From OCCCA and VAALA
Santa Ana – Orange County Center for Contemporary Arts (OCCCA) and the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) will open HÔME, the collaborative exhibition between the two galleries with an artist reception on Saturday, July 5, 2014 from 6pm to 10pm. The opening coincides with the monthly first Saturday Art Walk in downtown Santa Ana. A free shuttle will be available on Opening Night to take guests between the two art galleries, OCCCA and VAALA, every 30 minutes. The HÔME exhibition will showcase over 100 pieces of mixed media by 57 artists of diverse stories and experiences. The exhibition will run until July 26, 2014.
“As we see again and again in this exhibition, the real or imagined homes of our childhoods have been abandoned and they are presented as ruins,” says Richard Turner, curator of the HÔME exhibition, “The pressures of a down turned economy have transformed them from brick and mortar structures into mobile homes, tents and in the worst case scenarios they have disappeared altogether leaving their residents literally home-less.”
Turner then added: “Ultimately every artist in this show has found a home for him or herself in being an artist, in making art and thereby creating that safe place of comfort and control for themselves – a home within a home.”
Ann Phong, artist and Board President of VAALA shares: “The loneliness, or the coziness of a space called HÔME, has been expressed by the artists in this exhibition by their own feelings. Without using words, visual arts can connect people to explore and share feelings and thoughts with each other.”
The HÔME exhibition marks the first collaboration between OCCCA and VAALA. “This is a unique collaboration exhibition between two non-profit art centers. One in which will bring awareness and knowledge of one or both galleries that people may not even know exists,” says Stephen Anderson, Executive Director of OCCCA “We hope that we reach an audience that will gain a new appreciation toward art showing different cultures and identities, and contemplate the idea of what ‘HOME’ is, either by geography or ones own outlook on their life.”
HÔME Exhibition will run from Saturday, July 5th to Saturday, July 26th. Gallery hours at both OCCCA and VAALA will be Thursday to Sunday, 12pm-5pm. Orange County Center for Contemporary Art (OCCCA) 117 N. Sycamore, Santa Ana, CA 92701 Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) 1600 N. Broadway, Suite 210, Santa Ana, CA 92706. Please visit www.occca.org or www.vaala.org for more information.
