In three new exhibitions opening July 11, Angels Gate Cultural Center will be featuring photographic portraiture. The three artists of these exhibitions range widely in subject, yet are brought together through their exploration of individuals that often go unseen – artists as workers, the human elements of the Los Angeles Superior Court system and members of the American military.
Slobodan Dimitrov: Artist Portraits
In 2006 the Angels Gate Cultural Center commissioned renown labor photographer and long-time AGCC Studio Artist to engage in an ongoing project to document artists working and exhibiting in the Harbor Area. This series is executed in large format, Polaroid Type 55 Black and White Film and captures artists as the working people that they are. This exhibition will be the first time that the series has been exhibited to the public, 150 images from this ongoing body of work will be on display.
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An employee in the Los Angeles court system, Camilo Cruz is a witness to people at the mercy of system driven attorneys; toddlers crawling unattended on marble floors; sheriff deputies flirting with teenage girls. These and other scenes are simultaneously beautiful and circus-like, emotional and compelling.
His position in the court allows access to the people and environment that are contained within our nation’s system of justice. As a photographer, Cruz makes images that explore the intense psychological and social experiences of this powerful space. By doing this, He reveals the dialectical forces of power and helplessness we all feel while engaging with the
institutional forces of our society.
Nicholas Grider: Soldiers and a Sailor
The work that comprises Soldiers, Marines and a Sailor consists of two bodies of portraits of US military service members. The first series, titled Soldiers and Marines, consists of a diptych portrait of U.S. Army Soldiers and an accompanying grid of portraits of U.S. Marines.
The second set of portraits, nearly the opposite of Soldiers in terms of their scope, is called A Sailor and consists of portraits of the artist’s father taken by fellow sailors while he served in the Navy during the Korean War. These small black and white portraits, overlaid with the text written on the back of the originals, allow room for a loose narrative of what life during wartime was like for the artist’s own father sixty years ago and provide a historical counterpoint to the full-color, up-close contemporary portraits from the series Soldiers and Marines.
Opening Reception: Sunday, July 11, 2-5pm
Angels Gate Cultural Center is located at:
3601 South Gaffey Street
San Pedro, CA 90731
310-519-0936
www.angelsgateart.org
Gallery Hours: 10am – 5pm, Tuesday – Sunday
By Jim McKinniss
PhotoExchange 
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