwa”, and she is closely associated with that group including such artists Ha Chonghyun, Eun Hyong-Keun and preeminently Park Seo Bo, the acknowledged godfather of that group and the artist Yoo regards as probably her most important influence.  

After settling in Los Angeles Yoo decided to continue her art education and attended California State University Los Angeles where she received her MFA.

Yoo’s work was originally rooted in the tradition of Korean Abstraction but over the years her work has taken on aspects of the California Light and Space Movement as well as Installation Art.

HK Zamani is a veteran of the Los Angeles scene and moved to Los Angeles from Iran as a teenager. He received his MFA at the Claremont Graduate School. His early work was rooted in abstraction and throughout his career he has morphed his  Iranian roots in his work. This influence has not been at the forefront of his artistic expression but rather lays underneath revealing itself often in much more subtle ways.

Zamani’s influences are also drawn from a Los Angeles aesthetic but he has clearly created his own “style” drawing from his own art and cultural experiences.

Los Angeles has been a hub of creativity in the arts for over a century. The city's reputation as an innovative powerhouse began with the rise of the movie industry, and it has remained a prominent part of Los Angeles's cultural scene ever since. The entertainment industry, including film, television, and music, continues to thrive in the city, attracting talented individuals from all corners of the globe.

The visual art scene began to blossom some decades later attracting artists from all over the world. The art schools were a destination for the artists and the burgeoning art scene with developing new ideas and concepts that would influence artists around the world.

This evolution continued through the decades attracting more and more artist to this wonderful city. Migration explores the work of artists who have come to the city and follows their paths as artists in this world art hub we call Los Angeles.

SELECTED WORKS

FOR MORE INFORMATION

info@cmaygallery.com
Walk-ins are welcome.