Stewart Francis Easton / Ako Castuera

IS THIS THE NEW AGE?
March 13 - APRIL 9, 2021

Stewart Francis Easton 

Breaking the traditional boundaries of craft, Stewart Francis Easton’s work fuses together hand embroidery, sonic art and music. Drawing upon and using folk song, story and social history as a starting point Easton works with the space and weight of story to create large-scale wall based pieces that emphasize the passage of time within a single panel. Most recently Easton has been exploring the connection between the process of hand embroidery / expansion of awareness / and abstract forms into a body of hand stitched works documenting a daily practice of stitching meditation.

(B. 1976, United Kingdom) Easton has had a number of solo/ group shows both in the UK and USA. His work is part of private collections in the UK and Internationally. Lives and works in London, UK.

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Ako Castuera

Ako Castuera’s sculptural work is deeply informed by the diverse cultural and environmental features of Southern California, on Tongva Land, where she was born and currently lives. The shapes and surfaces in her work recall plants, animals, and the broad miscellany of a world in which human life is neither separate nor hierarchically ordered in opposition to nature. Ako’s sculptural work is a material exploration which draws on mythmaking to give body to personal and global histories, incorporating a variety of mediums including locally gathered and commercial clay, neighborhood yard trimmings, compost, yarn, and living worms.  

Her practice includes teaching workshops on storytelling, local clay and compost. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in the US. She maintains a concurrent career in animation, most recently as an episode director on City of Ghosts, an animated show exploring historic communities of Los Angeles in the midst of rapid change. She is also known for her work as a writer/storyboard artist on the television show Adventure Time.