The Project Series at Pomona

The Pomona College Museum of Art will celebrate the 50th Project Series exhibition milestone with "R.S.V.P. Los Angeles: The Project Series at Pomona," an exhibition and publication connecting the extraordinary artists who have participated in the Project Series to a new generation of artists in Southern California. The seven artists selected to exhibit are: Justin Cole, Michael Decker, Naotaka Hiro, Wakana Kimura, Aydinaneth Ortiz, Michael Parker, and Nikki Pressley.

Their work includes drawing, installation, photography, sculpture, social practice art, sound art, and video. The content of the work is equally varied; a photographic exploration of Detroit and its hidden cultural histories, explorations of the body in beeswax, unraised Egyptian obelisks, found objects from California thrift shops, Japanese mythology and the difficulties of translation, the liminal space between landscape and domestic interiors, and deeply personal stories of loss and redemption.

The Project Series at Pomona College 1999-2014

Created by senior curator Rebecca McGrew, the Project Series focuses on emerging and under‑represented Southern California artists. Its intent is to bring art to the Pomona College campus that is experimental and that introduces innovative forms, techniques, or concepts. Each exhibition is accompanied by a publication—designed in collaboration with the artist—and related public programs or workshops organized with the artist and Pomona College faculty. For more information on the Project Series, please see http://www.pomona.edu/museum/exhibitions/project-series/. 

The Process

To celebrate the ethos of the Project Series and to broaden the curatorial perspective, a committee composed of Pomona College faculty, students, and Museum staff collectively determined the artists, exhibition strategies, and publication content. The committee consists of McGrew; Terri Geis, curator of academic programs; Lisa Anne Auerbach, assistant professor of Art; Jonathan M. Hall, assistant professor of Media Studies; Nicolás Orozco-Valdivia, curatorial intern, Pomona College Museum of Art and Pomona College ’17 Art and Art History major; and Valorie Thomas, professor of English/Africana Studies. 

Seven Project Series artists—Christina Fernandez, Charles Gaines, Ken Gonzales-Day, Katie Grinnan, Soo Kim, Hirokazu Kosaka, Amanda Ross-Ho—were asked to each nominate two emerging or lesser-known artists based in the Los Angeles area whose work contributes to the vibrant contemporary art dialogue. No other criteria were given to encourage a broad and diverse pool of nominated artists. Over two weeks in July 2014, the committee conducted fourteen studio visits across the region and selected the seven artists. 

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication, designed by Kimberly Varella of Content Object, contextualizing the art of Los Angeles through the lens of the Project Series. The selected artists, in collaboration with committee members, will design their artist pages. All committee members are also contributing new texts to the publication.