Cacttus/ Creative Arts Coalition to Transform Urban Space

This weekend the @lbartwalk is going to be good! poetry by @biglovespetunias @phialujanrivera @theguardedpoet ... @zahrahlove @femmeyoda @mujeragualuna Thank you @this_poet_travels for organizing this event @cacttus_lb !

So excited to ANNOUNCE @cacttus_lb will be participating at @otherplacesartfair in 2019. More information will be announced soon but ideas have been brewing and the list of colabs to be featured will be #Awesome

This Saturday is the opening of The Idea that we are a collaboration between @iamhalfasleep and @todotanto Opening 5-9pm Saturday Nov 10 ... During @lbartwalk Lots of things going on including opening exhibits @darkartemporium @lbma_x See everyone here!! @ Cacttus/ Creative Arts Coalition to Transform Urban Space

Get your calendar ready for the November art walk in Long Beach!!! CACtTUS has a phenomenal exhibition featuring David Peña and Luisa Martinez. These two Tijuana / San Diego based artists are extremely talented and this show should not be missed!!

Thank you Long Beach for all the support this month! It’s been a real joy to have @karladiaz76 and her Unfamiliar Family exhibit in our space! Major thank you to @uamcsulb @mario_ybarra_jr @slanguagestudio and many other contributors which made this happen.

Thank you to everyone who has come to support @karladiaz76 and her poetic work at @cacttus_lb Thank you @mister.crawford For this wonderful video of the exhibition. Gallery Hrs today 1-6pm with the artist Karla Diaz ... Unfamiliar Family is a solo exhibition comprised of a series of embroidered works on canvas. They are based on salvaged photos the artist brought from her family’s drug-cartel abandoned home in Mexico and photos from her family’s apartment in East Los Angeles after their displacement because of gentrification. These are all embroidery portraits of family members who were lost, forgotten or estranged by family or by the individual’s choices. In an attempt to bring value and visibility to these family members, Diaz reconstructed all these portraits working as an archivist stitching to explore issues of family, identity, culture, history, displacement, culture and immigrant families. The biggest challenge was to finish these pieces after Diaz suffered a stroke in 2017 and a subsequent car crash, which affected her hand coordination. Regardless, Diaz is extremely happy to have accomplished this exhibition, all which may not have been possible with the support of her husband Mario Ybarra Jr., and the gracious hosting of Caccttus Gallery.

Thank you #longbeach for all the love yesterday. Familiar Family solo show by@karladiaz76 will be up until the 27 of October. Dm for appointment, follow for updates and check out our website to support.... Thank you @karladiaz76 for your hard work! Congratulations on a beautiful and poetic group of work.

The finishing touches are set! Unfamiliar Family Solo show by @karladiaz76 ... Opens Sat 10/13/18 5-9PM @cacttus_lb 326 Elm Ave Long Beach Ca 90802

@cacttus_lb is over the moon with joy! Thank you #longbeach for coming to support Cauliflower Ear Open by Appointment... Christian Ramirez’ Cauliflower Ear paintings and drawings address themes both timeless and timely: human violence. What first appear to be heads then shift into something more menacing and grotesque, sometimes dissolving into pure paint, sometimes resolving into the deformed appendages from which they take their title. The paintings perform a compelling tightrope walk between seemingly opposite conditions: realism and abstraction, humor and horror, specific and universal. They are portraits without faces; they show the evidence of violence, but not the violent act itself. The result is an unresolved tension that asks questions of the viewer: are these victims or victimizers? Are these boxers/wrestlers, or something else? Are they enforcers or protesters? Should we feel sympathy or fear? Ramirez may give us a clue to his intentions with the accompanying series of paintings that represent the experience of seeing stars when one is hit hard in the head, just before losing consciousness. Is this a warning for our current moment, or is the artist merely reporting (metaphorically?) on his life experience? Whatever our subjective reactions to these pictures, the work reminds us what is at stake in the ever-present human struggle for power: the focus of that violenceof aggressive reactions to fearis ultimately our own flesh-and-bones bodies. ~Vonn Sumner, 2018

Cauliflower Ear Opening Reception: September 8th 4pm-9pm... September 8-21st By Appointment "Christian Ramirez’ Cauliflower Earpaintings and drawings address themes both timeless and timely: human violence. What first appear to be heads then shift into something more menacing and grotesque, sometimes dissolving into pure paint, sometimes resolving into the deformed appendages from which they take their title. The paintings perform a compelling tightrope walk between seemingly opposite conditions: realism and abstraction, humor and horror, specific and universal. They are portraits without faces; they show the evidence of violence, but not the violent act itself. The result is an unresolved tension that asks questions of the viewer: are these victims or victimizers? Are these boxers/wrestlers, or something else? Are they enforcers or protesters? Should we feel sympathy or fear?" -Vonn Sumner, 2018

Thank you @thecollectiveprintstudio for the awesome shutout!!! For everyone in lbc and abroad please make a note to visit @thecollectiveprintstudio they have such an awesome set up for all kinds of print work!!

Thank you #longbeach Tonight will be your last chance to see @harmonyinbadtaste (Steven Frost’s) solo show we’re strangers until we’re not 6-8pm @cacttus_lb