The 45 Show at Twenty Miles East: Forty-Five Artists, Forty-Seven Pieces, One Great Show

Pomona, CA, April 27, 2011 --(PR.com)-- The artist range in age from sixteen to 67, and the art is as diverse as the generations represented. Artists were given the vinyl (a 45 record or an album) as the starting point and given the directive to create. The result: a cornucopia of watercolor, acrylic, sculpture… a visual buffet representing the talent of over forty Southern California artists.

April 9, Pomona’s Second Saturday Artwalk received The 45 Show with an opening reception at Twenty Miles East Gallery. “The show was much anticipated and the opening reception was very well attended. We barely had room to maneuver through the crowd to refresh the wine table,” Mia Lee, gallery owner said of the opening night festivities. “I knew with the energy, effort, and professionalism the curators were putting in, this show was going to be something Pomona would be talking about for years to come.”

The show, which occupies every available wall of the 1,000 square foot gallery, will run until Saturday, April 30 when it ends with a closing reception during the Last Saturday Art Walk downtown Pomona. The closing reception will begin at 5:00 pm and end at 10:00 giving art collectors and the general public the opportunity to revisit the piece that caught their eye on opening night, make purchases, and meet the artists.

Keith Mikell’s “The Tales of Bat Funkadelic,” is a 30”x30” Mixed Media on Canvas depicting the fight against racism in the music industry. “The premise behind this piece evolved from a poster from 1960’s New Orleans that read ‘Stop! Help Save The Youth Of America, Don't Buy Negro Records.’” Mikell says of his piece. “The language and phrasing of this rhetoric brought to mind several musical images. However the one that stuck with me was Funkadelic’s ‘Maggot Brain’ album cover… Since the post was from the 1960’s I used the image of the 1960’s TV version of Batman with the campy/corny language only done in a comic book style of composition. It’s a serious subject yet I wanted to present it in a whimsical way hopefully without leading the viewer away from the message.”

“Martin, Malcolm and Me” a 45” x 35” x 9” mixed media sculpted piece is comprised of vinyl records, wood, cowrie shells, raffia, mirrors, Sankofa heart with knotless netting, bells, bottles of oil/rice/sand from West Africa, aluminum masks, prints, leather altered book, sage, wish bone, copper wire, gourds, mud cloth, stones, sea shells, kalimba, crab shell, woven basket shaker, and seaweed rope. The artist, Angela Briggs, uses her art to pay tribute to her African Ancestors and their close spiritual relationship to the earth. Of her work, Briggs says, “Every piece has a voice; they assume an ethereal stance and appear to dance and say to the rhythm of the distant drumbeat from the Motherland.”

Other pieces include “Tracks” a 20” x 20” framed digital print by Benita Elliot; “For the Record… Visual Prelude to a Lifestance Manifesto” a book by Adrienne DeVine, Joseph Nolan submitted an untitled piece for the show, and Emelda Gutierrez’s presents a multi medium work entitled “Swing Romance.”

Rasta Asaru Escott El’s “Wing of Love” combines the use of a body cast and dozens of vinyl album pieces cut to create the feathers of the wing. The vibrant colors of the album labels resemble a colorful plumage growing out of the angel’s back.

“Vinyl on My Mind,” a mixed media creation of artist Charles Dickson occupies the west wall of Twenty Miles East Gallery. “I couldn’t walk by this piece,” gallery visitor Monette Miles said of Dickson’s work. “It pulled me in and required conversation of me.”

Participating artists include: Abel Alejandre, Adrienne DeVine, Andrea Mander, Angela Briggs, Benita Elliott, Caprice Myles, Carole J. McCoy, Charles Dickson, Chris Herod, Clement Hanami, Cola Smith, Damon Boyd, Demar Douglas, Devino Tricoché, Donald Bernard, Donna Mekeda Bradley, Emelda Gutierre,; Enilde Van Hook, Luke Van Hook, Father Bill Moore, Girlz Ethel Powers, Heriberto Luna, John McDaniel, Joshua Swodeck, June Edmonds, Keith Mikell, Kenneth Carnes, Leslie Bee, Lisa Diane Wedgeworth, Lisa Marin, Mira Gandy, Moses Ball, Nick Hill, Queen Fly-Stone, Rasta Asaru Escott El, Ric Rodriguez, Richard May, Robert Rodriguez, Sam Pace, Sharon Barnes, Summer Lokz, Sybil McMiller, and Wanda R. Knight.

"There are 67 (my age) records, 24 (my mother’s birth year) listed labels, 200 screws, Sankofa heart (learn, never forget our past), knotless netting (ocean), Cowrie shells (success, fertility), raffia (absorb he wounds of the world), mirrors (protection), bells (awaken the spirits), masks (ancestors), leather book (knowledge), sage (purification), woven basket shaker (connection with my Native American sister) and kalimba – the walls of the womb are lined with musical notes, singing in many voices to the universe,” --- Angela Briggs, of her piece “Martin, Malcolm and Me.”

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