Brand Library & Art Center Announces Fall Art Talks At Brand

Brand Library & Art Center has announced the return of its popular Art Talks at Brand series this fall, inviting Los Angeles based contemporary artists to engage in dynamic discussions about their work and its surrounding issues. The series, formerly known as Art Talk Tuesday, is free, open to the public and sponsored by Brand Associates.

This fall's lineup features local artists Kira Shewfelt, Amie Sillah, Edgar Bryan and Carrie Cook. Each talk will be followed by a moderated Q&A led by Brand staff member, artist and writer Jennifer Remenchik.

Event Schedule:

• Thursday, September 19, 7:00 PM – Kira Maria Shewfelt
  Kira Maria Shewfelt, a painter influenced by Magical Realism and Romanticism, explores the physical-spiritual connections of contemporary life through her vibrant, movement-filled works in saturated chroma, high touch movement and gestures. Her art evokes intimate, athletic and existential motifs often set within the natural world. Her work can be found in the collection of AMOCA Wales and private collections internationally.

• Thursday, October 3, 7:00 PM – Amie Sillah
  New York-born visual artist Amie Sillah, whose practice includes lens-based sculpture, performance and video work, draws from her family's lived experiences immigrating from The Gambia to New York and her relationship with photography as a medium to explore the complexities and diversities of Black diasporic life. Currently, Sillah centers on topics of memory, performance and erasure as an act of care. Sillah has presented her work at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and has shown at thematic group exhibitions at the New Wight Gallery (2024), Black Box Gallery (2023) and the Black Image Center (2023).

• Thursday, October 17, 7:00 PM – Edgar Bryan
  Edgar Bryan, a renowned painter and artist-book maker, has a decades-long track record of exhibiting his work in major cities and prestigious galleries like New York, Los Angeles and Berlin. Through extensive experimentation with diverse techniques, themes, and materials, he has discovered an enduring significance in the medium of painting. His themes of masculine vulnerability and self-portraiture, inspired by “the fool” from Commedia dell'arte, remain central to his practice. Beyond painting, he has ventured into creating handmade artist books, ceramic collaborations and silk screened posters.

• Thursday, November 7, 7:00 PM – Carrie Cook
  Carrie Cook, born in Nashville, Tennessee, produces art that delves into the psychological territory of memory, ecstasy and grief, using symbolism from ancient art history and religious traditions through a rigorous process of mining her archive. Circling poetic everyday moments into a mystical narrative, the works create a symbolic visual language. The works seek to reassess the tradition of surrealism and employ the symbolism of ancient art history and Eastern and Western religious traditions, resulting in large scale works on canvas as well as intimate icon-like paintings on panel. Cook's work has been exhibited in galleries around the world and featured in publications such as Bat City Review, Art Maze Magazine and Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles.

About the Moderator:

Jennifer Remenchik, an artist, writer and Brand staff member based in Los Angeles, will moderate the discussions. Her work has been exhibited in several institutions and galleries, including No Gallery, VIVO Media Arts Centre, HILDE, basement projects, Industry Lab, and The Contemporary Austin, among others. She is a regular contributor to Hyperallergic and has written for CurateLA, BOMB Magazine, and Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles. Remenchik began organizing art talks at Brand Library & Art Center as a way to showcase artists who reflect the diversity of the art scene of the greater Los Angeles area.

For more information on participating artists and to view recordings of previous programs, visit BrandLibrary.org/Art-Talks.