Farmlab Public SalonEdgar ArceneauxFriday, February 20, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

About the Salon

Watts House Project (WHP) is an on-going collaborative artwork in the shape of a neighborhood redevelopment.

Located on E. 107th St. across from the historic Watts Towers, the WHP enhances community through an artist-in-residence program, exhibition spaces, educational and social programming, and residential housing.

Directed by artist Edgar Arceneaux, WHP engages art and architecture as a catalyst for expanding and enhancing community. The neighborhood surrounding the Watts Towers presents a stark contrast to the well-maintained aesthetics of this national monument, and currently the residents have limited means to capitalize socially or economically on this cultural currency. WHP operates with the understanding that social and economic challenges are tied to basic ecological problems and aims to develop an incremental, nuanced and sustainable model that marries ecological concerns and practice with social and cultural remedies. By creating a physical and social infrastructure for creativity, WHP will catalyze artistic production and community pride of place, forming partnerships that can lead to real solutions, hope, and change.

The initial phase of the Watts House Project is being completed as a part of the Hammer Museum's Artist Residency Program. The Hammer Museum's Artist Residency Program was initiated with funding from the Nimoy Foundation and is supported through a significant grant from the James Irvine Foundation.

The initial phase of Watts House Project is an LAXART Public Art Initiative.

About the Salon Presenter

Edgar Arceneaux is an American artist living and working in Los Angeles. His multivalent practice includes drawings, collaborative installations, community-based social sculpture initiatives and large-scale film projects. His recent solo shows include The Agitation of Expansion at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia (2008), Snake River at the REDCAT Gallery in Los Angeles, CA (2006), and The Alchemy of Comedy…Stupid at ArtPace in San Antonio, Texas and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects (2006). He's participated in various group exhibitions at the Studio Museum in New York, the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA in Los Angeles, CA, and completed a residency at Project Row Houses in Houston, TX. Arceneaux was included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial, and the 2008 California Biennial. He received his MFA from California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA in 2001, his BFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 1996, and also studied at Skowhegan School in Maine and the Fachholchschule Aachen, in Aachen, Germany. Arceneaux was awarded the USA Broad Fellowship for 2007 by United States Artists.


Photo copyright and courtesy Edgar Arceneaux, 2000.