UCR MFA 2020:
The show that never happened
Olivia Hill is an artist and recent graduate of the UC Riverside Visual Art MFA program. These oil paintings on canvas depict both physical and metaphysical sites in the Southern California Landscape where the land and its inhabitants have pushed against each other, giving way to form. Hill grew up in Los Angeles and went on to live in San Francisco, New Orleans, and Nashville before returning to California for graduate school. She has exhibited
at various institutions including Kunstwerk Carlshutte in Rendsberg, Germany, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, The Baton Rouge State Museum, Southern Louisiana University, The Riverside Art Museum and Millard Sheets Art Center in Pomona. She is currently quarantined in her home and studio in Yucca Valley, California.
'Cascades', Oil on Canvas, 72”x60”, 2020
'Empty Bowl', Oil on Canvas, 48” x 36”, 2020
'Rainbow', Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 72” x 60”, 2020
'Hole', Oil on Canvas, 24” x 30”, 2020
'Two Holes With Tree', Oil on Canvas, 24” x 30”, 2020
Natalie Jenkins is a visual artist, currently working in Yucca Valley, California. She received an MFA from the University of California, Riverside in 2020, and a BFA from the Oregon College of Art and Craft, Portland, OR in 2014. Working primarily in sculpture, Jenkins’ explores the mediation of ‘seeing’ through physical obstruction and perceptual confusion. Surrealists in their representations, the objects are darkly goofy and prop-like as they are constructed out of simple materials, like papier-mâché. She often depicts allegories and
imaginary scenarios surrounding subjectivity. There is an inside/outside quality to each sculpture; to view the entirety of the work one must look through external punctures into the interior in order to piece together the entirety of the composition. The looking into, and out of while others do the same is voyeuristic in nature, implying a presence of another, and to question, what actually there?
'To Touch an Elephant is to Touch a Snake', Papier-mache, steel, acrylic, flash paint, size variable, 2020.
'To Touch an Elephant is to Touch a Snake', Papier-mache, steel, acrylic, flash paint, size variable, 2020.
'To Touch an Elephant is to Touch a Snake', Papier-mache, steel, acrylic, flash paint, size variable, 2020.
'Mouths Hold Many Troooooths', Papier-mache, steel, acrylic, flash paint, size variable, 72 x 20 x 20”, 2020.
'Mouths Hold Many Troooooths', Papier-mache, steel, acrylic, flash paint, size variable, 72 x 20 x 20”, 2020.
'Mouths Hold Many Troooooths', Papier-mache, steel, acrylic, flash paint, size variable, 72 x 20 x 20”, 2020.
'Seeing isn’t Believing', Papier-mache, steel, rope, tempera, 14 x 70 x 70”, 2019.
'Seeing isn’t Believing', Papier-mache, steel, rope, tempera, 14 x 70 x 70”, 2019.
'Seeing isn’t Believing', Papier-mache, steel, rope, tempera, 14 x 70 x 70”, 2019.
'Seeing isn’t Believing', Papier-mache, steel, rope, tempera, 14 x 70 x 70”, 2019.
Born in Manila, Philippines, Cara Rae Joven is now based in Los Angeles. She received her MFA from UC Riverside and her BFA from Art Center College of Design. Joven’s practice comprises of sculpture, video and writing that wrestle with cultural identity, feminism and her relationship with the landscape.
'30,000 feet in the fucking sky', diptych, dual mounting on acrylic, each 48 in x 96 in
'In the shadow of those who care for you' dual mounting on acrylic 47 3/4 in x 84 in
Peter Tomka
Peter Tomka (b. 1989, Des Moines, IA. Lives and works in Los Angeles) is an artist whose work prioritizes questions on the relationship between performance, its photographic documentation, and the power dynamics inherent in looking and being seen. Recent exhibitions include Transparent Papers, Temporary Wall at the Phyllis Gill Gallery, Riverside, CA; Choreographic Residency Exhibition, LA Dance Project, Los Angeles; and Ghey Scarecrow Doesn’t Know What to
Wear at Human Resources, Los Angeles. He was a resident at Port Tonic Art Center in Roquebrune-sur-Argens, France and his work is held in the collection of The Whitney Museum of American Art and the Main Library Special Collection at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He holds a BA from the University of Iowa and an MFA from the University of California, Riverside. He is the recipient of the 2019 Lieutenant Governor’s Arts Project.
