Works by CalArtians Now On View at the Armory Center

The Armory Center for the Arts opened their fall exhibitions this past weekend. | Photo: Harry Dodge, ‘Mysterious Fires, 2016, video still. Courtesy of the Armory Center and the artist.

This past weekend, the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, Calif., opened its fall slate with two of the center’s exhibitions featuring the work of CalArtians.

The first, Harry Dodge: The Inner Reality of Ultra-Intelligent Life, marks the first solo exhibition in Los Angeles for the renowned interdisciplinary artist and CalArts art faculty member Harry Dodge. Curated by the Armory Center’s Associate Curator Suzy Halajian, the exhibition features the premiere of two new video works: Mysterious Fires and Big Bang (Song of the Cosmic Hobo), which are on view with older sculptures and drawings that illuminate the artist’s interests and thinking over the past decade.

The Armory also opened the exhibition, Radio Imagination: Artists in the Archive of Octavia E. Butler, curated by the arts nonprofit arts organization Clockshop as part of its year-long celebration of the life and work of Pasadena science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006).

Clockshop’s trailer for the Octavia Butler exhibition Radio Imagination from Clockshop on Vimeo.

More about Butler from the Armory:

She was the first Black woman to achieve international prominence in the genre, and is the first and only writer of science fiction to earn a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship. With Black female protagonists, radical notions of kinship, and a keen understanding of power dynamics, Butler’s writing revamped the conventions of the science fiction genre. Ultimately, her work suggested new ways of thinking and new models of working for generations of writers and artists to come.

Butler’s papers at the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif., served as the inspiration for new works by the contemporary artists participating in the Armory’s exhibition, including Laylah Ali, Malik Gaines (Critical Studies MFA 99) and Alexandro Segade, Lauren Halsey (Art BFA 12), Mendi + Keith Obadike, Connie Samaras and Cauleen Smith.

Both exhibitions will remain on view through Jan. 8, 2017.