Open by appointment only. Closing reception TBD.
Studio 203 is thrilled to present Politico residents, our first artist-in-residence program beginning Saturday, March 2, 2024. Framed as a continuously evolving two-person exhibition, Politico residents features Los Angeles-based artists, Hector O. Hernandez and Aneesa Shami Zizzo. Both Hernandez and Zizzo will expand on previously established projects in relation to the upcoming U.S. presidential election.
Revisiting work from his solo exhibition, My America Is Not Your America, at Studio 203 in 2021, Hernandez will continue exploring social and political themes through drawing, printmaking and sculptural assemblage. Hernandez plans to extend his sardonic commentary on the U.S. justice system and white supremacy to include new work grappling with religion and the U.S. constitution’s first amendment. Zizzo is launching The Scheherazade Project, her first art-as-research project incorporating various documentation practices in an effort to rewrite colonial perspectives in media. She will build on her series of abstract collages using 20th century National Geographic magazines, implementing in-progress photography, time lapse videos and written notes to capture her creative process while reclaiming orientalism.
Using the gallery as a studio offers a performative element to each artist’s project, revealing the usually hidden play and exploration within a private studio practice. Developing work alongside one another as (future) current events unfold, the artists will remain in dialogue while presenting two unique narratives on how to approach activism in artmaking.
About Hector O. Hernandez
Born and raised in South LA by my two Mexican-born parents. Hernandez grew up gravitating towards art from an early age, admiring and copying my older brother, and being interested in all kinds of visual imagery – especially video games, comics, and animation. His recent work has focused on the social and political issues in America, mixing humor and satire to critique current events. Hernandez has a BA in Art Practice from the University of California, Berkeley (2009) and an MFA in Drawing & Printmaking from Washington State University, Pullman (2011). Hernandez has exhibited work nationally in galleries along with print exchanges, including Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles, CA; Piedmont Center for the Arts in Piedmont, CA; and Midland College in Midland, TX. He is currently a printmaking teaching artist with the non-profit Heart of Los Angeles in Watts, CA, while playing and having fun making art.
www.hectoromarhernandez.com
@hector.o.h
About Aneesa Shami Zizzo
Aneesa Shami Zizzo (she/her) is an artist and arts-based researcher in Los Angeles using upcycled materials to create fiber art. Her work references the sublime and world mythologies to evoke a sense of the collective unconscious within her imagery. Zizzo holds Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in both Fiber and Art History from the Kansas City Art Institute. She was recently awarded an artist residency at the Arab American National Museum for May 2024, and was a Fellow for the Mildred’s Lane Attention Labs: Order of the Third Bird in 2015. Zizzo’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries and museums, including the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum in Long Beach, CA, the Craft in America Center in Los Angeles, CA, the Barbican Centre in London, UK, the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, NY, among others. She is also the co-owner and director of Studio 203, an artist-run space in Los Angeles promoting fiber art, craft-based work and social practices.
www.aneesashami.com
@aneesashami
Photography: (above) Hector O. Hernandez, detail of Untitled Sculpture (Piñata and Bat), 2021, photo credit Cecily Brown; (below) Aneesa Shami Zizzo, detail of Dwelling, 2020, photo credit Stacey Meineke.