MATERIAL GIRLS is pleased to present Palms, the collective’s first show in LA featuring small sculptures by 15 artists. It is an established social contract that one is permitted to “look but not touch” art objects. Palms invites visitors to temporarily transgress this boundary- allowing them to touch, hold, and move the objects within the context of the exhibition. The works rest on a large curvilinear plywood platform that re-directs the automatic choreography of art viewership. Instead of left to right, front to back, viewers will be encouraged to slowly wind through space. With this direct tactile understanding of the work, and a constantly changing “curation” depending on interaction, visitors are entrusted with an art viewing experience that is both fluid and communal.

Each artist was asked to present an object holding boundaries and touch in mind. These considerations emerge from the MATERIAL GIRLS’ broader interest in tactility and bodily awareness of space as a feminist undertaking. In preparation for this exhibition, the participating artists contributed writings and images to a zine, Fronds, that is available to read and purchase at the exhibition.

Palms features the work of:

Yesenia Bello
Cameron Cameron
Cara Chan
Jisoo Chung
Devra Freelander
Hilliary Gabryel
Julieta Gil
Ling-lin Ku
Claire Lachow
Gracelee Lawrence
Amelia Lockwood
Ofelia Marquez
Nina Sarnelle
Rachael Starbuck
Amia Yokoyama
Rachel Youn

MATERIAL GIRLS is a feminist collective of sculptors and digital artists formed in 2016. Founded by Cameron Cameron, Devra Freelander, Hilliary Gabryel, Claire Lachow, Gracelee Lawrence and Rachael Starbuck, MATERIAL GIRLS organized to create a space for emerging, under-represented artists and thinkers in the patriarchal art world. They are committed to making and sharing work, fostering conversation, and supporting one another through their practice. While each member of MATERIAL GIRLS retains a vibrant and active independent studio practice, they come together to collaborate on site-specific installations and projects. MATERIAL GIRLS has co-authored immersive installations, organized exhibitions, and exhibited works at Random Access Gallery (Syracuse, NY); SPRING/BREAK Art Show (New York, NY); SVA Curatorial Practices (Brooklyn, NY); ALT ESC: No Vacancy 3 (Brooklyn, NY); Trestle Projects (Brooklyn, NY); the Church Troy (Troy, NY); the Museum of Human Achievement (Austin, TX); and Sadie Halie Projects (Minneapolis, MN.) materialgirls.work @material.grls

Biographies
Yesenia Bello is an artist and arts administrator living in Chicago, IL. She received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2016). Her practice stems from lived experiences as a first generation Mexican-American, retracing sensations that arise from slowly losing her native tongue. Her work has been presented locally at places like 6018 North, The Overlook Place, DfbrL8r Gallery, and Chicago Artists Coalition, where she participated in HATCH Projects (2016-2017). Between 2011-2016 she was co-organizer of Walla Fest, a volunteer run gathering around the Philadelphia area. yeseniabello.com @yeseniabello

Cameron Cameron lives in Los Angeles. She received her BFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014, attended Virginia Commonwealth University Summer Studio Program in 2015 and received an MFA from UCLA in 2018. Cameron uses sculptural interventions to compensate for generic imagery, and questions how the mundane may represent the feeling of loss or longing around the disorder of the day-to-day. She has participated in Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Ox-Bow School of Art, Grin City Collective Residency, and the Art Students League of New York. cameron-cameron.com @winter_shorts

Cara Chan lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.  Chan creates large-scale architectural and body-based sculpture often involving gestural interaction and exchange. She received her BFA from New York University (2009) and her MFA from University of California, Los Angeles (2017), and has been an artist in residence at Banff Center for the Arts, ACRE Projects, Vermont Studio Center, Ox-bow School of Art, Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop, and Lighthouse. cara-chan.com  @caraachan

Jisoo Chung is an LA-based multi-disciplinary artist working primarily through video, photo, enactment, and installation. Chung’s work pays attention to the failures that we encounter in our daily lives such as failure of communication and translation, failure of exhibiting, and currently more focusing on the failure of daily-based technology. Exhibitions and screenings include Los Angeles; 1748 adams, Socal MFA juried exhibition, Pomona, Seoul; Screening Project: Dongshi Sangyoung, Museum CICA, Gallery Aloq Episode. Chung received a BFA from Seoul National University, and is currently an MFA candidate at UCLA. chungjisoo.com @jigu.nee

Devra Freelander is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Her work explores geology and climate change from a millenial and ecofeminist perspective. Freelander received her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and her BA from Oberlin College. She is a founding member of MATERIAL GIRLS, and has participated in the Women’s Studio Workshop Residency (2018),  Arctic Circle Residency (2017), Socrates Sculpture Park Emerging Artist Fellowship (2017), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Residency (2016-2017), and the Virginia Commonwealth University Summer Studio Program (2013). She is represented by CIRCA Gallery. devrafreelander.com @devrafreelander

Hilliary Gabryel lives and works in Queens, NY. Her work is aspirational, echoing the immediacy of the consumerist market and commenting on luxury and feminine expectations. She received her BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is a founding member of MATERIAL GIRLS and co-founder of the interdisciplinary Ridgewood, Queens project space ERA VI VII VI (2014-2016). Her work has been shown in New York, NY; Austin, TX; Minnesota, MN; Richmond, VA. Residencies & awards include the Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, the Wassaic Project, ASMBLY Session #1, and VCU Summer Studio Program. hkgabryel.com @hilliarygabryel

