Artist Bio: Jose Ramirez is a Los Angeles artist. In the past 24 years, he has illustrated children’s books, painted murals and completed commissions for numerous organizations and individuals. Ramirez is also an educator. He has taught in the Los Angeles Unified School District for over 23 years and is currently teaching 3rd grade at Esperanza Elementary in the Pico-Union neighborhood of Los Angeles.

He received a BFA (1990) and an MFA (1993) in art from UC Berkeley. In 1995, he received a California Teaching Credential from CSULA. In 2001, he received the California Community Foundation Visual Artist Fellowship. In 2017, he completed commissions for Chapman College, South Pasadena’s Eclectic Music Festival, and Trejo’s Tacos (Pasadena). He worked with Altamed, National Immigration Law Center, National Day Labor Organizing Network, California Wellness Foundation, Inner City Struggle, Community Coalition and Self Help Graphics. His work was exhibited at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington DC, Avenue 50 Gallery in Highland Park and Homegirl Café in Los Angeles. His paintings were featured on the CBS TV show, The Good Fight. He is currently working on a children’s book about the life of Carlos Santana, for Atheneum Books.

He is the proud father of 3 daughters: Tonantzin, Luna and Sol.

Artist Bio: Born in Wisconsin, La Monte Westmoreland moved to California as a young adult and studied art at Los Angeles City College (AA). He continued his studies at California State University, Los Angeles, with an emphasis in painting (BA); completed his fine art studies, focusing on collage and assemblage (MA; MFA). Westmoreland redirected his focus from painting to collage and assemblage after experiencing “…my first African-American art exhibit which was curated by the Brockman Gallery of Los Angeles…featuring Betye Saar, John Outterbridge, David Hammons, Timothy Washington, and John Riddle. The power of this exhibition made me aware of the importance of the cultural, social, and political impact that African-American artists portrayed in their works.” He is currently working on a series of collage and assemblage pieces, Kabuki with Uncle Ben “… these new works project my wry sense of humor and expose social issues which are layered with political satire, complimented by my use of pop icon imagery.”

La Mont Westmoreland has exhibited nationally in museums and galleries such as the Wustum Museum of Fine Art, WI; California African American Art Museum, CA; Museum of Science & Industry, IL. California galleries include, Reynolds Art Gallery; Lizardi/Harp Gallery; Feldman-Horn Gallery; Brockman Gallery; Tanner Gallery; Municipal Art Gallery; Space Gallery; Harcourt Contemporary Art Gallery, SF. National galleries: Jack Tilton Gallery, NYC; Isobel Neal Gallery, Chicago, IL.

Westmoreland’s collage & assemblage artworks are found in national foundations and private art collections. California Foundation Collections: Los Angeles -California State University; Gallery Tanner; Museum of African-American Art; Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company; San Diego – New Visions Fine Arts; San Francisco – James H. Jones. National Collections: Museum of African-American Art, TX; Mobil Oil Foundation, TX; and Atlanta Life Insurance Company, GA. His works appear in over 150 private collections. Numerous exhibition reviews and articles on La Monte Westmoreland’s work have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Art in America, San Francisco Art Monthly, Afro-American Art, Artweek, Art Scene, Santa Barbara Magazine, Neworld; and other media avenues.

Artist Bio:  A native Angeleno, Mark Steven Greenfield studied under Charles White and John Riddle at Otis Art Institute in a program sponsored by the Golden State Life Insurance Company. He went on to receive his Bachelor’s degree in Art Education in 1973 from California State University, Long Beach.  To support his ability to make his art, he held various positions as a visual display artist, a park director, a graphic design instructor and a police artist before returning to school, graduating with Master of Fine Arts degree in painting and drawing from California State University, Los Angeles in 1987. From 1993 through 2010 he was an arts administrator for the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs; first as the director of the Watts Towers Arts Center and the Towers of Simon Rodia and later as the director of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.   In 1998 he served as the Head of the U. S. delegation to the World Cup Cultural Festival in Paris, France and in 2002 he was part of the Getty Visiting Scholars program. He has served on the boards of the Downtown Arts Development Association, the Korean American Museum, and The Armory Center for the Arts , and was past president of the Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825 . He currently serves on the boards of Side Street Projects, The Harpo Foundation and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions.

Greenfield’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States most notably at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art and the California African American Museum.  Internationally he has exhibited in Thailand at the Chiang Mai Art Museum, in Naples, Italy at Art 1307, Villa Donato , the Gang Dong Art Center in Seoul, South Korea and the Blue Roof Museum in Chengdu, PRC.  He is represented by the Ricco Maresca Gallery in New York and the William Turner Gallery in Santa Monica, California. His work deals primarily with the African American experience and in recent years has focused on the effects of stereotypes on American culture stimulating much-needed and long overdue dialog on issues of race. He is a recipient of the L.A. Artcore Crystal Award (2006), Los Angeles Artist Laboratory Fellowship Grant (2011), the City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Fellowship (COLA 2012), The California Community Foundation Artist Fellowship (2012),  the Instituto Sacatar Artist Residency in Salvador, Brazil (2013) , the McColl Center for Art + Innovation Residency in 2016 and the Loghaven Artist Residency (2021). He was a visiting professor at the California Institute of the Arts in 2013 ,  and was artist-in-residence at California State University, Los Angeles in 2016. He currently teaches at Los Angeles City College.

