What’s Your Elephant Art Exhibition: August 18 - September 29th, 2018 at the 1310 Gallery

What’s Your Elephant Art Exhibit to Opens with Compelling Art and Performances

Opening Night + Performance: Saturday, August 18th | 1310 Gallery | 6pm-10pm
Artist Niki Lopez will be curating her 10th Annual Art Show at Fort Lauderdale’s 1310 Gallery. She was recently featured on the People Magazine Investigates Cults series on the Investigation Discovery channel. There, Lopez shared her story of being raised in an abusive cult that thrived on secrecy, until she and other survivors broke their silence, which ultimately brought down the cult and its leader.

This experience inspired her to create a space in her art to share her "elephant" (an obvious truth that is being ignored or otherwise unaddressed) and to passionately provide opportunities for others to do the same. What’s Your Elephant uses a combination of art exhibits, interactive installations, and workshops to provoke and facilitate discussions unveiling issues like gender, discrimination, and abuse.

Visual Artists:

• Adewale Adenle
• Artists for Black Lives Matter #a4blm
• Cathleen Dean
• Cindy Shaw
• Jose Silva
• Mary Catello
• Naomi Lauren Ross
• Natalya Kochak - Niki Lopez
• Rene Gordon
• Robbi Potter
• Stonewall National Museum & Archives (COMMUNITY PARTNER)
• Susan Buzzi
• Tabatha Mudra
• Talora Michaels
• Teepop
• Tina La Porta
• Victoria Sheridan
• #whatsyourelephant workshop artwork
• Wilbert Simpson

Visual artists of the 2018 opening night of the 'What's Your Elephant' art exhibition

Attendees are invited to participate with an interactive installation to share their “elephant.” Lopez will also host a "What’s Your Elephant” workshop at the location of this exhibition’s community partner - Stonewall National Museum & Archives on Thursday, August 2, 2018. Participants will use creative arts in a safe space to reveal individual or societal “elephants” impacting their lives. “It’s about acknowledging it [the elephant] owning it so that it doesn’t define you,” says Lopez.

Admission is free and open to the public. This exhibition presents materials of a sensitive nature. Viewer discretion is advised.


Opening night will be hosted by poet Rachel 'Flow Diva' Finely and include performances by Inez Barlatier, Venus Rising, Mystic Mantra Band, May Reign, Dillon, Morgyn Danae, G. Winston James, Charnell Richards and Chelsea Ward. Music DJ Bumi.

Sponsors: AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Niki Lopez Creative, 1310 Bandits Collective, Very GTV, Panku Literary and Arts Magazine, TBA, and the 1310 Gallery.

For more info on the arts project: http://nikiartstudio.com/whats-your-elephant/

Funding for this project is provided in part by the Broward County Board of County Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Council and from the Community Foundation of Broward: Fonda, and H. Wayne Huizenga, Jr. Family Trust Fund, Gary J. Scotto Fun and Mary and Alex Mackenzie Community Impact Fund

Sponsor:

AIDS Healthcare Foundation

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2018 Community Partner:

Stonewall National Museum & Archives: Stonewall, our 2018 Community Partner, is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(3) that promotes understanding through preserving and sharing the proud culture of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their significant role in society.

Special thanks to:

The Strawbridge Family and all who contributed to the Facebook fundraiser campaign!

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Exhibition: August 18 - September 29th, 2018
Dates:

• August 2  - What’s Your Elephant workshop at Stonewall National Museum & Archives
• August 18 What’s Your Elephant - Opening night & performance
• Sept 6 - Ignite Women South Florida / 1310 Bandits Short Film Screening
• Sept 18 - Artists Co-Lab Music Mixer
• Sept 29 - Artists Talk / Open Mic Closing

Cash bar provided by

Click to view some photos from the opening night here,

Did you attend this opening?  Fill out this questionnaire for your chance to WIN a FREE What's Your Elephant T-shirt!

Press

Artist and Activist Niki Lopez Helps Trauma Survivors Through Art - Miami New Times, read it here

Broward Arts Calendar: Speaking Out About the Elephant in the Room,  Read it here

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What's Your Elephant t-shirts are in stock!


