ARTSCENE 25: The Los Angeles Art Awards

 

Wednesday, April 18 from 5:30 – 9:30 pm

Best of LA Theater Companies – LA Weekly

“Undeniably daring…ferocious postmodernists.” – Los Angeles Times

“Challenges the audience to question its role as viewer and its reason for attending the theater.” – Backstage West

Los Angeles, CA – Empire of Teeth performs at “ARTSCENE: 25, The Los Angeles Art Awards.” For this occasion, Empire of Teeth, one of L.A.’s leading alternative performance ensembles, will present a situation-specific evening of intimate, interactive, live art and performance installation events. They will produce visceral and highly visual performance installations, roving and discreet performances and surprise encounters that comment on inclusion/exclusion, apathy/ecstasy and personal sacrifice/public exposure as they relate to the artworld. Curated and directed by Rochelle Fabb, Empire of Teeth participating visual and performing artists include: Franc Baliton, Carol Gehring, Steve Irvin, Gul Cagin, Michael Morrissey, Joan Spitler and Rochelle Fabb.

The performances take place on April 18 from 5:30 – 9:30 pm at the L.A. County Museum of Art.

For more information please contact 310-699-8839 or empire@empireofteeth.org. Visit www.empireofteeth.org and www.artscenecal.com for more information.

Empire of Teeth is a multidisciplinary artists collective and community-based arts organization led by Co-Directors Rochelle Fabb and Michael Sakamoto. Their performance works include the acclaimed productions, The Crook: A Revival, Sacred Cow, Last Waltz, The Rite of Spring, etc., Doctor Chi!, and others. Empire of Teeth has also partnered with the City of Santa Monica, Casa Colina Centers for Rehabilitation, and the Ford Amphitheatre on arts education and outreach projects. Recent funders include Meet the Composer/Commissioning Music USA and Santa Monica City Cultural Affairs Department.

Artist Bios:

FRANC BALITON is a performance, installation artist and classically trained dancer who has written and performed at Highways Performance Space, Side Street Projects, Track 16 Gallery and Crazyspace Gallery and was a member of the Rachel Rosenthal Company. He has received commissions from the Japan American National Museum and recently appeared in Suzan Lori Park’s “365 Plays/365 Days” presented by Empire of Teeth.

GUL CAGIN’s installations, painting and performances have been exhibited at Chapman University, Museum of New Mexico, Centre Civic-Barcelona, Spain, Track 16 gallery, San Diego Art Institute, Raid Projects, Borusan art Gallery-Istanbul, Turkey, Highways Performance Space, 18th Street Arts Center and Crazyspace. She is represented by Raid FC gallery in Los Angeles.

ROCHELLE FABB (curator, director, performer) is Co-Director of Empire of Teeth and an interdisciplinary artist active in theater, performance and installation. She’s toured nationally and internationally since 1993 to the Performance Rodeo Festival (France) and the Ex-Teresa Festival (Mexico City) the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Cleveland Performance Art Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival and RAW Tempel in Berlin and Highways Performance Space, and was a member of the Rachel Rosenthal Company. She is the recipient of awards and grants from Arts International, the Durfee Foundation and numerous others.

CAROL GEHRING is a director and video artist who holds an MFA in Film/Video 2003 from the California Institute of the Arts. Before her return to school, she had a successful career in the publishing industry with VOGUE magazine, and as a fashion photographer. Her film/video work is an eclectic mix of genre’s with an experimental bent. Gehring’s work defies categorization. Working outside the box is her precept and her friend.

STEVEN IRVIN is a visual and performance artist whose interest lies in the body as an instrument and vessel tied to time and space and its interaction with these properties. He has performed at Crazyspace Gallery in Santa Monica, Track 16, Side Street Projects, Solway Jones, Post and more. Irvin’s mixed-media works and paintings have been collected widely from banks to foundations to private collections.

MICHAEL MORRISSEY was a founding member of Al’s National Theatre in Downtown L.A., he has performed all over Los Angeles with The Actor’s Gang, The Fabulous Monsters, Empire of Teeth and was a member of the Rachel Rosenthal Company for 5 years. Locally, he has performed at L.A. Theatre Center, Crazy Space, Electric Lodge, Highways Performance Space and at Side Streets Projects amongst other venues.

JOAN SPITLER is an interdisciplinary performance artist who has performed numerous solo and collaborative shows include the infamous “Women Who Kill Too Much” and “Star”. She has studied with many originators of the performance art movement of the 60’s, including Allan Kaprow, Eleanor Antin, and Jerome Rothenberg. Joan recently performed in Empire of Teeth’s “Last Waltz” and was a member of the Rachel Rosenthal Company from 1993-1997.

Special thanks to Bill Lasarow and ArtScene.