Kenney Mencher

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday March 9, 2017 Artists Opening Reception *Saturday March 25th from 6-9 p.m. Makeshift Museum  1855 Industrial St  (Between Mateo & Mills) Arts District Los Angeles, CA 90010

RON OWNBEY ‘STILL AT IT’ A Retrospective 1953 – 2017 (Main Gallery)  "Using biomorphic and structural shapes, linear movements, patterns and systems that I observe and discover in nature and man’s environment, I create art that reflects the inner and outer functions, reactions and rhythms of things growing and changing. The vastness of the world and the universe and its variety of life forms at all levels is the visual database that I draw upon for my compositions that are usually rendered in a very linear, symbolic and surrealistic manner. The ideas formulated in my mind are filtered through my heart after much contemplation and travel through my hand onto the paper or canvas. The process is mysterious, frightening, exciting and introspective all at the same time during the struggle and the moment of creation. The final birth of the work is but a small morsel of the inner spirit and the process that allows that to happen is the most important part of the experience." Ron was born in West Hollywood, California in 1938, a fourth generation Californian. Ron graduated from Otis Art Institute in May of 1965. With a major in painting and a minor in drawing, Ron received the BFA and MFA degrees, both with “high distinction”. After graduating from Otis, Ron was hired at Mt. San Antonio College on a full-time tenure track position and started teaching art in September of 1965. In 1970 Ron was appointed Art Department Chair and oversaw years of tremendous student growth and the building of a new art center building. In June of 2000, after having taught for 35 years and being art department chairman for 30 years, Ron finally retired from teaching.  RANDELL HENRY ‘THE POWER OF ABSTRACTION’ (Upstairs Gallery) Randell Henry earned the B.A. in Fine Arts from Southern University and the MFA in Painting and Drawing from L.S.U. Henry is Associate Professor and Curator of the Southern University Visual Arts Gallery at Southern . He has curated exhibitions of art by local, national and international artists, including exhibitions that featured works by Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Lois Mailou Jones, John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Faith Ringgold, Willie Birch, William Tolliver and other major names in African American art. Henry began making collages in 1980 by cutting and tearing his drawings and putting the pieces together in inventive ways. Like Romare Bearden, he began to add photographic pieces and bits and pieces of fabric and painted papers to make collages that played on themes related to family life, couples, Blues and Jazz Music and mythological subjects. No longer using photographic images, Henry relies on paint, graphic media and his own painted papers, fabric and imagination to make his collages more invented. Like Bearden, he enjoys improvising as images and forms develop while watching the collage open up as he works. His works have been shown in exhibitions in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Chicago, Houston, Miami, New York, Dallas, Art Copenhagen in Denmark, London, Ghana and Liberia. In May 2015 a large painting by Henry was included in the exhibition, “60 Americans” at Elga Wilmmer Gallery on West 26 Street in New York City where lead New York Times Art Critic Roberta Smith chose it as her favorite work in the show. Henry has upcoming one-man shows in Los Angeles and New York City. For More Information on this very important and relevant exhibition please contact the Museum. MAKESHIFT MUSEUM 1855 Industrial Street Suite 111 Los Angeles, CA 90010 310 433 9958 director@makeshiftmuseum.com WWW.MAKESHIFTMUSEUM.COM