YOUR t-shirt purchase helps to support this art movement & it's growth!
Click here to order

Creative Circle Tuesdays: Alana DaCosta

Alana DaCosta at A Swing Thing - The Social Lubricant Photo Credit: Alessandro Abate

Name: Alana DaCosta

Facebook Page: facebook.com/pages/Alana-DaCosta-Singer-Songwriter/129462090439799

What is your medium(s): Music, Poetry, Multi-disciplinary

What type of art do you do? Experiential World Music

What inspires you? LIFE, all the experiences in life influence my creative outlets. Oftentimes, forcing me to step out of my comfort zone and simply create without bounds and without regret. All is Divine Order and

What pieces did you include in the exhibit "L’éléphant dans la Salle" and why? (please share some of the story behind some of the work) One day while throwing out the trash, I found a large and heavy table top . I had to have it. Not knowing that it would become my first painting “Lady Blues”  a depiction of the labels that are often branded on women and internalized. Yet, this lady chooses to expose all these labels and not allow them to define who she is. She realizes that she is beyond what she sees, hears and speaks....She goes within and sees her freedom and is no longer defined by limited standards of society...

Lady Blues by Alana DaCosta

Alana DaCosta performing & co-host at L’éléphant dans la Salle art exhibit at the 1310 Gallery

Self taught or traditionally trained? Traditionally trained in  music and voice. Self taught visual artist

Share one thing that has impacted your work? In 2007 my father passed away. This was a major life-changing event for me. After his passing, it was like my creative flood gates opened and my music, sketches and poems changed drastically. I began to create and explore whatever my heart desired with no apologies and no regret. I challenged myself to step out of my comfort zone and became a creative rebel. Now, if I have the desire to create something be it a song, poem, drawing, dance, etc., , I just do it, unapologetically.

Cant view the link?  Click here: http://youtu.be/Cw7w5tizFmE

Name one thing we may not know about you or your work? This was my first “official” painting.  I have always loved to find discarded objects that are no longer wanted and change them into something beautiful. However, because I have no training in visual arts and I would never share any of these works or any of my sketches because I was afraid of rejection. Also, I have always been very selective with what music or poems I share. During this exhibit, I decided to let the “vibes” and energy of the attendees to determine what songs and poems I shared. As a result I shared “VICTIM”, “QuickSwitch” and other pieces that I rarely share with others.

If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be? That people can live life freely and responsibly in their truth.

If you had access to a time machine, where would you go? I would go to a time when we never needed a time machine to travel through time. A time when we as a collective understood who we truly are and our place in the universe

If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring creative, what would it be? Do not allow fear or doubt to stifle your potential...

If you could have one super power, what would it be? To fly....

Social Media drug of choice? At this time, Facebook....

Side note from Niki Art Studio: Not only is Alana DaCosta a talented artist, I have had the pleasure of working with her on numerous projects and collaborations.   From photographing and designing her album cover to co-producing a couple of art exhibits at the Sailboat Bend Artists Lofts aka 1310 Gallery.   Besides being the co-producer and host for the L’éléphant dans la Salle art exhibit, Dacosta is also the co-creator of the movement #WhatsYourElephant - A human experience project using the arts to create provocative conversations around the unspoken.  To find out more about that project, click here.

Creative Circle Tuesdays: Louis Davis

Self portrait of Artist & Photographer Louis Davis

Name:  Louis Davis

Website: louisdavisart.com

Facebook Page: facebook.com/louisdavisart

What is your medium:  Photography is my base medium

What type of art do you do?  I construct new stories from my photographs to represent something usually totally different, in the tradition of collages, photomontages, digital art, activist art and storytelling.

The Encroaching Wilderness - by Louis Davis

What inspires you?  Almost everything, but mainly books and other visual images.  However, quite often i might be walking or even driving when I see an image and it triggers a memory or an idea.

What pieces did you include in the exhibit "L’éléphant dans la Salle" and why? I showed 3 images in that show. One was a cutdown from a larger piece called "maintaining our way of life", which deals with fast food and obesity and how it is exported throughout the world. The cutdown, which is a small section, is a remake of a very iconic image, and was used to illustrate the real role of the united states army. another image, still untitled after many years, is an image that just falls together visually, but which i have yet to find a reason behind. yet, it turns out that many people react emotionally to the work. the third image, "who is the terrorist?", is in response to how easy we label people and groups terrorists, while the word is simply based on perspectives.

