Artists Wilcox and Katz-Yehia to Present Exhibit at haleARTS

Sandra Miska

While centuries-old paintings and sculptures from faraway places at the LACMA are always nice, sometimes one is in the mood for something more modern and local.  That’s when it’s time to head out to Santa Monica and check out haleARTS S P A C E, an art gallery that features local, emerging artists.  An exciting new show featuring artists Valerie Wilcox and Laurie Katz Yehia will run October 31 – November 12.

Valerie Wilcox is a multi-talented avant-garde artist who lives and works in Redondo Beach.  Her exhibit “Constructs,” presents, according to haleARTS S P A C E, “a re-imagined understanding of our constructed environment, perceptions of our own identity and how our brain works to piece together diverse constituents.”  Wilcox makes uses of a variety “humble materials” and “found items” to create one-of-a-kind sculptures.

“Wilcox’s work at once becomes referential, self-reflexive and whimsical, managing to transcend their base materiality, as her source materials are elevated and imbued with newness of form and function,” says haleARTS S P A C E.

Laurie Katz Yehia, an Illinois transplant, studied studio art and Stanford and currently resides in Santa Monica.  Like Wilcox, she re-purposes objects to create unique works.

Says Yehia, “I work in the tradition of painting as well as that of questioning and exploring what constitutes “art” today in context of current sensibilities, technologies, philosophies and consciousness. Objects, charged with energy and history, reflect narrative while serving as formal elements. An enduring focus of painters, light, and its effect on perception, as well as its innate, energetic, illusionistic and symbolic qualities is key to my work. My process cultivates tension between anti-formal and formal, free and deliberate, intuitive and analytical, expressive and conceptual, feminine and masculine.”

HaleARTS S P A C E is located in the uber-creative Edgemar Complex, which was created by noted architect Frank Gehry.  This accessible gallery hosts new artist receptions/openings twice a month where guests can meet and mingle with the artists themselves.  They also offer lectures and affordable art for sale.  Guests can visit Fridays 10-8, Saturdays and Sundays 10-6, or by appointment.

Art lovers can meet Wilcox and Yehia at the opening reception on October 31 from 5-8 pm.  This Halloween night event will not only feature cool art, but complimentary white wine and freshly popped popcorn as well.

For more information about Wilcox and Yehia, visit the gallery’s website.