CalArts
Vincent Troia • MFA @ California Institute of the Arts
Trashed Flowers, 2025
Paper acrylic paint, spray paint, wheat paste, canvas, 18 x 24 inches
$1,000
Bio: Vincent Troia (b. Detroit, MI – 1983), is an artist who creates paintings, collage and
sculptures using found images, found objects, wood, metal and paint. After growing up in the
Detroit suburbs and earning a BFA from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Vincent
relocated to Europe and Asia to continue his studies with art. When he moved back stateside,
he founded an apparel and graphic design company working with thousands of clients including
museums, professional sports teams and the music industry. Currently, Vincent is pursuing an
MFA in painting from CalArts.
Statement: Trashed Flowers plays on flowers as an often-used subject of beauty in still-life
painting, but here, I mix it with the art of collage, and decollage, in an almost un-flower-like way.
My work explores themes of post-industrial decay, advertising campaigns, and contemporary
cityscapes.
IG: vzzn_main
Website: vincenttroia.ne
Masha Sheinina • MFA @ California Institute of the Arts
I’m Just a Harpy, 2025
Ceramic, 12.5 x 13 x 3.5 inches
$850
Bio: Masha Sheinina (b. St. Petersburg, Russia), is an assertively feminist ceramic sculpture
artist currently living in LA. She is originally from Russia, and her work is heavily influenced by
Russian folk art and Greek Mythology, scenes of which are depicted in many of the sculptures
in St. Petersburg, where she was born. Masha’s academic background is in Neuroscience. She
taught middle school Biology for a decade, then decided to pursue art full-time as her studio
practice began to consume her life.
Statement: I’m Just a Harpy depicts Lilith as she flies from The Garden of Eden. Before God
created Eve, he created Lilith from the same mud that He used to create Adam. She was equal
to Adam, and much to Adam’s dismay, did not submit to him. Adam had a little tantrum, and
started crying to God, so God pacified him by creating Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. God then
turned Lilith into a Harpy by turning her body into that of a bird, leaving her human head and
perfect, bouncy breasts. This was totally fine by her, as she was able to fly from Eden and do
whatever she pleases. Lilith possesses the freedom to act on her desires, and doesn’t repress
her inner truth for the comfort of others.
IG: @kakashaceramics
Website: mashasheinina.com
Ti lee • MFA @ California Institute of the Arts
Black Tree, 2025
Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 12 inches
$850
Bio: Ti lee (Hartford, CT – 1998), is an interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles and Seoul.
Her work expresses how we perceive the world through our senses. Drawing inspiration from
images sourced from nature, Ti lee layers out immersive, often body –scale paintings that are
fragmented, inviting viewers to see the paintings in their own time. She has exhibited work at
the Good Mother Gallery and curated at Alt projects. Ti lee holds an undergraduate degree
from Hongik University and is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts at CalArts.
Statement: Black Tree shows the image of a reflection of a tree distorted by a window.
When the tree meets the window, the artificial object, it is flattened, stretched and compressed.
By juxtaposing the organic matter of the tree with the manmade structure of the window, I look
into the boundaries that divide the city and nature and how these boundaries are crossed.
How is nature reflected in the city and how do they coexist?
IG: @tilee.o
www.tilee.cargo.site
Isabella Robynn Yates• MFA @ California Institute of the Arts
Close-Up, 2024
Oil on canvas, 11 x 14 inches
$585
Bio: Isabella Robynn Yates (b. Woodland, WA – 2003), is an oil painter with a focus on
figurative realism. Growing up in a small town, she taught herself to draw and paint. She went
on to graduate with her BFA in Studio Art from Western Washington University in 2023. During
her time there, she studied abroad at the Moulin à Nef VCCA artist residency in Southern
France. Currently, she is an MFA candidate at the California Institute of the Arts.
