Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles is pleased to present DAYJOBS.

In 2008 a group of artists, most recently graduated from CalArts’ Art MFA program, were looking for studio spaces in Los Angeles. They found a nondescript gray building at 3325 Division St. in Glassell Park, a former doctor’s office, and moved into the space that would soon become one of LA’s longest-running contemporary artist-run spaces, Elephant. 

Founded in 2010, Elephant operated as an artist-run gallery, filling the space of the building’s former waiting room, while the remaining doctor’s offices and exam rooms became studio spaces. For the next 13 years, Elephant featured regular exhibitions from an international range of over 200 artists and curators. The back patio was home to countless openings, performances, parties, and bbqs, bringing together artists and art-appreciators in a steadily-growing community. Friendships were made, beers were drunk, hotdogs were consumed, and cacti flourished. We learned the building was previously the original LA studio of Ed Ruscha, and we found the secret papers of a suspicious former inhabitant. The space became more than a creative, professional hub - it became a family and a second home.

In May 2023 we received the terrible news that has also impacted so many of our neighbors and colleagues - our building was being put on the market and we would have to move out. Elephant became the latest casualty of LA’s out-of-control real estate market as the gallery closed and its studio residents disbanded to find new places to carry on their work.

DAYJOBS brings together the work of Elephant’s six longest-time members, Astri Swendsrud, Bianca D’Amico, David P. Earle, Jason Kunke, Matt MacFarland and Quinn Gomez-Heitzeberg, showing their work in an exhibition together for the first time. Part of the original ethos of the gallery was that the studio artists would not exhibit their own work in the space (outside of the occasional open studios event), rather inviting others in the community to inhabit the gallery. Fittingly, our friends and artist-run space colleagues at TSA-LA have now invited us into their gallery. We are excited to share the current state of our practices, fostered by our time at Elephant, with you now. 

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Astri Swendsrud is a Los Angeles-based artist whose multi-disciplinary practice investigates the formation of meaning, belief, interpretation and transformation. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows nationally, including at JOAN, Visitor Welcome Center, Richard Telles Fine Art, TSALA, Irenic Projects, General Projects and the Vincent Price Museum. Swendsrud is also part of the collaborative project Semi-Tropic Spiritualists, and their book The Semi-Tropic Spiritualist’s Guidebook was published by Insert Press in 2018. Swendsrud currently serves as Associate Professor of Art and Faculty Gallery Director at Biola University. She received her MFA from CalArts in 2008.

Bianca D'Amico received her BFA from Otis and her MFA in Art from Calarts. While making art & pursuing a career in the arts she began to incorporate her deep passion for the outdoors and plants in her installation based work. In the process she began to be put off by the lack of accessibility in the art community and the annoying social ladders. She decided to re-think her path and platform, get a dog and started a creative studio in 2012. She named it Chaparral Studio and began offering a wide range of goods that are heavy in nature, feminist and California-centric themes. Simultaneously she began a landscape design company in collaboration with her Mother Maite, Chaparral Studio Gardens. Together they design gardens that are primarily focused on utilizing California Native flora. Today Bianca is still doing all that, mothering human and animal children and starting to dabble in art again - social ladders be damned! 
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David P. Earle is an artist based in Los Angeles. He has exhibited at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, The Torrance Art Museum, Fellows of Contemporary Art, Monte Vista Projects, Offramp Gallery, Arcana, The Armory Center for the Arts, Gallery 312 (Chicago), The IFC Center (New York) and others. His work is held in the collection of Ed Ruscha and he was recently commissioned to make a large scale altered book, part of a series of works by various artists. Residencies include Side Street Projects and The Artist's Studio at One Colorado in Pasadena. He is the editor, curator and designer of The Open Daybook, a perpetual calendar in book form featuring the work of 365 contemporary artists, published by Mark Batty/Random House. Earle received his M.F.A from CalArts and is a visual arts faculty member at Flintridge Preparatory School in La Cañada Flintridge. 

Quinn Gomez-Heitzeberg is a sculptor and carpenter, living and working in Los Angeles. After receiving an MFA from CalArts, Quinn began using his sculptural skills to work in residential remodeling as well as furniture design. He is the lead carpenter for Bronstruction Inc. and has worked on multiple architecturally significant homes throughout the Los Angeles area. He is also part of the artistic collaboration Semi-Tropic Spiritualists with Astri Swendsrud. This 12-year project has exhibited performances and installations throughout Southern California and has produced as book and several print editions through Insert Press.

Matt MacFarland has been working with students Kindergarten to College-age since earning his MFA from Otis College of Art and Design in 2003.  In 2013, Matt shifted his practice from drawing, sculpture, and video to cartooning, and has produced several Comic Book series since, including Dark Pants, which follows a mysterious pair of pants through Los Angeles as they impact the lives of whomever wears them. Cookies and Herb, a graphic memoir focusing on the wholesome relationship between Matt and his elderly neighbor growing up in Northern California, will be published in 2025 by Fieldmouse Press.His work has been written up in The Los Angeles Times, Comics Bulletin, and Artillery. His artwork has been featured at such venues as 356 Mission Road, the Vincent Price Museum, Armory Center for the Arts, and Torrance Museum of Art.
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Jason Kunke is a Los Angeles based artist whose practice includes sculpture, drawing, installation, video, painting, and performance. His art examines how authority and aesthetics inform each other. He received his MFA from CalArts in 2007, and his BFA (with a minor in sociology) from University of Houston in 2004. He has exhibited nationally at Polvo in Chicago, Commerce Street Artist Warehouse in Houston, and 25CPW in New York. In Los Angeles he has exhibited at Sea and Space Explorations, LAXART, and Dan Graham, and issued a limited edition print with Insert Blanc Press.