Join us for an Artist Talk & Reception with EAP awardee Lishan AZ for her exhibition Eugene's Cove. Lishan AZ will be in conversation with Los Angeles-based film curator and arts administrator Jheanelle Brown. Light refreshments and wine will be served.

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About the Exhibition

Lishan AZ: Eugene's Cove

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On July 27, 1919, at a segregated beach on the south side of Chicago, 17-year-old Eugene Williams was stoned to death after floating across the imaginary color line in Lake Michigan. Building on the legend of an underwater paradise prevalent in African folklore, Eugene’s Cove imagines an underwater world where those we thought drowned actually sank and became something more. Drawing on mythology and historical events from across the Black diaspora, this exhibit celebrates the ways we reclaim water as a source of freedom.

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On view:

‍December 13, 2023-March 3, 2024

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About the Presenters

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Lishan AZ is a multi-disciplinary artist working in immersive installation, interactive media, photography and film. She explores themes of home, intimacy, and interiority. Her work revives lost narratives in order to contextualize contemporary issues and discover/recover possibilities for our present condition.

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Lishan holds an MFA in interactive media and games from the University of Southern California. Her game Tracking Ida was awarded Best Gameplay at Games for Change and the Impact Award at the International Festival of Independent Games (Indiecade). Her work has been exhibited at Antenna Gallery in New Orleans, Smithsonian American Art Museum in DC, Indiecade in Los Angeles, LA Weekly's Artopia, Tokyo University of the Arts' Art Museum, the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, and Games for Change in NYC. Lishan was the inaugural Game Designer in Residence at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She is currently an assistant professor of cinema and digital media at the University of California, Davis.

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Jheanelle Brown is a film curator/programmer, educator, and arts administrator based in Los Angeles whose curatorial practice creates frameworks to explore the boundlessness of Black life in experimental and non-fiction film and video. She is interested in the space between fugitivity and futurity and elevating an ethic of care, with special interest in the sonic in film, political film and media, and Caribbean film/video. Jheanelle is a board member and a programmer for Los Angeles Filmforum. She is faculty at California Institute of the Arts and curator of Film at REDCAT.

At this moment, she is dreaming about cosmic marronage whilst trying to remember her terrestrial obligations.

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