Louis Davis - Who is the Terrorist

Louis Davis - Untitled

Louis Davis - Maintaining our way of Life

Self taught or traditionally trained?  I am not sure what traditionally trained is, but I am self-taught.

Abandon Hope by Louis Davis

Share one thing that has impacted your work?  My activism is central to my work.  So anything that affects the plight of the poor or the environment is likely to be seen in my work.  The computer surely impacts my work because without it, much of my work would take a different form and direction.  

Name one thing we may not know about you or your work?  That its not as easy as it seems.  Many people can create images but often, many images don't have a 'soul', a sense of being.  Achieving palpable meaning is not easy.

If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be? Aaah,could we delete man?  Ok,that's apparently not going to work for the purpose of this.  Remove greed.

If you had access to a time machine, where would you go?  Hm. Not sure I want to go forward because seeing the future might not be a healthy thing.  So it has to be the past.  Have to think about when, where and why.

If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring creative, what would it be?   If the person is visual, then I would asy, look at images constantly.  If the person wants to be a writer, I would say 'read voraciously'.  If the person want in on music, then listen.

If you could have one super power,what would it be?  Mass hypnosis, ala Mandrake the magician.  If you can influence people's minds, then you don't need a weapon.

Social Media drug of choice?  Facebook is the only social media I use though at times, I'm often loathe to use it.  Most of the others are too smart for me and twits shouldn't use twitter.

Creative Circle Tuesdays: Judy Polstra

Artist Judy Polstra

Name: Judy Polstra

Website: judypolstra.com

What is your medium(s): primarily mixed media/found objects

What type of art do you do? Visual: mixed media 3-d

What inspires you? Beautiful music, especially classical. I’m a wanna-be pianist. Classical, jazz, and the blues never fail to inspire me.

What pieces did you include in the exhibit "L’éléphant dans la Salle" and why? (please share some of the story behind some of the work)

The System by Judy Polstra

1.   “The System” miced media installation- Inspired by stories about DCF (Dept. of Children and Families) and CPS (Child Protective Serives); children were identified as being in troubled or dangerous homes. They were then lost in bureaucracy and ended dead- since no one followed up after the initial report. Additional stories about the VA ((Dept.) of Veterans Affairs) where our Veterans are denied or severly delayed medical treatment; big banks and “corporations as people” are more Systems that leave carnage in their wake.
2. “Put Your Fingers in my Hole’ –neon sign- I came up with these words after I was car-jacked by two criminals at gunpoint. While I was not hurt physically, the aftermath left me traumatized and afraid. I spiraled into a deep depression and I just wanted the pain to stop. I felt like I had a giant hole in my gut and psyche. When the words popped into my head, the double entendre made me smile. Most everyone who sees it smiles or giggles, thinking it’s a sexual innuendo. The smiles and comments of watching others helped the healing from the ordeal to begin.
3.  “We Do”- plaster wedding cake- a tribute to gay marriage, showing 2 grooms and 2 groomsmen. Why this is still a taboo to ANYONE baffles me.

Dying to be Beautiful by Judy Polstra

Self taught or traditionally trained? Self taught. My mother was an oil painter, so I grew up surrounded by art. I’ve been drawing and painting since before I could walk.

Share one thing that has impacted your work?  Volunteering for Hospice, the murder of a family member and my car-jacking experiences have given me the clarity to embrace my mortality. It’s also given me the courage and strength to be more fearless in my art and life in general.

Support to Halt Aging Process by Judy Polstr

Name one thing we may not know about you or your work? I am a wanna be Buddhist and Vegan. Both are lifelong works in progress.

If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be? That all living beings be free from suffering.

If you had access to a time machine, where would you go?  Vienna, Austria in the late 1700's early 1800's to meet and know Beethoven.

If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring creative, what would it be? Never give up on your passion, because you WILL want to. And follow your inner voice. It’s wiser than you realize.

If you could have one super power, what would it be? Flawless intuition

Social Media drug of choice?: Facebook. I don’t tweet and have never tried Instagram

Creative Circle Tuesdays: Mr. Rigz

Mr. Rigz performing with a three-piece jazz band and the Ars Flores String section

Name: Mr. Rigz

Website: facebook.com/misterrigz

What is your medium(s):  Music and Poetry

What type of art do you do?  I try to focus on simple, universal themes, but present them in big, powerful, yet conceptually detailed ways.  So, to take a simple idea, layer it with a lot of sympathetic emotions and then throw in some "easter eggs" for those people who are really paying attention.