Statement: Close Up is a study of an antique doll I thrifted when I first moved to California in
September of 2024. My interest in dolls started with my Nana’s antique collection. They terrified
me as a child, with something unsettling about their human-like qualities. However, as an adult,
I’m fascinated by how I see myself within them and how interesting they are as a subject matter
for my paintings. I started working with antique dolls in 2022 during my undergrad and up until I
started my MFA program at CalArts. Close Up is special to me because it symbolizes the start
of a new era for me and my art.
https://isabellarobynn.com
IG @Isabellarobynnart
Chinning Liu• MFA @ California Institute of the Arts
Engulfing the Left-Behind, 2025
Burlap, embossed paper, reminiscent objects, gypsum, polyurethane resin, 18 x 16.5 x 8 inches
$1500
Mouthed the Fleshless Lips of Air, 2025
Burlap, embossed paper, reminiscent objects, gypsum, polyurethane resin, 16 x 13 x 8 inches
$1250
Bio: Chinning Liu is an artist based in Los Angeles and Taiwan, her main practices are sculpture
and installation. Chinning received her Bachelor’s in Clinical Psychology at Fu Jen Catholic
University, and is currently an Art MFA candidate at California Institute of the Arts. She has
exhibited her works in the Torrance Art Museum, Santa Clarita City Art Exhibition, as well as
galleries in Los Angeles such as Reisig and Taylor Contemporary and Cevera Yoon. Liu has
also participated and showed in residency at Makotaay Eco Art Village (Hualien, Taiwan). Her
artworks were featured in Voyage LA Magazine and Bold Journey Magazine. With a
background in science, Chinning’s work and research are often based on the hybrid impression
of the human anatomy, biotic creatures, inorganic forms, and geographic scenes. Through
regenerating wrecked and organic forms, her work ambiguates the borderlines, evoking the
unconscious traces left behind by time.
Statement: My art focuses on the dynamic medium status between life and death. By collecting
and casting people’s reminiscent objects underneath the burlap, layering up gypsum, embossed
paper, and resin, I create the intimate and vulnerable sediments of individual memories and
collective history.
Engulfing the Left-Behind: is a piece of beautiful family memory– a portrait– as I cast the
cherished objects from a daughter, mother, and grandmother in one family, keeping a
fragmented and inherited moment of life.
Mouthed the Fleshless Lips of Air: This work is a fantasy of a young soul. I caste the objects
from an individual who misses their young and innocent period, the bygone era when they still
had the fantasy toward future romance.
IG: @chinningliu
Rebecca Poarch • MFA @ California Institute of the Arts
Nyx, 2024
Oil, ink, and watercolor on canvas, 14 x 30 inches
$1,200
Life/Death/Life, 2025
Ink, watercolor, and thread on sewn silk and canvas, 20 x 16 inches
$850
Bio: Rebecca Poarch (b. 1998 Long Island, NY), is an artist and painter based in Los Angeles,
CA. She received her BFA from Penn State University, where she was awarded the Margaret
Giffen Schoenfelder Memorial Scholarship. Her work has previously been exhibited at Kathryn
Markel Fine Arts in Bridgehampton, NY, Deanna Evans Projects in New York, NY and Gallery
Petite in Brooklyn, NY. In 2021, she was selected as an Artist-in-Residence at Duplex AIR in
Lisbon, Portugal. She served as Director at Halsey McKay Gallery in East Hampton, NY from
2022-2024, where she curated the exhibition “Metallurgy” in 2024. She is currently pursuing her
MFA at California Institute of the Arts.
Statement: My work is an exploration of the way in which perception and memory affect
color. Through multi-textured, atmospheric scenes made with watercolor and ink poured from
high viewpoints, and the avoidance of brushes, I opt instead for smudging and smearing with
hands. I believe all memories are stained with color. Painting, in retrieving lost color, is an
exercise in remembering – restoring the forgotten to redeem what is vital. A stain or pour is up to
chance, whereas a stitch is more deliberate – yet, gravity still dictates the downward direction of
a hanging thread. By integrating sewing and painting, my work highlights the friction between
artistic control and happenstance, between memory and artistic intention.
IG: @rebpoarch
www.rebpoarch.com
Catherine Wang • MFA @ California Institute of the Arts
Emergency, 2024
Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches
$750
Bio: Catherine Wang (b. 1998 Lakewood, CA), is a painter based in Los Angeles. As a child of
Chinese immigrants, they are deeply interested in the fantasies we create about our lived
environments and what makes a place home. Catherine has exhibited in several MFA group
shows including The MFAs of LA at Good Mother Gallery, the 2024 New Wight Biennial: Social
Sediment at UCLA, and GLAMFA at CSULB. They graduated from Stanford University in 2022
with a Bachelor of Arts and Science degree in Computer Science and Art Practice. Catherine is
currently in the second year of the MFA Art Program at CalArts.
