Ileana Tejada

Princess Ileana vs. Lester the Molester, 2016, diptych, 30 x 22 inches each, Graphite on paper.

Ileana Tejada is a Mexican-American artist born and raised in Southern California. A former NCAA Division II Track and Field athlete, Tejada's work progressively deals with female masculinity and the opposition to "marianismo"-the exaggerated sense of traditional femininity.

Tejada received her BFA from California State Polytechnic University- Pomona, as well as a BS (Kinesiology, Pedagogy). In 2015 she graduated with a Masters of Fine Art in Painting from San Francisco Art Institute. Tejada is the recipient of the Murphy Cadogan Graduate Fellowship, the Outstanding Graduate Student Award in Painting, and SFAI's Amir Esfahani Graduate Studio Fellowship. Her work has been exhibited at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, Gallery CB1 in Los Angeles, and published in New American Paintings, No.123, MFA Annual, 2016. She is currently working and living in San Francisco, CA.

 

www.ileanatejada.com

David B. Smith

David B. Smith, Extruded Daydream, 18 soft sculptures and 6 wall hanging fabric collages, 25 x 25 x 10 ft. installation, 2016. Photo courtesy of the artist.

David B Smith makes fabric-based photo-sculpture that explores fantasy, loss, commodity, and connection in American culture. To gain access to the back-end of cultural memory, he playfully rearranges iconography using pseudo programming code - comprised of digital and analog fragmentation, accreditation, and reorientation. He isolates patterns, crosses wires, and entertains poetic interpretations, making the once familiar strange and unsettling, yet oddly cozy. His work has appeared in exhibitions at MoMa PS1, The International Center of Photography, Yancey Richardson Gallery, Asia Song Society, John Connelly Presents, with recent solo shows at The Spring Break Art Show, Halsey McKay Gallery, and Calico Gallery. His work has been discussed in the New York Times, The Observer, Art Fag City, the Washington Post, and Miami New Times. Smith holds an MFA from Bard College and has been awarded residencies by Apex Art, New Zealand; Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, MN; Harold Arts, Ohio; Socrates Sculpture Park, The Waterpod Residency, The Art and Law Program, and the BOFFO residency, New York. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

http://www.thedavidsmith.com

Art Seed at Marble House Project

Charlie Watts

Atlanta-based queer artist Charlie Watts seeks to create images not of this world, to use photography as a stepping-stone to the unknown realm just past the peripheral edge of consciousness. She creates images to bring imagination into fruition and provide a visual escape from the mundane to the fantastical. This spring, Watts finished an MFA program in photography with the San Francisco Art Institute after graduating with highest honors and a B.A. in art history and visual arts at Emory University. She has been a member of the Dashboard CO-OP and a resident with The Creatives Project, through which she teaches photography in underserved neighborhoods.

Her photographs are heavily performance-based and have been exhibited at Fort Mason, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, SomARTS, Root Division, WhiteSpace, the Diego Rivera Gallery, Mason Murer, Barbra Archer Gallery, and “Boom City” with the Dashboard CO-OP. Her photographic exploration to raise awareness of sex trafficking in Atlanta, The ThrowAways, currently is on display at the Rollins School of Public Health. In 2011, Watts received the Emory Center for Creativity and the Arts Community Impact Award, and she is the recipient of grants from the City of Atlanta's Office of Cultural Affairs, among others. She is currently a fellow with the Walthall Fellowship through WonderRoot

www.charliewattsphotography.com

Art Seed at Marble House Project