Opening Reception:

Friday, October 6,  6-10pm 

Performances 8-9pm

 

 

2656 in Altadena California will be participating in the 3rd Terrain Biennial with JJU Collective which includes artists: Michelle Garduño, Woody O'toole, Molly Tierney and other members, curated by Nina R Salerno. 

 

Terrain challenges artists to explore the space between the public and the private.

 

We believe that there is no more public space and that for decades all public art has been inappropriate and lame. The only images or text allowed in public are logos, corporate names, or images that advertise commercial exchange, and attempt to create desire.

 

Object exchange in public space has replaced all human relations including Art.

 

Although we have retreated to our front yard, our intention through our work is to take back the little space we have.

 

Using painting, sculpture and process, and concentrating on emotionally charged materials, the collective intends to occupy it’s space authentically with a massive hedonistic feast of the senses and reestablish our human relations.

 

 

Artist Bios

 

Collective Name: JJU

Artists began living at 2656 in 1999. Slowly but surely a rather unique community began to form quite distinct from the values and mores of the dominant culture. They began to question art as a “career”, and the value of art as dependent upon “price" and the economic definition of "success". They naturally started to question  definitions of the "self" and various current myths of the individual. They rejected the culturally imposed definition of themselves based on infantilism, conformity, passivity, amnesia; as well as, industrially manufactured desires and corporate delusions. They are interested in whether or not public space even exists anymore. They see themselves as an alternative to the Spectacle that currently dominates life.

 

Since their art and activities' meaning is dependent on community they are generous in investing in the interdisciplinary cross-pollination of that community. 

 

In 2009 people started to claim in their bios that they attended JJ University and the name JJU was born.  Membership is non-hierarchical, non-ideological, non-anodyne, humorous, and non-subservient. Whenever someone has a project (or any need) membership is based on whoever shows up.

 

Artist: Michelle Garduño 

Michelle Garduno is a Los Angeles Native. Years active 2010 to now and a current student at JJ University, majoring in plastic surgery, specializing in skinning of eyelids of the general public. I blame John and I blame the children for my art practice. 

 

Artist: Woody O'toole

Woody was abandoned by his mother shortly after birth. He dropped out of art school at the end of the first month. He understands that the Spectacle is not only dominant but total and totalitarian. He has spent his life resisting the colonization of his consciousness . His heart strings no longer get tugged. Cloying sentimentality and nostalgia are tools of power. He is immune to things that are shiny. Desire and gratification can be delayed which has resulted in his being considered extremely kinky.

 

Artist: Molly Tierney

Molly Tierney grew up in a small town in Minnesota, and has called Los Angeles her home for over ten years. Tierney studied photography and art history in Pasadena and currently works as a professional photographer.  

Tierney’s work deals with current social and political events drawn from her own life experiences.  Her work is made from mostly found and recycled materials.  Her work is an amalgamation of built up layers of debris and materials such as old house paint, common building materials, plaster, cement, and asphalt.  

 

 

Curator Bio
Nina R Salerno

 

Born in New York, New York, Los Angeles-based artist Nina Salerno is known for her psychologically charged videos and photographic works. 

Salerno explores themes of language, the body, and addresses social and psychological issues, juxtaposing language and image with humor to illustrate contemporary identity.

Her recent project PERFECT REJECT® explores the issues around revitalization and questions the relationship between art and play. The process is intended to blur these boundaries and question how they are defined from the aesthetic position.

Her work has been featured internationally in exhibitions at venues including The J. Getty Museum, California; LACE, California; Long Beach Museum, California; The New Museum, New York; and the Biennale de Paris, France.  She holds a B.F.A and M.F.A from California Institute of the Arts.