Statement: Emergency reflects a burgeoning interest in found text. The composition and subject
matter pay homage to CalArts alum Ed Ruscha but instead of pushing the graphic, constructed
quality of text, the painting stays rooted in photorealism. The text comes from real skywriting
seen over Hollywood. In the context of LA’s fire history, the statement evokes both desire and
destruction. By placing this statement in the sky, the subject and object become ambiguous.
Who burns? For whom? Completed days before the Eaton and Palisades fires broke out, the
work now takes on an additional layer of poignance.
IG: @c_y_uu
www.catherinewangstudio.com
OTIS
Jessica Wilcox • MFA @ Otis College of Art and Design
Dusk, 2024
Oil on canvas, 24 x 18 inches
$430
Bio: Jessica Wilcox (b. Berkeley, CA – 1995), is an interdisciplinary artist living in Los Angeles,
CA. Wilcox will receive an MFA in Fine Arts from Otis College of Art and Design in the Spring of
- She holds a BA in Psychology from Occidental College located in Eagle Rock, Los
Angeles. She has exhibited work at Good Mother Gallery, Peggy Phelps Gallery, The Other Art
Fair, BGF Big Gay Fest, among others.
Statement: Dusk captures a fleeting moment of the Los Angeles commute, inviting pause and
celebration of life’s mundane moments.
Dena Novak: • MFA @ Otis College of Art and Design
Dopamine Shot, 2024
Oil on panel, 20 x 17 inches
$1000
Allusion, 2024
Oil on panel, 20 x 17 inches
$1000
Bio: Dena Novak (Chicago, IL.), is a painter, teacher, mother, and advocate for Autism and
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) awareness based in Los Angeles, CA. She studied painting at
the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before transferring to Colorado College to complete
her undergraduate studies in fine art. While working on her Master of Arts in Teaching with an
emphasis on Art Education at Tufts/Museum School, Novak experimented with ceramics
alongside her continued painting practice. In 2021, she presented a one-person exhibition of her
paintings that was accompanied by a panel discussion addressing her art and Ehlers-Danlos
Syndrome as part of the Keck School of Medicine’s HEAL Presents Art & Medicine program at
the University of Southern California. Novak was awarded the Inaugural Exhibition Program
Award by the Simone Gad Foundation, Los Angeles, CA for her exhibition ‘Fearlessly Weighted”
at bG Gallery in January 2023. Currently, Dena is pursuing an MFA at Otis College of Art and
Design and will have a solo at Shrine Gallery in NYC, spring of 2025.
Statement: Fully ensconced within the praxis of painting, I ardently endeavor to encapsulate the
essence of presence and vitality within my artistic endeavors. Through a transformative
exploration of selfhood and a reverence for the emancipatory power of art, I joyfully embrace the
tactile and sensual aspects of paint, using chunky amalgamations of vibrant pigments to build
up layers of underpainting. By carving into the surface with clay tools, I create hatch marks and
squirming lines that add depth and texture to the work. This push and pull between additive and
subtractive measures creates additional tension in the work, reflecting the complex emotions
and experiences I navigate.
IG: @denanovack
www.DenaNovak.com
Alexandria Lee Bevilacqua • MFA @ Otis College of Art and Design
Unconscious Subconscious Drawing One
and
Unconscious Subconscious Drawing Two
Ink on Paper, 20×28 framed
$500 each
Bio: Alexandria Lee Bevilacqua (b. Las Vegas, Nev.), is a painter, multi-disciplinary and
performing artist who explores the concepts of Freedom, Identity and Altered States of
Consciousness through use of figuration, symbolism and psychedelic visuals. She grew up in
the fast-paced addictive culture of Las Vegas, which also influences her topics and point of
view. Alexandria is a professional award-winning painter, exhibiting her paintings in Gallery 825,
Good Mother Gallery and the Los Angeles Arts Association.
She is inspired by all forms of expression and story-telling.
As a performing artist, Alexandria has worked in film, theater, performance art and dance. She
performed the role of the first character ever added to the Blue Man Group Show, “Showbot”.