Mr. Rigz

What inspires you?  My past, my family, friends, people around me, finding myself in random situations, other poets, "underground" music, creative professionals, nighttime shenanigans

What pieces did you include in the exhibit "L’éléphant dans la Salle" and why?  I did a lot of my usual poetry pieces.  Honestly, I don't know that I necessarily was trying to match the "Elephant" theme, but I find Spoken Word lends itself to be a very cleansing art form, in general.  So by just speaking our stories, I feel like it was a good fit.

War Within - Mr. Rigz

Self taught or traditionally trained?  Mostly self-taught.  I've taken bits of musical lessons here and there, but nothing too permanent.  I've maybe taken 1 or 2 poetry classes in my whole life.  And I've been trying to go to more poetry workshops, but usually it's more for the community and connection, than to learn things.  Maybe I get some good reminders of things to think about or focus on.  And also, I like to get new resources to note and use later.

Share one thing that has impacted your work?  It changes.  In the past, it would've been things that happened to me, or to the people around me.  Nowadays, it's more about the connections I'm making with people.

Name one thing we may not know about you or your work?  I never really considered myself an actual poet until just recently, maybe within the past year or so.

A Perfect Grain of Sand - Mr. Riz

If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?  I'd end poverty.  I don't see any point in it.  Some people honestly try to justify that for some to be incredibly wealthy others have to be poor.  And then when you start to put that on a global scale and compare wealthy countries to entire countries, so entrenched in poverty, that they don't have clean water or proper schools, I think you realize how unnecessary 10 bedroom mansions are.

If you had access to a time machine, where would you go?  I'm not sure Paris, New York and Chicago in the 1920s.  Maybe I'd go back and try to meet Jesus.  Or hang out with the ancient Egyptians or the Mayans.  Maybe ancient Ethiopia.  

If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring creative, what would it be?  Work on your art everyday for at least 30 minutes.  If at the end of thirty minutes, you have nothing then go take a break, but at least devote 30 minutes to your art everyday.  There are a lot of things that happen in the short term and the long term that improve your art when you make a daily commitment to yourself.

If you could have one super power,what would it be?  Some kind of space and/or time control.  Like that ability to phase to and from different places without having to take the time to drive there would be pimp!

Social Media drug of choice? Right now it's facebook just because that's where I get the most interaction.  But I'm trying to branch out more.  For instance, I just started a project on Instagram.  In order to motivate myself to get back into playing drums again, I learn at least one song every week, film myself playing and then post the clip up onto Instagram.  It's actually kind of big commitment for a small 12 second video, but the true benefits are reconditioning my hands, body, lungs and mind into that particular mode of creative thinking and muscle memory.  The Instagram project is just a public way of holding myself accountable to continuing the discipline and a fun way to document my progress.

Jasmine Sweet - Mr. Riz feat. Anon De-Evolution

Creative Circle Tuesdays: Kim Heise

Artist Kim Heise

Name: 

Kim Heise

Website: 

Kimheise.com

What is your medium(s):

I like to use mediums and techniques that produce strange, otherworldly results, because I love looking at artwork and wondering how it could have possibly been made.  I use watercolor, oil and acrylic painting with brushes and knives, pastels, monotype and printmaking techniques, and I often combine one or more of those in one painting.  My paintings are usually large because I’m able to achieve more of the affects I desire when working with many of the mediums at that scale.  A dialog between the art and the viewer is also more person-to-person at that scale, which is something I’ve always loved about large pieces, so it’s a double win for me.

What type of art do you do? What inspires you?

