Fruiting Bodies
July 5 – August 5, 2022
Curated by Kelsey Westphal (aka Krusty Wheatfield)
Fruiting Bodies is an exhibition by Oakland-based artists Mara Ramirez, Anjelica Colliard, and Leena Joshi. For one sensuous, subterranean month, the artists will transform the gallery into a proliferating oasis of unruly forms and tender corporealities. Of special note will be Ramirez’ intimately hand-drawn animations, lush, large-scale drawings on paper by Colliard, and poetic textiles from Joshi.
Krusty Wheatfield (KQW, Kelsey Westphal) is a cartoonist and multimedia artist based in Oakland, CA. The power of lines and shapes to create stories and connections has guided her throughout her “career”, from getting a masters in comics research in France to curating monthly art shows from inside of a classic car showroom in Oakland. She aims to draw people together in space, literally and figuratively, and see what new situations arise from unpredictable combinations. Long-term interview comics with avant garde publisher V Vale, gigantic wordless cartoon scenes, noise collages and organizing events are all part of her pursuit of the glittering edge where the sacred and absurd meet. Her favorite projects include “Fetching” (a dog fashion show), “Future Ruins” a field research comics zine with french artist Sabine Teyssonneyre, and multiple newsletters–namely, her raunchy quarantine newsletter The Deliverable with unhinged NYC lawyer ‘Little Johnny’, cosmic neighborhood broadsheet The Jefferies Tube with Stephen Steinbrink, and creating the A.B.O. Comix newsletter for LGBTQ+ folks in prisons). She loves the crust of bread, and of LIFE!
This exhibition was part of our 2022 Curator Series which is supported in part by Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