Her passion for artistic expression and story-telling can be found in all areas of her work. It’s
often said that her visual art and her performances are both soulful and unnerving. Alexandria is
a second year MFA Candidate at Otis College of Art and Design.
Statement: Through a striking mix of mediums, I explore themes of transformation and
freedom. I delve into altered states of consciousness, including the hypnotic, meditative, dream
state, and psychic realms. Drawing from my own experiences growing up in Las Vegas and
leaving the city behind, my work reflects on the mechanisms of addiction and seduction abound
in my hometown. I evoke the challenges and the power of the woman on the precipice of finding
freedom from patriarchal social constraints, self-limiting beliefs and subconscious addictions. In
what I call my “unconscious subconscious drawings” I use impulsively chosen imagery drawn
with ink without planning or hesitation, including a related text from my own personal dream
journal. I often use the female figure as a central character— often embodying the persona
myself in order to capture the complex narrative of a woman caught in a space of flux, where
transformation can occur. My expressive use of psychedelic color palettes, compositions and
surreal environments navigate the spaces where the personal, the mystical, and the
otherworldly converge.
Olivier Ganthier • MFA @ Otis College of Art and Design
Man on a Tap Tap 2025
Mixed Media: Acrylic, oil, pastels, spray paint on canvas mounted on wood frame, with battery
powered radio, 36 x 48 inches
$5000
Bio: Olivier Ganthier, aka OliGa (Port au Prince, 1992), is a Haitian visual artist and designer.
His figurative work consists of portraits, afro-pop characters, doodles, and motifs, which draw
inspiration from his Caribbean culture, tropical landscape, and urban life. He aims to spread
positivity through Black excellence, joy, peace, and love, contrasting Haiti’s past traumas. He
works with various mediums, including spray paint, digital art, acrylic paint, and markers. OliGa
has collaborated with brands, including HP, Lyft, Unilever, and Heineken, painted commissions
for celebrities, launched the #tireartchallenge in Haiti, which aims to provide an art alternative to
violent protests. He also co-launched the first Haitian Street Art and Graffiti Festival, “Festi
Graffiti.” He is now pursuing his MFA at Otis College of Art and Design.
Statement: In Man on a Tap Tap, I capture a fleeting yet profound moment of reflection amid
the vibrant chaos of Haitian daily life. The painting depicts a man riding a tap tap—Haiti’s iconic,
ornately decorated public transport, lost in thought as the world moves around him. The intricate
designs and bold colors of the tap tap symbolize the resilience, creativity, and unbreakable spirit
of the Haitian people. Yet, his distant gaze hints at a deeper contemplation, weighed by the
stark contrasts of his country’s socio-political landscape.
Through this piece, I explore the intersection of movement and stillness, of hope and hardship.
The tap tap, often seen as a symbol of collective endurance and cultural pride, becomes a stage
for an intimate, personal moment, one that echoes the thoughts of many Haitians navigating the
tensions between struggle and aspiration, instability and perseverance.
This work invites the viewer to pause and engage with the duality of Haiti, its beauty and its
burdens, its energy and its uncertainty, through the lens of one man’s inward silent
journey—whilst the embedded audio emits a typical Haitian song “Camionette,” played on tap
tap rides.
IG: @oligarts
www.oliga.art
UCLA
Jacqueline Valenzuela • MFA @ University of California Los Angeles
Still Tippin’, 2024
Goldleaf & oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
$9,000
Deliverance, 2024
Oil on Canvas and Assemblage Frame, 16 x 16 inches
$1,350
Bio: Jacqueline Valenzuela (b. East Los Angeles, CA – 1997), is an interdisciplinary artist whose
work is deeply rooted in her personal experiences and those of women in the lowrider
community. Valenzuela challenges the traditionally male-dominated space by centering women
in her art, using her practice to critique and reimagine lowrider culture. She received her BFA
from Cal State Long Beach in 2019, and is currently pursuing an MFA in Painting at UCLA. This
past fall, Valenzuela had her debut museum solo exhibition, Con Safos, Con Fuerza at the
Bakersfield Museum of Art.
