Names Printed in Black

LACE is pleased to announce its selection of the next project for the Emerging Curators Program. Names Printed in Black, curated by Emily Butts, takes place in Jan 2018. As Los Angeles’ premier experimental non-profit exhibition space, LACE created this program to discover and promote curatorial talent. Butts’ proposal was selected from a pool of 48 that reflect the diversity of perspectives of the arts community. The jury comprised of Lanka Tattersall, Assistant Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Beatriz Cortez, artist and cultural critic, and Dorit Cypis, artist, educator, and activist.

Names Printed in Black explores the impact that memory has on the physical and psychological body, using loss and trauma as a framework to understand individual and collective rememberings. The artists featured in this exhibition explore human rights violations, the language that is meant to protect us against them, representations of violence in the media, and how our body reacts. Among the artists whose work is included in the exhibition are Carmen Argote, Adriana Corral, Carlos Motta, Lisa C Soto, and Samira Yamin.

As juror Dorit Cypis commented, “The exhibition Emily Butts proposed resonates with rich ethical and aesthetic threads that elaborate on how our collective political and human histories live within us and steer our present tense. Empathy is timely. Today, as ever, we find ourselves immersed in the question: who is remembered and who is forgotten.”

Butts’ curatorial debut at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center focused on the work of East L.A. based artist Star Montana. She served as the curatorial assistant for the exhibition Home – So Different, So Appealing at LACMA as a part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative. She received her undergraduate degree from Pitzer College and is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin.