Mixed media artist and CalArts alum Alicia Piller (Art MFA 19) marks her first-ever solo museum exhibition with Alicia Piller: Within, a site-specific installation of multimedia works at Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles. The exhibition runs from Sunday, Jan. 29 to Sunday, May 7, following an opening reception on Saturday, Jan. 28 and related programming throughout the show’s run.
More about the exhibition from Craft Contemporary’s press release:
As an ethnographic pursuit, Within visually composes elided and erased stories that Black women carry inside themselves as chroniclers. Disappeared peoples, scorched ground, and canonical abuse are explored in relation to astral phenomena, earth, wind, and water, illuminating Piller’s calculus of secular epochs measured against spiritual reckoning that excavate truth while building artifacts of lived experience and material realities.
Curated by jill moniz, Within was conceived as a collaborative effort with the artist that would “amplify her practice of both rooting and elevating the connective matter of art and identity.” The exhibition’s organic sculptures are fashioned from found objects and everyday materials like resin, stones, latex, and photographs, reflecting Piller’s continued practice of transforming historical events and experiences into biological forms.
The opening reception on Saturday celebrates both Piller’s show and the group exhibition Strings of Desire.
Piller will also host a workshop about body adornment and wearable art at the gallery on Sunday, Feb. 26, during which participants are invited to create jewelry from mixed media ranging from found objects to family heirlooms. On Saturday, March 26, Piller joins moniz for a free exhibition walkthrough.