Valenzuela has also expanded her presence in the contemporary art scene with significant
participation in Miami Art Week at CONTEXT Art Miami with Band of Vices Gallery. Her work
has been featured in both online and printed publications including LAist, Remezcla, a special
re-issue of Lowrider Magazine, Juxtapoz, and Gata Magazine. She has collaborated with major
companies such as JCPenney and Meta to create one-off paintings, further cementing her
influence and recognition within the art world.
Statement: My work delves into personal experiences within the Chicano lowrider culture,
particularly as a woman in a predominantly male space. Pieces like Still Tippin’ capture intimate,
everyday moments in the auto body shop where my fiancé and I work, blending nostalgia with
the visual language of lowrider culture. The painting reflects the memory of assembling spare
tires for their car builds, marked by pixelated details that symbolize the blurry nature of time.
Similarly, Deliverance merges spirituality and car-building as art, exploring the sacredness of
creative processes through bold portraiture and automotive paint. With a focus on femininity and
overlooked beauty in the lowrider community, I use mixed media to honor my roots and
empower women cruising the boulevard.
IG: @pieldemazapan
www.jacquelinevalenzuela.com
Yezi Lou • MFA @ University of California Los Angeles
Pose, 2024
Oil on canvas, 18 x 36 inches
$1,375
Sorry, I’m a Bit Afraid of Pigs, 2024
Oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches
$1,375
Bio: Yezi Lou (b. China, 1997), earned her BFA from the School of Visual Arts and is currently
completing her MFA candidacy at UCLA. In the past year, Lou has had solo art exhibitions at
The Scholart Selection in San Gabriel, US, A/W Space in Nanjing, China and Xela Institute of
Art in Long Beach, CA. Group exhibitions include participation in Gene Gallery (Shanghai,
China), Good Mother Gallery (Los Angeles, US), Sasse Museum of Art (Pomona, CA), and
Unveil Gallery (Irvine, CA).
Statement: I challenge the propensities of classical oil painting with decisions as subtle as a
color palette shift and as radical as the choice of subject. I see myself not as a person animated
by collective social perceptions so much as an avatar for approximate meaning, or an object
hovering in “the periphery of awareness” — a mass of abstract constructions conjectured
always by someone else. The objects of my scrutiny are unflinching while simultaneously abject:
they allude to certain failures of cultural assimilation and placemaking, meshing uncomfortably
in a fog of submission and assertion.
IG: @departurepoem
Dilan Torres • MFA @ University of California Los Angeles
The Hypnotic Eye, 2025
Graphite, Prismacolor, Acrylic Paint, Uni-Posca Acrylic Markers, Tape, on Mylar, Stonehenge
paper, on Wood Panel, 30 x 40 inches
$2100
Bio: Dilan Torres (b.Juarez, Mexico -1999), is a border-based artist working in drawing,
painting, and mixed-media. He graduated from The University of Texas at El Paso in 2022 with
his BFA in Art. In 2020, he won Best in Show in the annual Student Exhibition at The Rubin
Center for the Visual Arts; in 2021, he won Best Drawing. Other exhibitions include solo shows
at Chelsea Walls Gallery in NYC and another at Super Ultra Gallery in El Paso, Tx. Group
shows include one at the Torrance Art Museum Residency. His works are in several regional
private collections and in the permanent collections of the Rubin Center and the University of
Texas at El Paso.
.
Statement: The Hypnotic Eye is a work that explores the faith and superstitions that I
accumulated by growing up in Mexican culture through satire. This work is directly inspired by
Advertisements designed to convince consumers in the border that hypnosis and spells could
improve their lives. In the work, the advertisement is designed to convince a Hispanic ICE
agent to trade places with an immigrant that is looking to enter the U.S.A with faith as their
main tool. The U.S. – Mexico border region has influenced my work since I can remember, and
my current mixed-media works explore how the border determines our constant
reconsiderations of morality. Through the use of charcoal, graphite, acrylic marker, Prisma
color, and collage, I draw figurative diagrams and Ads that relate the narratives of this place.
