Exhibit: Becca Van K and Andrew Cortes

When:
Fri, August 9 @ 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
2019-08-09T18:00:00-07:00
2019-08-09T21:00:00-07:00
Cost:
Free

Art Exhibit

We’ve Never Met Before Today

by artists Becca Van K and Andrew Cortes
August 9 through November 3, 2019


A new art exhibit in a vintage travel trailer turned into a permanent art gallery, at The Sou’wester Lodge

‘We’ve Never Met Before Today’ is an exhibition featuring sensory textiles and fiber landscapes by east coast artist Becca Van K and sculpture-like mosaic-based work by west coast artist Andrew Cortes. This show will also include collaborations in needlepoint and mosaics between these two artists who share similar themes and were brought together by residencies at the Sou’wester that spurred them to become creative partners in this exhibition.

“We’ve Never Met Before Today is the result of two Sou’wester artists-in-residence’s Instagram connection in the immediate aftermath of their respective times at the Lodge in the winter of 2018. Like ships in the night (Cortes one week, Van K the next), the artists never had the opportunity to meet in person, but serendipitously found each other on social media through Sou’wester posts. The two have formed a kinship and collaborative relationship through their mutual reverence for each other’s work. Until the show’s installation, they have never met in person, as Cortes is a resident of Los Angeles, CA, and Van K is from New York’s Hudson Valley. Shipping works from coast to coast, they work together to create elaborate studies in spiritual, meditative repetition and love for the natural world. Each piece contains mosaic mementos from Cortes’s travels and each Van K needlepoint is directly inspired by a landscape that she has visited. This exhibition is a combination of individual works and collaborations.”

OPENING RECEPTION on Friday August 9, 6pm-9pm.

OPEN: Fri/Sat/Sun 9am-9pm (and by request: visit the lodge front desk and we’ll open the gallery for you)

Art Gallery & Opening Reception free and open to the public.

Becca Van K (b. 1991, Chicago) is a mixed media artist based in New York’s Hudson Valley. Her work is highly sensory, with a strong focus on tactile comfort, the sounds of house & techno music, and vibrant colors & patterns which she explores through various handcraft and fiber art methods. Listening exclusively to dance music mixes when working puts her in a repetitious, meditative rhythm through which she transcribes her sensorial experiences. Her work has most recently been exhibited at Basilica Hudson’s 24-HOUR DRONE (Hudson, NY), Trestle Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Geoffrey Young Gallery (Great Barrington, MA), Hastings College (Hastings, NE), and Paradice Palase (Brooklyn, NY). Torn between city nightlife and the woods of the Catskill Mountains, she’d only leave New York if there were techno clubs in the desert.

Andrew Philip Cortes is a first generation Southern California Native, who in growing up split his time between the rural suburbs near rolling cow pasture hills where his parents settled and the city of Los Angeles. He attended University at California State Long Beach followed by a move to New York City where he lived and worked in Gowanus, Brooklyn for several years expanding his creative vision into woodwork, installation, and sound art. Upon his return to Los Angeles, he came full circle settling in the neighborhood of Cypress Park, where his family had immigrated to in the 60’s. His practice was re-imagined in his grandfathers old workshed and does not shy away from a deep often spiritual like connection to his past and its entanglement with the natural world. A marriage of painting, sculpture, mosaic, and textile materials, his reference points for his work grows from ongoing travels through the west coast of America, the deserts, mountains, and forests he explores collecting stones, driftwood, and taking photographs as he travels. He has developed a system in which he is even able to work on sculpture while on the road to directly be able to connect with his surroundings on site. Ultimately though, his traveling ideas materialize fully when they make their way back to his studio and abode where their energies find a new home to live. Andrew lives and works in Los Angeles, California with his two cats Mosh and Peatree. He spends his time surfing and rock climbing when he’s not in his studio always adhering to a strict code of pursuing the fleeting moment.

 

This trailer is a 1960’s Aloha made in Aloha, Oregon. It was rescued from a neglected RV park in the northern part of the Long Beach Peninsula. Now repaired and transformed into an art space, this art gallery is part of our Artist Residency Program and our non-profit organization, Sou’wester Arts.

 

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