Artist Talk with Natalia Arbelaez
Tuesday, May 11, 2021 • 12 PM (Pacific)
Join AMOCA Artist in Residence Natalia Arbelaez for an artist talk to learn more about her artistic practice, residencies, and recent work.
“For over the last month, I’ve been tucked away AMOCA making work and researching their permanent collection as a visiting artist. I’ll be a resident for a few months in Pomona (LA county)…Lots of new projects and ideas are developing. Big thank you to David Armstrong, Laguna Clay, the Windgate Foundation, AMOCA, and the AMOCA Ceramics Studio. I’m so excited to be here!”
This virtual event is free and open to the public. It will take place on Zoom; RSVP is required.
RSVP Form
Please RSVP using the form below (it may take a moment to load). If you prefer, you may also RSVP directly to Paul Roach at communications@amoca.org.
Natalia Arbelaez
Natalia Arbelaez is a research-based artist, using her work to study, highlight, and reveal the undervalued histories of Latin America, Amerindian, and Women of Color. Through figurative and sculptural forms, Arbelaez explores how identities are lost through conquest, migration, and time, gained through family, culture, exploration, and passed down through tradition, preservation, and genetic memory. During her residency, Arbelaez will use AMOCA’s permanent collection and other local collections to continue her project to highlight Women of Color who have made notable and significant contributions to the field of contemporary ceramics.
Arbelaez is a Colombian American artist, born and raised in Miami, Florida to immigrant parents. She received her B.F.A. from Florida International University and her M.F.A. from The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH). She has served as a resident artist at the Clay Art Center (Port Chester, NY) as a Barbara Rittenberg Fellow and was awarded the 2016 Inaugural Artaxis Fellowship for a residency at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts (Newcastle, ME). She has held teaching positions at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (Boston, MA) and the Harvard Ceramics Program (Boston, MA), and been the recipient of numerous awards. Most recently, Arbelaez was recognized by the National Council on Education for Ceramic Arts as a 2018 Emerging Artist in the field. Arbelaez will be in residence March–June, 2021.
Artist in Residence Program
Launched in 2012, AMOCA’s Artist in Residence program is one of the few long-term fellowship opportunities for ceramic artists on the West Coast. Located an hour from the desert, mountains, and beaches of Southern California and forty minutes east of Los Angeles, the residency provides artists an opportunity to produce or develop a new body of work while also participating in AMOCA’s programs.
This initiative is made possible by the Windgate Foundation, Julianne and David Armstrong, and the Laguna Clay Company.