Inspired by a Latin-American pop culture, rótulos, and Mexican working-class domestic
architecture marked by saturated color palettes, I employ various media to breathe life into the
typically black and white format of a diagram. My work also uses aspects of collage and
layering to draft compositions that are functional and practical while allowing a never-ending
process of construction, evolving with the themes of my work. Mylar paper plays a role in
telling the narratives: its transparency allows my surfaces to reveal/conceal visual pieces of
information. The diagram format is also a continuing motif in my work, highlighting the contrast
between emotional themes of the border and a pragmatic lens. Public media such as product
advertisements, posters, and comics also appeal to the irony of consumption of my culture and
narratives. These devices allow my work to question how the stories of my region are
distributed and the intentions behind their distribution. Irony and comedy are used as devices.
My work is binational and fronterizx: not a clash, but a synthesis of cultures. The ideas in my
work are highly influenced by the Chicano art movement of the 1960s and the murals of “Los
Tres Grandes” (Rivera, Clemente-Orozco,and Siqueiros). My work also borrows from Western
Art history tropes and recontextualizes them to translate the experiences of the border region
into legible terms for the contemporary art world, guided by contemporary figurative artists like
Kara Walker, Henry Darger, Dasha Shishkin and Francis Alys, as my mark-making attempts to
capture the rawness of Raymond Pettibon’s ink illustrations. The aesthetic qualities in my
works also borrow from mass-produced Latin-American media akin to El Santo’s movie posters
in the 60s and Condorito’s vintage Comic Books.
Sheng Lor: • MFA @ University of California Los Angeles
Shuttles, 2025
Ceramic and thread, 2.5 x 13 inches
$300 each
Bio: Sheng Lor (Thailand, 1987) is a visual artist who makes textile-based work in the context
of painting and sculpture. Her practice, being deeply rooted in her personal history with textiles
and experience as a Hmong shamanist, explores cloth and the refugee memory as sites of
knowledge. Lor is currently based in Los Angeles, where she is finishing her last year in the
UCLA MFA program. Lor was a recipient of the Helen Frankenthaler Fellowship, UCLA
Graduate Opportunity Fellowship, Sankofa Fund for Cultural Preservation Grant, and Surface
Design Association Personal Development Grant. She has exhibited her work widely across
California, including at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, de Young Museum, Good
Mother Gallery and others.
Statement: Shuttles, 2025, named for the tool which carries the weft in weaving, is an edition of
33 ceramic shuttles that are part of my Ghost Weaving multimedia installation. Inside each
shuttle is a bobbin full of thread, which has spun out of order and engulfed the object in its own
web of weft. The full installation can be viewed at my MFA thesis show (March 6-14), at the New
Wight Gallery, UCLA campus.
IG: @sheng_weaves
www.shenglor.com
ArtCenter
Grace Eassa • MFA @ Art Center College of Design
Poppy, 2024
Egg tempera on wood, 2.5 x 2.5 inches
$275
dayglow 1, 2, 3, 4, 2024.
Egg tempera on wood, 6 x 6 inches, each
$325 each
Bio: Grace Eassa (Fort Leavenworth, KS, 1998), is a sculptor, painter, and forager who creates
works in both two and three dimensions. Born on a military installation in Kansas, Eassa grew
up moving from Kansas to Germany to Massachusetts to many other places. They attended and
received a BFA in 2024 from Otis College of Design. Since graduation, Eassa has displayed
work in many LA area shows, in addition to their work as Artist-in-Residence at a local interior
design group.
Statement: poppy and my dayglow series explore the beauties of everyday life after trauma.
After surviving relationship violence, I have come to appreciate small things, imperfect things,
and the banalities of everyday life differently. The third space offered to me by the coffee shop I
frequent has given me a space in public in which I can feel safe, and has shown me that hiding
is not the only option. In a world where our experiences are increasingly corporatized, it is an
act of quiet resistance to have a third space at all.
IG: @graceeassafineart
Michael Montemayor • MFA @ Art Center College of Design
Interim Visions, 2024
Digital print on gold photographic paper, wood, and acrylic paint, 15 x 15 inches
@ $1500
Arcane Empyrean, 2024
Digital print on gold Photographic paper, wood, and carbon fiber wrap, 24 x 52 x ¾ inches
@ $1750
Bio: Michael Montemayor (b. Renton, WA, 1993), is a freelance illustrator and artist of Asian-
American descent. He is currently pursuing his MFA at Art Center College of Design, having
received his BA with honors in 2021 and MA with distinction in 2023 from California State
University, Northridge. His work has been showcased in various gallery spaces at College of the
Canyons’ Valencia Campus, California State University, Northridge, CalArts, and Art Center
College of Design. His awards include two California State University, Northridge Arts Council
scholarships, and a scholarship from Art Center College of Design. Outside of school He has
showcased his work as part of group shows in various locations such as the Santa Clarita and
Ojai, as well as online group shows through the San Fernando Valley Arts and Cultural Center
and Biafarin’s Gallerium.
