OUR 2023 GRANTEES
CLOCKSHOP
About CLOCKSHOP
Founded in 2004, Clockshop is Los Angeles-based nonprofit working with artists to deepen the connection between communities and public land, fostering a shared vision of a future rooted in belonging and care. The organization produces free public programming and commissions contemporary artist projects on public land to connect Angelenos with the land on which they live. Clockshop approaches the climate crisis as a cultural problem that requires equitable cultural solutions. Their initiatives foster a culture of climate justice and operate at the intersection of art, education, and advocacy.
Artist Christopher Suarez in his studio. Photo by Fabian Rubio. Courtesy of the artist.
ABOUT THE PROJECt
AAF’s grant is helping to fund “Por El Río (For the River)”, a commission by artist Christopher Suarez at LA State Historic Park. The installation will include a series of sculptures and intergenerational programs that interrogate the geographic histories of transit and migration, and the traces they leave behind. Often working in clay miniatures, Suarez will instead use this commission to design a site for gathering at a larger and more interpersonal scale. The work will employ rammed earth, a historic construction method of compressing aggregate natural materials. Featuring benches, tables, wayfinding map signage, and platforms, the installation will serve as both a programmatic stage and a space for rest and contemplation.
“Por El Río” will mark Suarez’s first public art project. The artist hails from Long Beach, an underrepresented city of working class and immigrant communities, and he believes that memorializing public spaces and architecture is essential amid rapid gentrification and displacement. By working with Clockshop for “Por El Río”, Suarez will be challenged to expand his clay-based practice to probe new methods of construction, forms, and making to a human scale — one rooted in a deeply collaborative ethic, and located in community as part of a well-used urban park space.
INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART, LOS ANGELES
About ICA LA
ICA LA is an epicenter of artistic experimentation and incubator of new ideas. Founded in 1988 as the Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMoA) and reestablished in 2017 with a new identity and home in Downtown Los Angeles, ICA LA builds upon a distinguished history of bold curatorial vision and innovative programming to illuminate the important untold stories and emerging voices in contemporary art and culture, with an abiding focus on artistic production in Los Angeles. The museum’s commitment to social justice is woven directly into the their mission of supporting art that sparks the pleasure of discovery and challenges the way we see the world, ourselves, and each other. ICA LA strives to be a leader in reimagining how museums can serve diverse communities and is committed to practices that embody core values of community building, artist’s perspectives, criticality, and inclusivity.
Wangechi Mutu, Histology of the Different Classes of Uterine Tumors, 2004–5. Mixed media drawing (glitter, ink, fur, collage and other materials on found medical illustration paper), in twelve parts, 23 1/4 x 17 1/8 x 1 ¾ in. each. Image courtesy Sotheby’s.
ABOUT THE PROJECt
In the Fall of 2024, ICA LA will present “Scientia Sexualis,” an ambitious group exhibition realized as part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide. The project is a research-driven exhibition exploring the raced and gendered assumptions that structure scientific disciplines governing our sense of the sexual body. The artists in the exhibition bring attention to the material, conceptual, and psychic forms of the lab and clinic as aesthetics that operate across scientific and artistic discourses. Together, the exhibition, accompanying catalogue, and related programs will examine and reconfigure the relationship between art and science, and create an alternative access point to the history of science where sex, gender, and pleasure are concerned. During a time of increased discrimination and legislation that limits the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, the exhibition is especially timely, exploring challenging issues with nuance and depth. “Scientia Sexualis” will feature about 40 commissions and existing works by a diverse group of 30 emerging and established contemporary artists, including several based in L.A. The artists are bound by a commitment to exploring the fraught histories of sex and gender, while reclaiming and redeploying scientific discourses to produce speculative technologies of transformation, map embodied forms of knowledge, and radicalize practices of healing and care.
OUR 2022 GRANTEES
LOS ANGELES NOMADIC DIVISION (LAND)
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LOS ANGELES CONTEMPORARY EXHIBITIONS (LACE)
About LAND
LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) is a non-profit organization founded in 2009 committed to curating site-specific public art exhibitions in Los Angeles and beyond. LAND believes that all people deserve the opportunity to experience innovative contemporary art in their everyday existence, to enhance their quality of life and ways of thinking about their community. In turn, artists deserve the opportunity to realize projects in the public realm, unsupported through traditional institutions. LAND brings contemporary art outside of the walls of museums and galleries, into our shared public spaces and unique sites.
ABOUT LACE
Founded in 1978 by a core group of committed artists, LACE is an internationally recognized pioneer among art institutions. LACE is a nonprofit venue that exhibits and advocates for innovations in art-making and public engagement. Uniquely positioned among commercial galleries and major art establishments at the heart of Hollywood as a free, open to the public experimental space, LACE has nurtured not only several generations of young artists, but also emerging art forms such as performance art, video art, digital art, and installations. LACE presents significant and timely exhibitions, performances, and public projects, which are complemented by education initiatives.
