Hammer exhibit helpsshape alumni’s careers

Few students would place “exhibit at a major
museum,” at the top of their post-collegiate to-do list, as
this lofty goal is rarely attainable during someone’s
lifetime. But four UCLA graduates are checking off this milestone
just a few years after graduation.

The UCLA Hammer Museum’s THING exhibit, an exploration
into the Los Angeles sculpture world, features the works of 20
local artists, including four alumni of the UCLA art department:
Renee Lotenero, Krysten Cunningham, Hannah Greely and Matt Johnson.
THING opens Feb. 6 and continues through June 5.

THING attempts to shake the stereotype of sculpture as an art
form of ancient times, with this hyper-contemporary exhibit of
emerging Los Angeles artists. Lotenero was discovered during her
thesis exhibit at UCLA last spring.

“It’s kind of ironic that the first studio visit I
ever had happened to be the museum. It’s really exciting for
me,” she said.

Lotenero’s sculpture blends three-dimensional
architectural structures made of handmade tiles with
two-dimensional photographs of the object, creating multiple images
throughout the piece.

Growing up in an artistic family, she began painting and drawing
before discovering her knack for sculpture, with its alluring yet
challenging introduction of the third dimension.

“Every time I made a painting I wanted to put stuff on it
to it make it three-dimensional,” she said. “I got rid
of the canvas I was painting on and started making
sculptures.”

Cunningham knew sculpture and UCLA were the right fit when she
left Virginia to study here. She believes interest in sculpture
still thrives today because of the art form’s element of
reality in today’s virtual world.

“I think of these pieces as doorways to a new reality.
They are all about space and time and outer space and how we
perceive those really big abstract ideas, and how we make sense of
those in a really basic way,” she said.

Cunningham’s contributions are objects composed of bent
metal pieces with yarn and rope wrapped around them, creating
abstract visions of color.

Greely also works with the abstract ““ she sculpts everyday
objects out of different materials and collides them in abnormal
ways.

“I’m more interested in imagery and materials that,
when put together, emit a psychological charge,” she wrote in
an e-mail. “I want the viewer to project their emotions and
psychology into the objects and have it thrown back in their face
by the object’s indifference.”

These three artists, along with Johnson, took their exposure at
UCLA and extrapolated it to become part of the Los Angeles art
community. Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of
participation in this exhibit is the opportunity for contributing
artists to share their art with fellow fresh L.A. sculptors.

“It’s something you don’t see so much among
young artists in places like New York where there isn’t as
much space for living and working,” said Greely.

Greely and Lotenero agree that space is a key advantage to the
Los Angeles art community.

Being a recent student selected to exhibit with the leaders of
that community is no small accomplishment.

“It is kind of like (Los Angeles) has the little
actor’s world and I didn’t really realize what a small
community it was until I went to a Lakers game and I was like,
“˜Oh, is this what the rest of society does?'”
said Lotenero. “Los Angeles is one of the leading art
societies in the world. It’s competitive being an artist
here, but it’s really exciting.”