I like how using strange techniques and mediums causes the hand of the artist to become obscured, creating distance between the object and the creator, which causes it to seem to take on a life of it's own. I love William Blake, Walton Ford, Kehinde Wiley (and other modern artists one might find in a more socially acceptable artist’s list of inspirations) but stories and fairytales are my main inspirations.  I spend large chunks of my time reading, watching TV, or browsing through illustrations and art online.  These stories have a huge impact on me emotionally, and for a large part they inform how I understand the world around me.  A few standouts: Hayao Miyazaki, Peter S Beagle’s The Last Unicorn, Dr. Who … Probably every movie, TV show, book or painting has made some impact on my life, many are precious to me. Recently, the problems of the world have been inspiring me to think about my artwork from an activism standpoint.  There are so many things that need to change. I think we are at a point in history where we all need to be doing something about something, and since stories affect me so deeply and personally, I believe that storytellers like artists and writers have a huge role to play.  I believe each new generation needs stories with which to connect to, and so the creation and telling of the stories will never end.  What gets me to pick up the paintbrush is the belief that I can tell a good story, or tell an old story in a new and meaningful way.

What pieces did you include in the exhibit "L’éléphant dans la Salle" and why? (please share some of the story behind some of the work) 

The pieces I submitted to the exhibit are part of an inquiry into anger that began a few years back.  I was really upset about violence at the time and was trying to do research to try and understand what was going on.  The idea that hatred and anger are root causes of violence stood out to me.  I set out to tell stories that would vilify hatred and anger in ways that I felt the stories around me had failed to do.  I used animals in a symbolic way, like fairy tales and folktales do, to try to illustrate these concepts in a way that anyone could understand.

Better Things 1 by Kim Heise

Better Things 1 by Kim Heise

In Better Things 1 and 2, two parrots are fighting each other and are so absorbed in knocking each other’s brains out that they don’t notice that snakes are everywhere.  The birds should be working together to fend off the snakes, or at least fly off and avoid the danger altogether.  Instead, they are focusing their attention on something much less important.  When I made this piece I was mostly thinking politics, and the two parrots were made red and blue to symbolize democrats and republicans. That same concept of being too angry and distracted to see the big picture evolved to become broader, more overreaching and less specific as I continued to address it in subsequent pieces, like in Snakes.

Just Mist by Kim Heise

Just Mist, a monotype depicting a stampeding elephant ignored by a rabbit in the foreground, was also included in the show. This was the last piece I made in that series, Inspired by Matthew Richard in his “Habits of Happiness” TED talk in which he said “Instead of looking outward we look inward. Look at anger itself. It looks very menacing, like a billowing monsoon, cloud, thunderstorm, we think we could sit on the cloud, but if you go there, it’s just mist. Likewise if you look at the thought of anger, it will vanish like frost under the morning sun. If we do this again and again, the propensity, the tendency of anger to arise again will be less and less each time we have dissolved it. And at the end, although it may arise it will just cross the sky like a bird not leaving any track.” That really touched me and made me feel hopeful about our capabilities as human beings to overcome evil, and that was a thought that went on to inform the series of artwork that followed. 

Self taught or traditionally trained?

I do have traditional training; as a child and teenager I took art classes at the Coral Springs Museum of Art, and then I studied art at FAU with a concentration in painting, although I also took several printmaking classes, including monotype. For the most part though, I learn a new medium through my own experimentation.

Share one thing that has impacted your work? Name one thing we may not know about you or your work?:

Something that I don’t normally share is that I’ve been struggling with tennis elbow for the past few years.  It prevents me from doing as much artwork as I would like, much less actually.  I go months without picking up a pencil to sketch anything because I physically cannot do it.  It has certainly impacted the way my art is being made right now, making it very tricky to work at the large scale I enjoy working at.  It has changed my process as well. I work much slower now, and use mediums that flow rather than those they require a lot of pressure to apply.  I’ve been slowly improving, and I am expecting be able to do some large paintings this fall.

If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?

If I could change one thing about the world, I’d make people more compassionate and loving toward each other and the environment.

If you had access to a time machine, where would you go?

If I had a time machine I’d probably go see dinosaurs.

If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring  creative, what would it be?

My advice to an aspiring creative would be to exercise regularly and eat lots of vegetables, and recycle.

If you could have one super power, what would it be?

I’d like to be able to fly.

Facebook:

facebook.com/KimHeisesArt

Instagram: 

@kimsartandstuff

Creative Circle Tuesdays: Allison Kotzig

Artist Allison Kotzig (Irreversible Magazine)
Photo credit: Leonardo DiTomaso for Irreversible Magazine

Name: 

Allison Kotzig

Website: 

kotzig.com  

vimeo.com/allisonkotzig/videos

What is your medium(s)?

