mojo rising

curated by jill moniz
Ronald H. Silverman Fine Arts Gallery
California State University, Los Angeles
August 24–October 9, 2020
Los Angeles

PRESS RELEASE
EXHIBITION POSTER
INSTAGRAM GALLERY
FACEBOOK GALLERY

From the exhibition announcement:

Nearly 50 years ago, Cal State LA exhibited Betye Saar’s first survey exhibition, Betye Saar: Selected Works 1964-1973, which included Mojo Handbag (1970), Nine Mojo Secrets (1971) and Rainbow Mojo (1972), and other objects that showcased her attention on mysticism.

Betye Saar is still a conjurer who uses diverse cultural iconography to ritualize recycling, investigate identity and contest how and where we find beauty. Today, with this new exhibition, moniz reflects on Saar’s ongoing legacy, specifically how her transformative visual language has made space for artists to reimagine materials in new contexts and create work centered on the poetics of time, race and gender.

Mojo Rising features Saar’s ongoing mojo focus, and local artists who are inspired by these ideas to create cultural narratives and engaging objects that challenge normalizing tropes, and reveal practices influenced by Saar’s ceaseless commitment to making, sharing, teaching and encouraging artists in Los Angeles and beyond.

Mojo Rising includes works from Alison and Lezley Saar; Saar’s former students from Otis College of Art and Design Kerry James Marshall and Sarah Perry; Saar’s Black Arts West movement contemporaries John Outterbridge and David Hammons; as well as Tanya Aguiñiga, Kelly Berg, Lavialle Campbell, Kendall Carter, Carolina Caycedo, Chelsea Dean, Keiko Fukazawa, Yrneh Gabon, Todd Gray, Regina Herod, Maddy Inez Leeser (Saar’s granddaughter), Michael Levell, Lilah Lutes, Rodney McMillian, Rosalyn Myles, Echiko Ohira, Miguel Osuna, Duane Paul, Emma Robbins, Cordellus Smith Abadachi, Lisa Diane Wedgeworth, Monica Wyatt and Brenna Youngblood.