Exhibits:

b*longing A solo exhibit by Julia LaChica March 5 to April 30. Gallery hours: 1p.m. to 6p.m. Tuesday - Saturday Panel Discussion: Saturday April 16, 2p.m. b*longing is my way to bring together, in odd visual arrangements, the queer ideas that haunt my every day.  As an artist my primary creative practice is to arrange and rearrange, construct and deconstruct, images and objects that intrigue me.  Shadow boxes were the first medium I began to explore seriously as an artist.  Their intimate nature as small spiritual assemblages seemed well suited to my humble offerings.  In my paintings, this fascination with the mechanics of construction and design continues to inform my work.  A consistent feature of my craft is the layering of different histories and cultures.  I consciously work to create a sense of the past by integrating found objects, distressing elements, and aging materials in order to reveal how corrosion, rust and wear accumulate on bodies and surfaces.   A point of departure for this exhibit was my attempt to touch the life of my father, and the personal and historical events that formed him.  These familial portraits, taken from another time and place, also connect me to generations of Filipino and other immigrants who likewise longed for elsewhere, who came to the U.S. and dreamed of other horizons, even as they forged new ties here.    In their faces, we see marked their longing for dignity, community, prosperity, and love, and perhaps we can also sense how these ideals eluded them.  Other images in the exhibit explore my attraction to the fragile beauty of nature and my desire to ascribe human-generated conditions, such as suffering, alienation and loneliness, to animals. Like them, I sometimes struggle with feeling outside spaces of belonging. These pieces reflect my process of bringing these intimate emotions, objects and memories together to recreate new cultural configurations of aesthetic kinship. Artist Biography: Julia LaChica’s work includes mixed media assemblages, object making, printmaking and painting. The daughter of an aging Filipino merchant marine from Aklan province, and his young and beautiful wife from Kyushu, Japan, Julia LaChica was born in 1963 and grew up in a housing project in Chinatown surrounded by multiple languages she did not speak.  This “very San Francisco” experience of merging histories, conjoined landscapes, and attraction to the strangeness of words continues to inform her sense of aesthetics and belonging, particularly in her mixed-media shadow boxes.  After several years working as an independent artist, in 2001 she completed her BFA from the California College of the Arts in Industrial Design.  Her painting is deeply informed by her training as a designer and often includes formal elements such as pattern and motif, but her pieces also seek to interrupt expected forms and emotional responses by interjecting unusual elements or visual surprises. Julia LaChica has exhibited at various locations in and around San Francisco, including Galería de a Raza, the Sargent Johnson Gallery, San Francisco State University, California College of the Arts, and Artist Television Access.  She now lives in Oakland.  This is her first solo exhibit.

Workshops/Presentations:

Wednesdays 3PM SENIOR COMPUTER LAB Learn how to use Social Online Networks, Photo Imaging Stations, and the basics of computer technology. Don't waste money on Phone Cards; talk to your loved ones through email, instant messenger, or social online networks. Now offered in Tagalog! Contact isaac-o@manilatown.org for an appointment

Community Events/Services:

Upcoming Projects using Web 2.0 Technology
Check out manilatownarchives.blogspot.com! Its a website that provides on-line visibility to Manilatown's digital archives. Research historical photos and documents from Al Robles, Chris Fujimoto and Estella Habal Collections. Look out for more collections, oral histories on podcast and streaming videos of archival material in the near future. We currently have volunteer and internship positions open for young people who have skills or interest in web 2.0 technology (blogger, flickr, podcasts), digital media and Filipino-American cultural preservation. Please contact the Archival Coordinator at ellenrae@manilatown.org for more information.

DVD Available now!
A Serving of Love: The Passion of Bill Sorro
Documentary by RJ Lozada

This film presents Bill's passion, humor, and humility which inspired people of all ages, ethnicities, and walks of life.

Available now! $20. Please call 415.777.1130 or e-mail mhf@manilatown.org.

• billsorro.manilatown.org

ONLINE EXHIBIT A Serving of Love: The Passion of Bill Sorro, based on the gallery show and documentary produced by Manilatown Heritage Foundation for the 30th anniversary of the eviction of the International Hotel.
Robynn Takayama, Producer, Director, Video Editor. RJ Lozada, Videographer.

• 
  A Serving of Love is funded in part by
  California Council for the Humanities
  
  
  ONLINE: Inspiration of Al Robles

  alrobles.manilatown.org

  ONLINE EXHIBIT Inspiration of Al Robles Born and raised in San Francisco’s Fillmore district, Al Robles brings generations of Filipinos together through poetry and “talk story” oral history presentations. Known affectionately as the poet laureate of the Filipino community, Al has frequently read with Janice Mirikitani, Genny Lim, Jack Hirschman and other great poets. Learn more about the Inspiration of Al Robles. Robynn Takayama, Producer, Director, Video Editor.

• FADF/Bayanihan Community Center
• Bindlestiff Studio
• San Francisco Filipino Cultural Center
  

Manilatown Heritage Foundation art programs are supported in part by the following funders:

 




San Francisco Arts Commission