Rebeca Hernandez

ENCOUNTER

ENCOUNTER is part of Rebeca's  artistic practice.  It is a monthly gathering of a group of artists.  This is how Mariel Carranza describes it:

"Encounter is a space where we encounter each other, ourselves, and the space itself. We perform with and for one another within given conditions. There is no preparation, no agenda. Things unfold on their own. We agree that there will be no idle observers; everyone is active in the space.

"We are comprised of a fairly consistent group of art makers from widely different backgrounds and we’ve established familiarity and a history of working together in this manner over the past two years. With no regard for hierarchy of acceptable or preferred practice styles, we move fluidly between ritual, task, movement, theatrical and improv-based performance practices. We come to the space with our own histories. We are rigorous in our willingness to be open to the unplanned. We trust the unpredictability of the moment. We agree to fully commit to what is there."

Encounter is the work of a constantly evolving group of artists including Mariel Carranza, Dino Dinco, Rafa Esparza, Doran George, Douglas Green, Rebeca Hernandez, Carol McDowell, Rossen Ventzislavov, Samuel White, Dorian Wood, Allison Wyper, Ladan Yalzadeh.

Hyoin Jun

Jun graduated from Chung-Ang University (CAU), Korea, receiving a Master of
Physical Education degree from the Department of Dance in 2014 and Bachelor
of Dance in 2012. Jun has been actively involved in international competitions
during his studies, winning: Jury Award, Sibiu International Dance Competition,
Rumania (2011), Bronze Medal, Novosibirsk International Dance Competition,
Russia (2010), and Gold Medal, Berlin International Dance Competition
TANZOLYMP, Germany (2010). Furthermore, Jun has performed on both
international and local stages, such as the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Closing
Ceremony on behalf of Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, at the
Olympic Stadium, Sochi, Russia. He also choreographed and performed B.C.
(Before Christ) in Korea in 2015. Finally, he has experience in teaching as a
part time instructor in CAU as well as at Anyang Art High School Dance Department.

Rainy Demerson

Rainy Demerson is a first-year Ph.D. student in Critical Dance Studies at the
University of California, Riverside, where she will research African Contemporary Dance as a vehicle for social change. She is honored to be supported by a Eugene Cota Robles Award and Gluck Fellowship. This year, she will complete her low-residence M.F.A. in Dance with Hollins University. In 2012, Demerson received an M.A. in Dance Education from New York University and she holds a B.A. in World Arts and Cultures/Dance from the University of California, Los Angeles. Demerson taught Dance and Yoga throughout New York City public schools, as an Adjunct at Lindenwood University, and as an Assistant Professor at El Paso Community College. She has articles published in the Journal of Dance Education and the Journal of Emerging Dance Scholarship. Dedicated to gaining a first-hand understanding of culture in context, Rainy has studied dance in Indonesia, Cuba, Brazil, Belize, and Germany, and produced her choreography in New York and Senegal. 

Rafa Esparza

Rafa  was born, raised, and is currently living in Los Angeles. Esparza is a multidisciplinary artist. His work ranges in medium from installation, sculpture to drawing, painting; and most predominantly live performance. Woven into Esparza’s bodies of work are his interests in history, personal narratives, and kinship. He is inspired by his own relationship to colonization and the disrupted genealogies that come forth as a result of. Esparza is persistent in staging situations where he attempts to experience a time and space inaccessible to him. Using live performance as his main form of inquiry; site specificity, materiality, memory and (non)documentation are primary tools in interrogating, critiquing and examining ideologies, power structures and binaries that problematize the “survival” process of historicized narratives and the environments wherein people are left to navigate and socialize. Esparza has performed in a variety of spaces ranging from community engaged places such as AIDS Project Los Angeles, to galleries including Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Highways Performance Space, REDCAT, Human Resources, SOMArts and most recently public sites through out the city of L.A. He is a recipient of an Emerging Artist 2014 California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists.

Raul Baltazar

Raul lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. and Mexico City, Mexico. He received his BFA in Sculpture and New Genres and Master in Fine Arts/ Public Practice Degree at Otis College of Art and Design. He has exhibited throughout Los Angeles and internationally. He is also a performance artist who is currently working on ritual interventions, aesthetics of violence, urban myth and politics of fiction. One of Baltazar’s urban mythological characters is Tochtli 7 (the Aztec bunny) in which is part of a larger project named, The Bunny House. The Bunny House is an ongoing creative site of artistic production, art venue and informal residency. Currently, Raul is creating work related to systematic violence legal and illegal, aesthetics of violence, specifically in NARCO culture, local and transnational gangs related to US imperialism.

David Strother

David Strother is an electric violinist and composer in Southern California.  He has recorded three solo CDs including "muse," which was released in 2013. Along with the remarkable poet Ricardo Lira Acuna, David has been hosting the popular monthly Eighth Day Arts Poetry and Wine Salon for over three years. 

David's playing has also been featured in both film and televison, including David Lynch's "The Straight Story" and "The Rookie," and the Nickelodeon animated series "Doug."  He is also a veteran of the Los Angeles roots/swing/blues scene and was a member of both the Radio Ranch Straight Shooters and Lawrence Lebo's band for many years. He has also guested on many albums in various genres, including Scott Ray's "Earth Circuit," the brilliant rapper Tito Calloway's "Thugelligence," and country artist Davie Gayle's "Amber in the Clay."

"Pure emotion quivers through the strings, plaintive and direct, the fragile sounds hovering in space...he has created a spare, beautiful work of great depth."--Florence Wetzel, Allaboutjazz.com, 7/26/13

David is an NS Design artist and plays that company's CR-5 electric violin as his primary instrument.

 www.soundcloud.com/dstroviolin

Fundacion Wanna Winni

Fundacion Wanna Winni’s founding member is Ismael Castro.  This art collective has had performances in the follwoing venues: Homeless House in Guadalajara, Casa de la Tia Tina in Mexicali and at Human Resources Gallery in Los Angeles.  On this last venue Wanna Winni presented the piece “Se predica Salvacion: El Malamen”. Wanna Winni has also developed characters and interventions such as CorpusChristy and Texas Queen; Analcore and La Venida de Chris Torres. 

Carolina Caycedo

Carolina engages with issues and contexts that affect a broad public on an everyday level: in her work, art functions as a pretext for offering up utopian models to inhabit a world in which individuals and communities are increasingly subject to com-modification, exploitation, and discrimination. Much of Caycedo’s work is enacted and exists solely in public space as a form of urban intervention.  Her work has been exhibited widely in venues such as 2013 Paris Triennial, 2009 Havana Biennial, 2009 New Museum Generational Biennial, 2006 Whitney Biennial, 2003 Venice Biennial, 2002 Young Art Biennial in Turin, and 2001 Istanbul Biennial.  She was a  2012 artist in residence at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Berlin. Caycedo received the Cultural Exchange International grant from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs in 2009, a 2005 fellowship of the Arts and Humanities Research Board in London, a Cultural Diversity Award from London Arts in 2002, and a 2001 year of the artist residency from the Arts Council in UK. Carolina Caycedo lives and works in Los Angeles.

For more info: http://carolinacaycedo.wordpress.com/