August 6th MAPP: “Surface” Artist Reception & Crossover Collaborative Residencies

The exhibit Surface: Rodney Ewing & Joyce Nojima brings together works on paper by the two Bay Area artists. Ewing and Nojima have created work offering a transmutation of tactile and visual experience across the surface of the paper. This pairing allows for exploration of the various ways in which this familiar material is treated and how the marks made upon the surface may evoke diverse readings and interpretations. The curators, Modesto Covarrubias and Monica Lundy, present these works in the performance space of Red Poppy Art House with an aim to spark a dialogue between music, voice, movement, and the act of seeing. With an interest in how to interact and live with art, the curators seek out work that enlivens and engages the space in which it exists.

Crossover Collaborative Residencies provides a framework to support the exploration of collaborative processes between artists in dance and music disciplines. Pairing six choreographer/dancers and six composer/musicians, the program follows a four-stage development from preliminary artists gatherings and orientation workshops, to early-stage “raw” presentations of works-in-progress, a middle-stage free community-engaged presentation, and a final performance/presentation. The third month of the residency utilizes the Mission Arts & Performance Project’s bimonthly neighborhood festival as a platform to put the work before a larger and more spontaneous audience.

Schedule:

1:00-4:00pm – Surface Exhibition
Artist reception with curators Modesto Covarrubias and Monica Lundy and artists Rodney Ewing and Joyce Nojima
6:00-7:30pm – Crossover Residencies
Collaborative works in progress with resident artists Daniel Riera/Latanya Tigner; Erika Oba/Sammay Dizon; Sandra Ndu/Larry Arrington
7:30-8:00pm – Crossover Residencies
Discussion with resident artists and curator Amara Tabor-Smith

About the MAPP:

Launched in 2003, the Mission Arts & Performance Project (MAPP) is a homegrown bi-monthly, multidisciplinary, intercultural happening that takes place in the Mission District of San Francisco. On the first Saturday of every even month of the year, the MAPP transforms ordinary spaces, such as private garages, gardens, living rooms, studios, street corners, and small businesses, into pop-up performance and exhibition sites for a day/night of intimate-scale artistic and cultural exchange among a kaleidoscope of individuals and communities.

Learn more about the program at http://mappsf.com/.

About the Artists (Cohort 1):
 
Sandra Lawson-Ndu is an Oakland-based musician. As a vocalist and songwriter, she has contributed to and collaborated on a number of live and recorded projects, including works with DJ Center (Everything in Time LP) and Nomadic Wax (Diaspora Mix Tape Volume 2). She helped found and organize the Trinity International Hip Hop Festival, and in the last two years, she has been invited to participate in both the Zoo Labs Artist Residency and Revolutions Per Minute Artist Lab. Currently, Sandra is co-leading the band Bells Atlas and working on her solo project.

Laura Larry Arrington is a dance-artist working in hybrids of idea and practice. Her work in dance (time/space/body/whole) pivots around a desire to orient towards the capacities in us all that can glimpse unseen and unutterable horizons. Her body is her life and her life is her work. (Photo by Robbie Sweeny)

Erika Oba is a composer, pianist/flutist, and educator based in the SF Bay Area. She is a member of the Montclair Women’s Big Band, the Mara Performance Collective, Ends Meat’ Catastrophe Jazz Ensemble, and the Oba/Bastian duo. She received her BM in Jazz Piano Performance from Oberlin Conservatory and her MA in Music Composition from Mills College.

SAMMAY is a Bay Area-based emerging choreographer/producer and interdisciplinary performing artist of Kapampangan, Ilokano, and Bikol descent. Her work has been performed at SOMArts Bay Gallery, Diego Rivera Art Gallery, Dance Mission Theater, and Oracle Arena among others. She is the founder and producer of URBAN x INDIGENOUS, an inter-generational multi-disciplinary arts festival which celebrates the indigenous spirit in the urban environment of our present day.

Daniel Riera is a flutist, EWI player, bassist, producer, composer, and sound designer from San Francisco. He is active as a stage performer with groups such as Soltron, Camille Mai, as well as his own ensemble. His musical training began at the age of ten with Latin-jazz flute virtuoso and composer John Calloway.  Daniel continued his studies at San Francisco’s School of the Arts High and Berklee College of Music, where he earned his degree in Music Synthesis. Since 2012, Daniel has been an instructor at Academy of Art University teaching music theory and notation. He is also involved with the group Today’s Future Sound which provides music production education to underserved middle and high school communities in the Bay Area.

Latanya d. Tigner is a choreographer who has performed professionally with Dimensions Dance Theater since 1986. She has studied and toured nationally and internationally, performing multidisciplinary works rooted in African diasporic dance forms. Latanya holds a B.A. in Physical Education/Dance, a Master’s Degree in Arts Administration, and currently teaches dance at Contra Costa College. Her current research and study of the Second Line parading traditions of New Orleans has enabled her to create one of her most notable pieces, The Last Dance/St. Anne and N. Rampart. Latanya recently completed her second commissioned work for Dimensions, The Town on Notice.(Photo by Kimara Dixon)