Artist Bio:  Frank Romero was born and raised in Los Angeles. He studied art at the Otis Art Institute and California State College (now California State University) at Los Angeles. In 1973, Romero, Roberto de la Rocha, Gilbert Lujan and Carlos Almaraz formed an art collective called Los Four. The University of California, Irvine presented an exhibition of the group in 1974, which subsequently was shown at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Oakland Museum. Romero worked as a designer for Charles Eames and A&M Records, and was the Design Director of the Community Redevelopment Agency when he designed the first section of the Broadway sidewalk project. In 1981, he curated the highly regarded exhibition The Murals of Atzlan at the Craft and Folk Art Museum. Although he is known as one of the city’s foremost muralists, Romero is now primarily a studio artist. His work has been exhibited in many solo and group shows including the national exhibitions, “Contemporary Hispanic Art in the U.S.,” and “Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation.” He grew up in the culturally mixed, middle-class Los Angeles community of Boyle Heights and was well into his career by the time he developed a consciousness of being a Latino artist. During the height of the Chicano civil rights movement in the early 1970s, as a member of the Chicano artists’ group ​Los Four, he attained a new, high-profile status in the larger art community. It was not until the mid-1980s, however, that Romero could give visual form to some of the emotionally charged political events he had witnessed.

Artist Bio: Located at the intersection of aesthetics and social realism, Kristin Bedford’s photography explores race, visual stereotypes and communal self-expression. Through long-term engagement with communities, Bedford makes photographs that invite us to reconsider prevalent visual narratives around cultural and spiritual movements. Bedford’s photographs have appeared in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe and are held in numerous private and public collections worldwide, including the Library of Congress and the Archive of Documentary Arts at the Rubenstein Library. Bedford has given talks internationally about her projects, including presentations at Pop-Up Magazine and on numerous National Public Radio broadcasts. Her work has been featured in such publications as The New York Times, The Guardian, Smithsonian Magazine, The Royal Photographic Society Journal, Aesthetica Magazine, The Telegraph, CNN, Esquire, POLKA Magazine and The Huffington Post.

Artist Bio:  A native Angeleno, Mark Steven Greenfield studied under Charles White and John Riddle at Otis Art Institute in a program sponsored by the Golden State Life Insurance Company. He went on to receive his Bachelor’s degree in Art Education in 1973 from California State University, Long Beach.  To support his ability to make his art, he held various positions as a visual display artist, a park director, a graphic design instructor and a police artist before returning to school, graduating with Master of Fine Arts degree in painting and drawing from California State University, Los Angeles in 1987. From 1993 through 2010 he was an arts administrator for the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs; first as the director of the Watts Towers Arts Center and the Towers of Simon Rodia and later as the director of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.   In 1998 he served as the Head of the U. S. delegation to the World Cup Cultural Festival in Paris, France and in 2002 he was part of the Getty Visiting Scholars program. He has served on the boards of the Downtown Arts Development Association, the Korean American Museum, and The Armory Center for the Arts , and was past president of the Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825 . He currently serves on the boards of Side Street Projects, The Harpo Foundation and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions.

Greenfield’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States most notably at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art and the California African American Museum.  Internationally he has exhibited in Thailand at the Chiang Mai Art Museum, in Naples, Italy at Art 1307, Villa Donato , the Gang Dong Art Center in Seoul, South Korea and the Blue Roof Museum in Chengdu, PRC.  He is represented by the Ricco Maresca Gallery in New York and the William Turner Gallery in Santa Monica, California. His work deals primarily with the African American experience and in recent years has focused on the effects of stereotypes on American culture stimulating much-needed and long overdue dialog on issues of race. He is a recipient of the L.A. Artcore Crystal Award (2006), Los Angeles Artist Laboratory Fellowship Grant (2011), the City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Fellowship (COLA 2012), The California Community Foundation Artist Fellowship (2012),  the Instituto Sacatar Artist Residency in Salvador, Brazil (2013) , the McColl Center for Art + Innovation Residency in 2016 and the Loghaven Artist Residency (2021). He was a visiting professor at the California Institute of the Arts in 2013, and was artist-in-residence at California State University, Los Angeles in 2016. He currently teaches at Los Angeles City College.

Artist Bio:  Born in the Bronx to a Jewish family, Jaffe grew up in New York City. Having fulfilled his high school requirements at the age of sixteen, Jaffe left New York to attend Penn State University, where he studied American history and literature, art history, and modern philosophy. Jaffe left Penn State at the age of 19, returned briefly to New York where he played harmonica and guitar in various bands, and then picked up suddenly and moved to Brazil. Through the music scene there, he was introduced into a circle of friends making experimental films. There, he directed such films as the 16 mm film Nine Ways of Dying, created in the remote mountains of Brazil. Jaffe became close to the influential Brazilian filmmaker Neville d’Almeida and the artist Hélio Oiticica, with whom he collaborated in the April 1970 exhibition “From Body to Earth” in Belo Horizonte. When Jaffe returned in New York in 1971, he continued making films, such as Impact, with the conceptual artist Vito Acconci, and Brooklyn Bridge, with Gordon Matta-Clark.  In 1972, while working with Island Records, he met Bob Marley in a hotel room in New York. In 2013, Jaffe co-wrote a book with French scholar and Jamaican popular music specialist, Jérémie Kroubo Dagnini, Bob Marley and the Wailers: 1973-1976, published by Camion Blanc.