Statement: My work is driven by autobiographical content through the use of coded imagery that
explores the ideas of balance and resilience through the interconnections of mind, body, and
spirit. I explore these concepts through referencing 80’s and 90’s pop culture, video games,
heavy metal, JDM car aesthetics, meditation, and nature– fusing this imagery through use of
symmetry, juxtaposition of subject matter, and light sensitive processes with the myths and
teachings of Shintoism and Mahayana Buddhism which serve as grounding philosophies for my
work and my process. The mediums I experiment with such as alternative photographic
processes and printing on metallic paper are reflections upon the arduous journey of seeking
enlightenment through times of embracing darkness and being shaped by fire. Simultaneously,
the choice of mediums also serve as a commentary about the passage of time.
USC Roski
Elias Hernandez • MFA @ USC Roski School of Art and Design
Midnight Rider, 2025
Oil on wood panel, 18 x 24 inches
$750
Bio: Elias Hernandez (Santa Clarita, CA, 1996), is a Latino American artist living and working in
Los Angeles, CA. He primarily works with painting, graphite and ceramics. A current MFA
candidate at the University of Southern, California, Hernandez received his BA at the University
of California Los Angeles. Hernandez creates a universe that is inspired by Hollywood monster
films (Wolf Man, the Mummy, Nosferatu), comic books (like Spawn) and video-games. Within
his universe he connects traditional art mediums by fusing the lore of fantasy and magic that
relate to his upbringing. His family’s immigration to America, escaping El Salvador due to civil
war outbreak in 1976, plays a role in his body of work as well.
Statement: I am interested in reconnecting with my heritage and my family’s Latin diaspora
experience, so I create a universe that takes inspiration from folkloric legends and mythologies,
mixing these tales with the stories I saw on screens throughout my childhood. I am making a
small series of car works that are characters that can transform into creatures that travel around
his universe to new realms and portals. These cars also take inspiration from my mother who
currently works for BMW and as a result we were raised surrounded by automobile knowledge
and car culture.
Donel Williams • MFA @ USC Roski School of Art and Design
Bed, 2024
Mixed Media: Oil, acrylic, caulking, aluminum on wood panel, 20 x 30 inches
$1450
Bio: Donel Williams (Los Angeles, CA – 1986), is a multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles,
CA. Williams explores the lasting effects of observing his familial battles with aging and illness
and their lasting effects in both mental and physical spaces. Using abstracted common items,
he attempts to cultivate specific memories in an effort to reproduce imagery born from specific
trauma.
His work has been exhibited in multiple institutions, most recently at Context Projects in a solo
show entitled “Memories Don’t Live Like People Do” and is currently being shown in
“Converge + Vertex” at Santa Monica College’s Barrett Art Gallery. He has earned his BA in Art
from UCLA and is currently an MFA candidate at USC’s Roski School of Art and Design.
Statement: Beginning with photography and later using video, my early work focused on and
attempted to
reconstruct particular elements of my father’s life and examine how they affected my own. My
position in the relationship began with a lens of admiration and adoration. When he
became ill, the work took on a different tone. In that sense, I began to view the body itself as a
vessel of imprisonment. My work began to shift as I watched my father’s health slowly
deteriorate and his body began to betray him. My photographic and video works incorporate a
focus on the decay of our home and the particular physical remnants of neglect. The human
figure in these works is abstracted or
partially dismembered, often only shown as a shadow disconnected and displaced.
I began using materials that my father had used as a laborer and mechanic, as well as ones I
encountered while visiting him in hospital and nursing home settings during his final days. I
would recall the markings that I would fixate on during these visits. Their shape, form, texture,
and color reflect the stains, smells, and sights of an environment that I processed abstractly in
my memory. In my paintings, sculptures, and installations, materials such as quilts, bedsheets,
cement, stucco, and house paint become as important as oil paint. These common items,
though abstracted, are cultivated from specific memories.
