Artists Including Judy Baca, Alfredo De Stefano and HanHo to Present Climate-Focused Immersive Experiences

LA Art Show’s non-commercial platform, DIVERSEartLA, returns to the Los Angeles Convention Center February 15–19 as an important part of LA’s largest and longest-running art fair. The popular program, which began in 2015 and is curated by Marisa Caichiolo, connects local and international art institutions to generate thoughtful dialogue through art while honoring the unique biodiversity of Los Angeles. The 2023 edition features nine interdisciplinary projects which examine the climate crisis - with a focus on water and drought – with a hope to inspire solutions.

“DIVERSEartLA provides visitors with a rare opportunity to reflect on the looming impact mankind could face through thought-provoking immersive experiences, which combine science, technology and art,” says DIVERSEartLA’s curator Marisa Caichiolo. 

DIVERSEartLA will present the inaugural Museum Acquisition Award for an Emerging Artist created by Spain’s La Neomudejar Museum with the support of LA Art Show. On February 19, the award will be given out to a local artist who will have the opportunity to be part of the Museum’s permanent collection.

DIVERSEartLA’s nine participating institutions and artists are:

• Cooling Resources is as a collaborative planning effort to address the reality that Downtown Los Angeles is an urban heat island and Skid Row residents are particularly vulnerable. For LA Art Show, they will provide a site-specific area with real grass for community engagement supported by Homeless Health Care Los Angeles (HHCLA), which allows visitors to explore the importance  of water, cooling resources and potential solutions. 
  
  
• The Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach presents “When God Was A Woman, 1980-2021” – a double-sided mural made up of three panels - by artist and ecofeminist, Judy Baca. In contemplation of Merlin Stone's “When God Was A Woman,” Baca developed a workshop process to source ideas and construct imagery and content. On one side, the thirteen women who participated in the workshop are incorporated into a painting, representing Latina, Chicana women and all women. Their naked bodies are shown standing in the fiery lava of the volcano synonymous with life while the other side of the triptych depicts a goddess possessing vital energy, Mother Earth.

• Korean artist HanHo’s “Eternal Light,” is a massive nine-part multimedia work presented by ReflectSpace Gallery at the City of Glendale Library. The work, inspired by Michelangelo's “The Last Judgment,” uses traditional art, technology and performance to re-imagine an apocalyptic scenario for the 21st century.

• Curated by Fabian Goncalvez, the Washington D.C.-based Art Museum of the Americas (AMA) presents “The Pulse of Silence,” a video and sound installation featuring Alfredo de Stefano, one of Mexico’s most prominent contemporary photographers. De Stefano’s expansive photographs of deserts on five continents will be incorporated into the immersive experience, unifying the vastness and silence present across these lands while addressing the natural environment’s elemental significance.

• The Italian Cultural Institute (Los Angeles) will present “The Planetary Garden,” a collaboration between Italian artists Pietro Ruffo and Elia Pellegrini along with creative production studio Noruwei. Inspired by the French philosopher Gilles Clement, the video installation is an allegory of the planet as a garden.

• Raubtier& Unicus Productions (Los Angeles) presents “Reactive Elements” from artist  Alejandro Ordoñez and curator Marisa Caichiolo, an art installation dealing with the fragility of our natural resources and the chain-like reactions caused by human activities. Divided into four sets to represent the different elements - air, water, earth and fire – and, using a suspended piece of fabric (voile), projected images unveil an ugly reality and the opportunity to come face-to-face with individual and the cumulative impact of anthropogenic activities on our environment.

• Wurzeln und Flügel (Germany), supported by the German Consulate in Los Angeles, presents Petra Eiko’s installation “Sense of Space,” which immerses the viewer in a sensorial experience of six 3D sculptures and a video installation. Eiko’s work fosters a conversation surrounding the significance of water and its impact on the future of our planet.

• La Neomudejar Museum (Madrid, Spain) presents Carmen Isasi’s “The Uninhabited,” a work begun in 2019 that reflects the immigration crisis. With new, tougher policies in place, Isasi focuses on European immigrants who have often lost hope and face dangerous journeys at sea. Isasi’s project features clothes worn by immigrants, symbolizing struggles that are a testament to their personal stories.

• OPC Office of Cultural Projects (nonprofit, Mexico) presents “Rendezvous: This Land is My Land” by artist Davis Birks and curated by Laura Ayala. Through a video installation, Birks activates a conversation to review the past, the present and the future. A reflection on the environment and our impact on it, we observe how an organic arrangement (that of a river) is replaced by one of geometric and artificial order.

 For more information or tickets, visit www.laartshow.com