Sex store vaginas, video

What type of art do you do?

I make feminist protest art and video that explores trance states.

What inspires you? 

Social activism for my feminist protest art and the beauty and mystery of trance states for my video work.

Art patrons L’éléphant dans la Salle art exhibit reviewing
Oh Wait We have a Better Idea - Allison Kotzig .

What pieces did you include in the exhibit "L’éléphant dans la Salle" and why? (please share some of the story behind some of the work) 

I was lucky enough to have 5 pieces in. Oh Wait, We Have a Better Idea (panels 1 and 2), Leuprolide, Pitch to Win! and You Bastard.

-Oh Wait We have a Better Idea is just a funny piece that made in response to the overwhelming horror and negativity we can all see in the world. In this piece, in the 1st panel, the babies are crawling out of a vagina and in the 2nd panel, they are crawling right back in!

-Leuprolide is a discussion of the medicalization of fertility and the way in which capitalism has taken over health care to the extent that during IVF, the woman's womb is stuffed with fertilized eggs for reasons of cost-efficiency. Leuprolide is the name of a common fetility drug. The panel shows a vagina stuffed and teeming with babies, almost like a hive.

Pitch to Win! I have a masters degree in Medieval History and really love medieval imagery, I did a series of shadow boxes using Hellmouths from medieval illustrations. I cut out the space and placed my own message inside. Pitch to Win! is about the carnival-like atmosphere surrounding male access to women's bodies. There are countless books and sites devoted to showing men how to make an effective pitch to gain access to women and sex, so I just made this piece as if it were a carnival midway game, with medieval imagery underlining the antiquated attitude toward intimacy shown by the narrow focus of "scoring" sexually.

You Bastard is another funny one. Its about being dickmatized (or otherwise sexually in thrall to another). I used the theatre-like red curtains to indicate the extreme drama of being in this situation.

Self taught or traditionally trained?  

Self-taught 

When Vaginas Ruled the Earth (detail) - Allison Kotzig

Share one thing that has impacted your work?

The way in which it is acceptable for womens' sexuality to be viewed in the media and that is through the lens of violence. Natural women's body parts are strictly forbidden (the national brouhaha over Janet Jackson's nipple showing for 2 seconds) but rapes and abuse are very common; I can barely think of a movie or tv show that does not casually feature violence against women. There is something extremely perverted and obviously very wrong with that.

Here be-monsters (detail) - Allison Kotzig

Name one thing we may not know about you or your work?

I find a lot of it very funny and not at all shocking. It is only when I bring it out to show that I realize that sometimes other people find it very controversial.

If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?

All people and animals would enjoy equality and live beautiful lives. 

If you had access to a time machine, where would you go?

I'd rather travel interdimensionally!

Ouroboros -  Allison Kotzig

If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring creative, what would it be? 

Don't be afraid to show your work to people! 

If you could have one super power, what would it be? 

To beam justice, light and love into the hearts of all creatures 

Social Media drug of choice? 

Facebook: facebook.com/AllisonKotzig

Allison

Six times a charm - L’éléphant dans la Salle (The elephant in the room) art exhibit.

In the midst of my self inflicted whirlwind, I realized the only place I haven't covered my 6th annual art exhibit is on my own blog.  Within the art community that I have had the pleasure of residing since 2008, each month we have a month long art exhibit - curated and produced by various resident artists. A different artist is able to take charge of our 3 floor, 2500 square feet gallery space and create an art exhibit that can explore various art forms, local and national artists, themes, and partnerships.  We have also have non-themed community group shows that showcases all of the talent within out building.  

This year is my 6th year creating a month long exhibit and my second time teaming up with singer/songwriter Alana DaCosta.  We have worked on various projects and workshops together and it was just a beautiful experience when you have a kindred spirit with similar passions to create something magical with.

Photo courtesy Patricia Zapata
Co-creators of the L’éléphant dans la Salle art exhibit & #WhatsYourElephant movement
Niki Lopez and Alana DaCosta

As with previous exhibits, L’éléphant dans la Salle (the elephant in the room) is a month long art exhibit that combines local art, performance, & outreach.

Flyer for  L’éléphant dans la Salle art exhibit.