The specific mark making in both my painting and imagery is borne from trauma, and
particularly the moments in which I would find refuge through a cataloguing of symbols and
disassociations from the experience. The beauty of a sunlit urine stain on linen, the formal
composition of a row of empty beds, the uncommon and unmatching colors on popcorn ceilings.
These moments offered a brief escape from such bleak medical environments.
Initially, I sought out the process of abstraction and it’s forms as a means to “free” myself from
the narrative of my earlier work and perhaps release it from its dependency on my father’s pres-
ence in it. What has become more evident are my obsessions with the human body and the
record of its markings. These marks, both physical and psychological, allow me to revisit and
catalogue the indelible impression that the body and its inevitable decay leave behind.
IG: @theboneykingofnowhere
www.donelwilliams.com
Bridget DeLee • MFA @ USC Roski School of Art and Design
Autry I, 2021
36 × 26 inches. Oil on canvas mounted on wood panel, photographic transfer on paper
$1600
Bio: Bridget DeLee (Los Angeles), Bridget DeLee is a multidisciplinary artist from Los Angeles,
California, whose practice spans painting, sculpture, and mixed media. She frequently
incorporates unconventional materials like synthetic hair, palm skin, and rope. In her paintings,
DeLee applies unexpected color schemes to depict the skin of her subjects, shifting focus to the
inherent meaning and depth of each piece. Her work draws deeply from her family history, the
evolving urban landscape, and sociopolitical themes of race, memory, and displacement. Her
work has been exhibited at Durden and Ray, VAMA Gallery, The Mistake Room, Track 16, and
most recently in “Sowing Seeds of Care and Refusal” at Sovern LA. As an emerging artist, she
has contributed to discussions on panels such as Art & Activism: Through the African American
Experience and California State University, Dominguez Hills’ (CSUDH) panel on art and social
issues. Recently, her artwork was included in “Between Mothers: The Power of Creativity” at
UCLA. Her recognitions include the Winston Russell Hewitt Scholarship and second place in the
VAMA Scholarship Award. Her sculpture In Between was featured in the Los Angeles Times for
its inclusion in “Confluence”, an exhibition addressing the water drought and the Los Angeles
River. DeLee holds an A.A. degree in Art, Liberal Studies, and Interdisciplinary Studies from Los
Angeles Southwest College and a B.A. in Studio Art from CSUDH. She was also awarded a
Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship Fellowship. Currently, DeLee is a Teaching Artist with
the nonprofit P.S. Arts, providing arts education to public schools throughout Los Angeles. Most
recently, she is pursuing her MFA in art at USC, Roski School of Art and Design.
Statement: Autry I is a portrait that examines the duality of a man’s life, when the appearance
of affluence contrasts with the reality of humble beginnings. It critiques the divide between
internal identity and external presentation, highlighting the complexities of self-perception and
societal expectations. This painting reflects on identity and the performance of success while
navigating life as a marginalized individual within a larger social framework.
IG @bridgetdeleeart
John “Baby” Mueller • MFA @ USC Roski School of Art and Design
Goodbye To The 99, 2024
Oil on Canvas 12×19 inches
$975
Breakfast of Champions, 2024
Oil on Canvas 10×10 inches
$600
Bio: John “Baby” Mueller (b. Long Beach, CA – 1994), creates narrative paintings to highlight
how consumerism, pop culture, marketing tactics transudes into our interpersonal
relationships. Baby has shown in group shows across Los Angeles at galleries including
Thinkspace, Charlie James Gallery, and Good Mother Gallery. They have had a solo exhibition
at Munzón Gallery (March 2024) and is a current MFA candidate at USC Roski.
Statement: My paintings, Goodbye To The 99 and Breakfast of Champions serve to me as
anecdotes to personal stories told through the medium of pop-culture imagery. I find it difficult
to connect with others authentically as myself, so I create works that reflect my frustrations. I
aim to create a narrative that both pulls the viewer in emotionally, while also putting up a wall
that prevents them from fully sympathize or empathize with me. Goodbye To The 99 is about
something that ended painfully. Breakfast for Champions is about the tenacity to keep going
and finding small victories.
IG: @Baby__Mueller
Website: babymueller.net