Matthew Fontaine Maury monument (1929) by artist Frederick William Sievers with graffiti (2020) from Richmond, VA . Photo credit: John McDonnell/Washington Post
LAXART
ABOUT LAXART
LAXART is a nonprofit visual art space that promotes developments in contemporary culture through exhibitions, publications, and public programs. We believe that contemporary art is a means of understanding key issues of our time with all their inherent contradictions. Contemporary art assumes many forms. Rather than provide answers, it raises questions. Through a range of offerings, LAXART contextualizes contemporary art both socially and art historically. Our programs are free and designed to be accessible to the general public.
PROJECT X FOUNDATION FOR ART AND CRITICISM
ABOUT PROJECT X FOUNDATION FOR ART AND CRITICISM
X-TRA is a contemporary art journal published quarterly in Los Angeles since 1997. Edited by a collective of artists and writers, X-TRA publishes expansive features, historical essays, commissioned artists’ projects, interviews, columns, and substantive reviews. X-TRA is offered in print and digital-reader format, and the complete archive is available online as a resource on this website.
X-TRA’s mission is to sustain a vibrant critical discourse about contemporary art and foster inclusive networks and expansive thinking. X-TRA’s journal, website, and public events create forums for the diverse voices of artists and writers.
X-TRA cultivates a deep understanding of contemporary art, explores a wide range of ideas and artists’ work, and strives to do so with generosity and integrity.
Kang Seung Lee Installation
ARTADIA
The ANGELES ART FUND / ARTADIA AwarD
Our grantees created The Angeles Art Fund / Artadia award that donates to a social justice oriented artist/project. Angeles Art Fund members are also invited to participate in Artadia events throughout the country. Learn more about our 2022 recipient, Kang Seung Lee at the link below.
ABOUT ARTADIA
Artadia is a non-profit grantmaker and nationwide community of visual artists, curators, and patrons. We elevate the careers of artists at pivotal moments in their practice and help strengthen their communities through a proven combination of recognition, grantmaking, community support, and advocacy. Since its founding in 1999, Artadia has awarded over $6 million in unrestricted funds to 392 artists in 8 cities.
OUR 2021 GRANTEES
Unrestricted COVID relief grants to our core group of non-profits:
Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND)
Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue
OUR 2020 GRANTEES
ARTADIA
The AAf Award and Membership
Our grantees created The Angeles Art Fund Artadia award that donates to a social justice oriented artist/project. Angeles Art Fund members are also invited to participate in Artadia events throughout the country. Learn more about our 2020 recipient, Paul Sepuya, at the link below.
About ARTADIA
Artadia is a national non-profit organization that identifies innovative visual artists and supports them with unrestricted financial awards and connections to a network of opportunities. Since 1999, Artadia has awarded over $5 million in unrestricted funds to over 333 artists in 7 cities.
The organization funds artists living and working in seven unique urban communities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. In its six active Award cities, Artadia annually awards unrestricted grants directly to artists through a curator-driven process.
LOS ANGELES NOMADIC DIVISION (LAND)
This Fall, in partnership with the Hammer Museum as part of Made in LA 2020: a version, LAND presented the most ambitious installation to date of Kahlil Joseph’s BLKNWS, a conceptual news program taking the form of a two-channel installation connected to a newscast that blurs the lines between art, reporting, entrepreneurship, and cultural critique.
ABOUT LAND
LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) is a non-profit organization founded in 2009 committed to curating site-specific public art exhibitions in Los Angeles and beyond. LAND believes that all people deserve the opportunity to experience innovative contemporary art in their everyday existence, to enhance their quality of life and ways of thinking about their community. In turn, artists deserve the opportunity to realize projects in the public realm, unsupported through traditional institutions. LAND brings contemporary art outside of the walls of museums and galleries, into our shared public spaces and unique sites. In 2020, LAND received unrestricted funding for their programming. Learn more about their space below.
THE MISTAKE ROOM
About the mistake room
Established in 2014, TMR operates from a renovated industrial warehouse along the Alameda Corridor at the southernmost edge of Downtown LA’s Arts District. The use of our physical venue changes according to each curatorial cycle. Its purpose however, remains constant—to be a dynamic nexus through which Los Angeles connects to people, places, and histories well beyond its confines.
In 2020, TMR received unrestricted funding for their programming. Learn more about the exhibition space at the link below.