L'éléphant dans la Salle- (The Elephant in the Room) is an idiom for an obvious truth that is either being ignored, or otherwise unaddressed. The purpose of this exhibit is to provide a safe  place for issues and topics that are normally hidden from public view. Through visual and performance art, the artists participating in this event  will share secrets and taboos, discussing openly to find solutions for our own individual and collective emancipation. Viewers are invited to enter the 'Confessional', an interactive safe space installation to share their ‘elephant’.

Featured artists include: 

• Louis Davis
• Judy Leeson Polstra
• Allison Kotzig
• Kimberly Heise
• Sonia Baez-Hernandez
• T.J. Brow
• Niki Lopez
• Alana DaCosta
• Omilani
• Klodi Lemoine
• Gregory Dirr
• Corbett Fogue
• Michael D. Colanero (of Uncommon Gallery with photo series .. Breast Cancer Awareness Body Painting Project.

Community partners include: Community Partners: Drag It Out-(501c3), 2014 DaDa National Poetry Slam Team , Boys & Girls Club, local lawyers Ghenete Wright Muir, PJ Hitchins and Shenika "Nik" Harris, Dr. Sketchy's South Florida, Flagler Village Art Walk, and private donors.

Photo from the opening night of L’éléphant dans la Salle.
Performance by poet Maru

For more information on the exhibit as well as opening dates, click here

Included in this month long art exhibit was an opening night with performances by: Chaos Theory, DJ Onestar, Alana DaCosta, Maru, DaDa National Poetry Slam Team, Omilani and Melissa 'Moonchild' Stokes.  As well as five totally different openings:

• Opening night with performance, song & Poetry
• Thou Art Woman LGBT & friends poetry night 
• Dr. Sketchy South Florida (drink & draw) that was a part of the Flagler Village Art Walk
• What's Your Elephant Community Outreach Workshop & panel discussion
• Closing: Performance, Open Mic & Live art, hosted by Alana DaCosta.

Some of the things we are doing with this exhibit or have in store for you:

#whatsyourelephant movement.  Creating provocative conversations around the unspoken.  A human experience project by Niki Lopez & Alana DaCosta. What’s Your Elephant? Community Outreach Project.  This community outreach project will provide a safe place for participants to share and heal as a community around issues that are normally hidden or uncomfortable. Participants will create a mixed media collage during this hands-on art experience. Workshop will demonstrate how expressive creative arts can not only help to heal self, it can also reconnect and strengthen communities. Through visual arts, poetry and dialogue, this community outreach project will be a safe platform for participants to explore uncomfortable issues that are oftentimes overlooked yet easier to received when revealed through the arts.

What’s Your Elephant? Panel Discussion- Professional artists and therapists will discuss the following focus topics: How can the creative arts help to heal self and reconnect and strengthen communities?

To participate in the #whatsyourelephant project, submit via: whatsyourelephant.tumblr.com or instagram.com/whatsyourelephant.  You can submit under your name or anonymously.  You can also send a direct message or email for us to post.

During the closing event, we will have some of the creations from the "What's Your Elephant Workshop" on display.  Stay tuned as we take the panel discussions online with periodic online panel discussions as well as pop-up on location workshops.

Creative Circle Tuesday's - starting with the artist and performers for L’éléphant dans la Salle art exhibit, I will be posting short artist interviews.  Sharing links, personal responses to the call "Elephant in the Room" as well as shearing some of the artwork on display.

Event video & photos.  We have a ton of images people have shared with us during one of the many events as well as the opening.

Are you on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram?  Look up the hastags: #lelephantartexhibit #whatsyourelephant for some images & sentiments behind the exhibit.

Photos and details on my new piece titled "Home Grown" a mixed media sculpture and installation dealing with child molestation within religious groups, organizations & cults.   One of my more personal 'elephants'.

One of the beauties of this exhibit in particular, is that we are being drawn in the path of many kindred spirits.  People wanting to share their 'elephants', acknowledging the importance and impact of this movement, and simply lots of smiles, tears & hugs.

I'm reminded of two of my favorite quotes"

"You must be the change you want to see in the world." -Mahatma Gandhi

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." -Kahlil Gibran

We welcome you to join us in this journey.

#staytuned

One Love
Niki