The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) has announced the recipients of the 2022/23 City of Los Angeles Individual Master Artist Project (COLA IMAP).
These ten master artists will each produce a series, set, or singular new artwork with a grant of $10,000 from the city. The original works will be premiered and promoted by the DCA in the spring of 2023 as part of the 26th edition of this annual initiative.
“The COLA IMAP grants serve as catalysts for the development of new artworks by a selection of the city’s master artists and allow L.A.’s residents and visitors to celebrate their creative talent,” said Daniel Tarica, interim general manager of the DCA. “This program represents an important recognition of these artists’ outstanding ability and experience with engaging others through their works.”
The 2022/23 COLA IMAP recipients are:
Performing and Literary Artists: Daniel Corral, Alia Mohamed, Jasmine Orpilla, David Ulin
Design and Visual Artists: Patricia Fernández, Wakana Kimura, Michael Massenburg, Duane Paul, Elyse Pignolet, Kyungmi Shin
Each of these COLA IMAP recipients demonstrates an exemplary career trajectory of more than 15 years of professional public presentations in the L.A. region. In addition, their ongoing creative endeavors and contributions to the community have earned these artists the highest respect from their peers.
COLA-IMAP provides independent artists the opportunity to create new works to be premiered by the city in one or more group presentations (catalog, exhibition, or performance showcase). This is one of the many grant-categories offered annually by DCA, all of which honor the synergetic relationship between Los Angeles and its creative entrepreneurs, the spectrum of our collective cultural history, and the city’s status as a global center of creative talent.
Daniel Corral is a Filipino American born composer/performer born and raised in Eagle River, Alaska. He came to Los Angeles in 2005 as a percussionist/composer. In Los Angeles, his unique voice finds outlet in accordion orchestras, multimedia microtonal electronics, puppet operas, handmade music boxes, site-specific sound installations, chamber music, and various collaborations. Info: https://danielcorral.com/
Jasmine Orpilla is a multiplicitous Ilokana/x-American vocal performance artist and operatic composer of experimental theatrical sound installations, in which she activates her lifelong practices of folk ritual dance, combat systems, and music of the Philippine diaspora against the contemporary American framing of the first-generation, imperialist, military culture of her own childhood. Unlimited by “soprano” nor so-called classical beauty, her unfiltered voice-in-motion exorcizes eurocentric performance structures from her muscle memory, while remaining accountable to the oral legacies and languages of the Indigenous Pilipino musical systems she, her family, and community remains indebted to. Info: https://jasmineorpilla.com/
Wakana Kimura (Wakana Komatsu) was born in Shizuoka. She received a BFA degree from the Tokyo University of the Arts in oil painting and an MFA degree from the Otis College of Arts and Design in California. Kimura was commissioned to paint the City of Inglewood for the L.A. Metro project “Through the Eyes of Artists.” She also has been a cultural envoy and had served as the cultural arts manager and curator at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center.
Kimura, one of the 12 official City of Los Angeles muralists. has exhibited her work at the Union Station Los Angeles, Pomona College Museum of Art, Baldwin Wallace Museum, Koyasan Beikoku Betsuin, Wilshire Blvd. Temple, Japan Foundation Los Angeles, JACCC, Brand Library Art Center, LA Artcore, Angeles Gate Culture Center, and Maui Art Center. She has been commissioned to produce a Nehanzu painting for Zenshuji Temple in the Arts District and a Robertson Recreation Center mural by the City of Los Angeles. Info: https://www.wakanakimura.com/home
Elyse Pignolet is an American with Filipino heritage based in Los Angeles, born in Oakland. She works primarily in ceramics, inspired by numerous social issues and urban themes. Her works attempt to relate the traditions of ceramics and the permanence of the medium to the fleeting and transitory nature of the contemporary world. Her work is primarily in ceramics and her artwork has been inspired by, and dealt with, various themes including political and social issues, the dialectic between feminism and misogyny, inequality, and cultural stereotypes.
Pignolet’s work explores the boundaries between ceramics, painting, and sculpture, and she attempts to place the permanence and traditions of ceramics with the fleeting and transitory nature of the contemporary world. She has completed several public art projects including three large murals at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco and the Gaffey Street Public Swimming Pool in San Pedro. Info: https://www.elysepignolet.com/
Kyungmi Shin is a visual artist working with painting, sculpture, and photography. She received her MFA from UC Berkeley in 1995. Her current work utilizes archival family photographs as a base to build her artwork. Building on top of the photographs, she introduces painted images taken from Chinoiserie paintings, Korean shaman paintings, Christian iconography, and traditional Korean still life elements. These various painted elements are overlaid on top and intermix with each other to create complex, transparent, and opaque historical and personal narratives.
Her works have been exhibited at Berkeley Art Museum, Sonje Art Museum (Korea), Japanese American National Museum, and Torrance Art Museum. She has completed over 20 public artworks, and her most recent public video sculpture was installed at the Netflix headquarters in Hollywood in 2018. Info: https://www.kyungmishin.com/
As a leading, progressive arts and cultural agency, DCA empowers Los Angeles’ vibrant communities by supporting and providing access to quality visual, literary, musical, performing, and educational arts programming; managing vital cultural centers; preserving historic sites; creating public art; and funding services provided by arts organizations and individual artists.
Formed in 1925, DCA promotes arts and culture as a way to ignite a powerful dialogue, engage L.A.’s residents and visitors, and ensure L.A.’s varied cultures are recognized, acknowledged, and experienced. DCA’s mission is to strengthen the quality of life in Los Angeles by stimulating and supporting arts and cultural activities, ensuring public access to the arts for residents and visitors alike.
DCA advances the social and economic impact of arts and culture through grant-making; public art; community arts; performing arts; and strategic marketing, development, design, and digital research. DCA creates and supports arts programming, maximizing relationships with other city agencies, artists, and arts and cultural nonprofit organizations to provide excellent service in neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles.
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