ICA/LA
About ICA/LA
ICA LA’s mission is to support art that sparks the pleasure of discovery and challenges the way we see and experience the world, ourselves, and each other. ICA LA is committed to upending hierarchies of race, class, gender, and culture. Through exhibitions, education programs, and community partnerships, ICA LA fosters critique of the familiar and empathy with the different.
In 2020, ICA/LA received unrestricted funding. View their September 2020 exhibition Stanya Kahn: No Go Backs and learn more about ICA LA at the link below.
OUR 2019 GRANTEES
FOR FREEDOMS
THE FOR FREEDOMS 2020 CONgress
In 2019, Angeles Art Fund pooled our funds to partially sponsor For Freedoms’ first Congress initiative. The multi-day event took place from February 28 - March 1st. Artists led For Freedoms’ “delegates” from around the country in building a collective artists’ platform for public action in order to supercharge civic engagement in their communities leading up to 2020 Presidential Election.
About for freedoms
Founded in 2016 by artists Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman, For Freedoms is a platform for creative civic engagement, discourse, and direct action. Inspired by American artist Norman Rockwell’s paintings of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms (1941)—freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear—For Freedoms’ exhibitions, installations, and public programs use art to deepen public discussions on civic issues and core values, and to advocate for equality, dialogue, and civic participation. As a nexus between art, politics, commerce, and education, For Freedoms aims to inject anti-partisan, critical thinking that fine art requires into the political landscape through programming, exhibitions, and public artworks. In 2018, For Freedoms launched the 50 State Initiative: the largest creative collaboration in U.S. history.
THE UNDERGROUND MUSEUM
About the Underground Museum
The Underground Museum is a cultural hub and alternative art space in the predominantly black-and-Latino neighborhood of Arlington Heights, in Central Los Angeles. Co-founded in 2012 by the painter Noah Davis, a rising L.A. art star, and his wife, Karon, a sculptor, the Underground Museum began as a row of storefront spaces that doubled as the couple’s studio and home. Davis wanted to bring museum-quality art to a community that had no access to it “within walking distance,” as he once put it.
Davis forged a unique partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), which had agreed to loan the Underground Museum works from its permanent collection for a series of shows that Davis would curate.
The Underground Museum received unrestricted funding in 2019 for their programming. Learn more about their initiative at the link below.
ARTADIA
The AAf Award and Membership
Using Angeles Art Fund’s 2019 donation, our grantees have created an AAF award that donates to a social justice oriented artist/project. Angeles Art Fund members are also invited to participate in Artadia events throughout the country. Suné Woods was the 2019 recipient and you can read more about her practice at the link below.
OUR 2018 GRANTEE
THE UNDERGROUND MUSEUM
The Roy DeCarava Exhibit - funded by aaf
The exhibition Roy DeCarava Exhibition was on view March 30, 2019 through June 30, 2019. For more information on the Roy' DeCarava’s work and upcoming exhibitions, visit The Underground Museum’s website. At the end of the year, our donors meet to vote on grant applications and host a celebratory event announcing our grantees. The Underground Museum was the recipient of our 2018 grant, which made their first exhibition of 2019 possible.
PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS
2017: LOS ANGELES CONTEMPORARY EXHIBITIONS
LACE’s Summer Residency - 2018
LACE’s 2018 Summer Residency featured CAVERNOUS by artist Young Joon Kwak and Mutant Salon, a collective of queer-trans-femme-POC artists and performers and a platform for community collaborations. CAVERNOUS is a kaleidoscopic environment that queers the last bastion of manhood in the domestic space—the man cave. CAVERNOUS fractures the patriarchal myth of male privilege, and provides an access point for an ongoing critical deconstruction of how we view our bodies, and reimagines alternative forms of existence and desire. Angeles Art Fund’s donation helped fund the program and exhibition.
2017: LOS ANGELES NOMADIC DIVISION
ABOUT LAND
LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) is a non-profit organization founded in 2009 committed to curating site-specific public art exhibitions in Los Angeles and beyond. LAND believes that all people deserve the opportunity to experience innovative contemporary art in their everyday existence, to enhance their quality of life and ways of thinking about their community. In turn, artists deserve the opportunity to realize projects in the public realm, unsupported through traditional institutions. LAND brings contemporary art outside of the walls of museums and galleries, into our shared public spaces and unique sites
JOSE DÁVILA’s SENSE OF PLACE
LAND commissioned Guadalajara-based artist Jose Dávila to create Sense of Place, a multi-site, large-scale, public sculpture exhibition migrating through, and integrating into, the diverse urban landscape of Los Angeles to draw a portrait of the city’s many experiences, geographies and histories. Sense of Place was derived from Davila’s Joint Effort sculpture series which expands the concepts of balance and equilibrium using basic construction materials such as concrete blocks and stones. AAF funded a commemorative catalogue of the body of work and supported the traveling exhibition.