Is This the New Age
Two artists create visionary images using age-old means, with an eye to the future.
Stewart Francis Easton
and
Ako Castuera
March 12 - April 9, 2021
Stewart Francis Easton’s work fuses together hand embroidery, sonic art and music. His aim is to break the traditional boundaries between craft and art.
Beginning with folk song, story and social history, Easton allows the weight of story to be emphasized by the time taken in the laborious embroidery process. In creating his large scale wall based pieces Stewart shows his connection with the story and models a slowing down and immersion in the moment.
His rough hewn paintings extend this expansion of awareness as mysterious events happen in wilderness environments.
Stewart Francis Easton lives and works in London, UK.
Easton has had a number of solo/ group shows both in the UK and USA. He is collected internationally.
Ako Castuera’s sculptural work is informed by the diverse cultural and environmental features of Southern California, on Tongva Land, where she was born and currently lives. The shapes and surfaces in her work recall plants, animals, and the broad miscellany of a world in which human life is neither separate nor hierarchically ordered in opposition to nature. Ako’s sculptural work is a material exploration which draws on mythmaking to give body to personal and global histories, incorporating a variety of mediums including locally gathered and commercial clay, neighborhood yard trimmings, compost, yarn, and living worms.
Ako’s practice includes teaching workshops on storytelling, local clay and compost. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in the US. She maintains a concurrent career in animation, most recently as an episode director on City of Ghosts, an animated show exploring historic communities of Los Angeles in the midst of rapid change, and is also known for her work as a writer/storyboard artist on the television show Adventure Time.