Julieta Gil lives and works between Los Angeles and Mexico City. She holds an MFA in Media Arts from UCLA. Her creative research incorporates installation, sculpture, 3D animation and print to explore topics of simulation, and the overlappings that occur between the virtual and physical. She was a grant recipient of Mexico’s National Fund for Culture and the Arts (2015–2016) and co-founder of FEMMEBIT, an experimental video festival held in Los Angeles. She has exhibited in spaces such as Laboratorio de Arte Alameda, Anchorage Museum, Nevada Museum of Art, National Museum of Art (Mexico City), Future Gallery, Human Resources and Zuecca Projects. julietagil.com @julietagilg

Ling-lin Ku is a Taiwan born, U.S. based artist currently living and working in Austin, Texas. Her sculpture and installation work explores language, everyday life, play and fetish through diverse materials and digital fabrication. Ku was selected to participate in the International Studio and Curatorial Program and Vermont Studio Center, and her work has been exhibited throughout the US. She is currently an MFA candidate in the University of Texas at Austin’s Sculpture and Extended Media program, and an art columnist for KUROSHIO FOCUS online media. linglinku.com @linglin_ku

Claire Lachow is an artist & writer whose work exists between physical and digital environments, fixating on the cultural and political predicaments of commodification, desire, language, and identity. She is the recipient of a 2019 Red Bull Arts Detroit residency & fellowship. Selected exhibitions include the Governors Island Art Fair, Super Dutchess, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Local Host Gallery, and Schema Projects. Lachow received a BA from Oberlin College and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. clairelachow.com @clayore

Gracelee Lawrence recently returned from Thailand where she was a visiting artist at Chiang Mai University. She received her MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media at the University of Texas at Austin in 2016 and her BA in Sculpture from Guilford College in 2011. She is a co-founder of Pig and Pony Gallery and a contributing writer for the International Sculpture Center Blog. She has shown work internationally and was a 2016–17 Luce Scholars Fellow, a recipient of the 2015 UMLAUF Prize, the 2013 Eyes Got It Prize, and the 2011-12 Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artist Grant. graceleelawrence.com @gleeleelawlee

Amelia Lockwood is a visual artist whose use of ceramic processes privileges trace, error, mutation and collapse. Lockwood received her BFA from Syracuse University (2012), completed post-bac studies at University of Colorado, Boulder (2016), and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles. @amiamia

Ofelia Marquez is a first generation Mexican- American artist based in Los Angeles. She received her MFA in sculpture at UCLA and is currently an art restorer at Aleksei Tivetskys Art Restoration and Conservation studio. Ofelia Marquez has recently exhibited at: Human Resources, The Mistake Room, Anonymous Gallery, New Wight Gallery, the William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art, Avenue 50, and REDCAT. ofeart.wixsite.com @ofemarquez

Nina Sarnelle is an artist and musician with a BA from Oberlin College and MFA from Carnegie Mellon University.  A founding member of the Institute for New Feeling and dadpranks, she’s recently shown work at Whitechapel Gallery, Hammer Museum, Getty Center, Ballroom Marfa, MoMA, Istanbul Modern, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, NADA Miami, MAAT (Lisbon), Fundacion PROA (Buenos Aires), Black Cube (Denver), Southern Exposure (San Francisco), Recess (NY), Akademie Schloss Solitude, UNSW Galleries (Sydney), Project 88 (Mumbai), Villa Croce Contemporary (Genova), CCA Santa Fe, MWoods (Beijing), and MoCA Cleveland. ninasarnelle.com @ninasarnelle

Rachael Starbuck is currently living and working in Austin, TX. She received her MFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin in 2017 and her BFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2011. She is co-founder of curatorial collective Partial Shade. She has been a resident at ACRE Projects, The Contemporary Artists Center at Woodside, The Wassaic Project and The Vermont Studio Center and has shown work in Richmond, VA; Providence, RI; Chicago, IL; Austin, TX; Houston, TX; New York, NY; and London, UK. rachaelstarbuck.com @starbuckra

Amia Yokoyama grew up in Illinois, in a bi-lingual, bi-cultural, bi-racial, bi-religious household. This experience of the world carries her. Amia is a multi-media artist who works with experimental animation, video, 2D mixed media, and installation. Amia dropped out of University of British Columbia for her B.Sci in Sustainable Development, and received a BA from New York University in 2010, and an MFA in Experimental Animation from CalArts in 2017. She has received fellowships from Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Women in the Media, and United Plankton Charitable Trust. amiayokoyama.com @iamamia

Rachel Youn is an artist living and working in St. Louis, MO. They use sculpture and new media to poke fun at hierarchal narratives embedded in objects and lifestyles. Sourcing from home furnishing stores and oriental goods peddled on craigslist, their work collapses notions of authenticity and artifice through the lens of identity. They received their BFA from Washington University in St. Louis in 2017 and has exhibited at the Sheldon Art Galleries, Parapet Real Humans, the Millitzer Gallery, the Luminary and Flood Plain, the Bermuda Project, and Open House. They are a recipient of the Regional Arts Commission Artist Support Grant and the Vermont Studio Center Fellowship. rachelyoun.com @rachelyoun