Fluid Dynamics Artist Talk & Fundraiser Kickoff

Please join us at the Angels Gate Cultural Center (AGCC) Gallery in Building A on Friday, September 12th from 7pm to 9:30pm for the Fluid Dynamics Artist Talk & Fundraiser Kickoff! Come celebrate the exhibition and uplift the arts in community with other AGCC supporters.

features four Los Angeles-based artists and four New Orleans-based artists whose diverse artistic practices embrace fluidity in materials, methods, and subject matter. The evening will include an artist talk with curator Katherine Shanks and Los Angeles-based artists Ben Cuevas, Leslie Foster, and Nancy Voegeli-Curran, discussing their work and fluidity of identity, spirituality, and environmental change.

Come meet the artists and curator, enjoy refreshments, and join the conversation in the gallery. Help us dream big and keep arts programming like this accessible to all by being one of the first to give to our LB Gives fundraiser. Our goal is to raise $20,000 and you can help give us a head start as soon as September 11th during Long Beach Gives' week of Early Giving. Click here to learn more about our campaign.

With your help, we can continue to offer:

• Exhibitions of contemporary art and paid opportunities for artists
• Arts education programs for all ages
• Dedicated spaces for artists to work
• Cultural events to bring together community

Guest curator Katherine Shanks is a transdisciplinary visual artist working across the fields of sculpture, print, installation and performance. They received a BFA in Drawing and Painting from CSU Long Beach and recently graduated with their MFA in Sculpture from Tulane. They consider their curatorial work as an extension of their artistic practice—an assemblage of diverse creators and works sharing space to spark new connections. Shanks has curated numerous conceptual group shows regionally and internationally. This show bridges their new home with the old, intermingling communities and ideas through art.

Ben Cuevas' work is rooted in concepts of otherness and intersectionality, inspired by his queer, non-binary, HIV-positive, and Latinx lived experience. Cuevas received his B.A. in mixed media, installation, and photography at Hampshire College in 2010. His work has been shown across the U.S. and featured in several publications. Acclaimed as a public speaker, Cuevas has given talks at institutions including Brown University, Ohio State University, The Museum of Sex (NYC), and the Fire Island Artist Residency.

Nancy Voegeli-Curran’s sculptures and installations are an exploration of events and processes found in the natural world. She earned an MFA degree in Drawing and Painting from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). She has studied art in Florence, Italy, and at Anderson Ranch Art Center in Colorado. Her work has been exhibited internationally and has been collected by CSULB and in private homes. She works and lives in the Los Angeles area and has a studio at Angel’s Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro.

Leslie Foster uses video art and installation to create beautifully strange contemplative ecologies that explore Black and queer futurity through the lens of dream logic. Much of their practice is rooted in community-building through art-making and collaboration. He completed his MFA in Design | Media Arts at UCLA in 2022 and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2022. Their work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, shortlisted for the Hopper Prize in 2020, and awarded the LACE Lightning Fund in 2023. Leslie currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Time-based Media at Cal State San Marcos.

This event is supported by the Port of Long Beach, the Mellon Foundation, and the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.

Los Angeles and New Orleans are two metropolitan areas deeply influenced by their relationships with water, albeit in very different ways: Los Angeles navigates its scarcity while New Orleans grapples with its abundance. Both also have long and complicated histories with oil—its extraction, the environmental and public health effects of that process, and impact on the economy and transportation systems in each region. Their inhabitants experience fluidity in more personal ways. We are constantly using liquid metaphors to express the mutability and movement of identity, ideology, information, and spirituality.

Artists in Fluid Dynamics include Hannah Chalew, Ben Cuevas, Leslie Foster, Felli Maynard, Renee Royale, Nancy Voegeli-Curran, Demi Hanad Ward, and Sterling Wells.

Fluid Dynamics is on view in the gallery through September 13, 2025, with free public visiting hours Thursdays through Saturdays, from 10am to 5pm. Please note that pets are not allowed inside our buildings. For questions, please email [email protected].

About LB Gives

Long Beach Gives is a citywide, online fundraising campaign to raise awareness and inspire community giving for Long Beach nonprofits. The goal of Long Beach Gives is to inspire individuals and businesses in our community to support the exemplary work of nonprofits making a difference in Long Beach - and raise funds for their important work. In the past 6 years, Long Beach Gives nonprofits have raised over $10 million! With over 270 nonprofits participating in 16 cause areas, find a cause you are passionate about and learn more and get involved!

Accessibility

Please note that portions of Fluid Dynamics are in areas of the gallery that are currently only accessible via stairs. A virtual walkthrough of the full exhibition will be available on a tablet at the front of the gallery.

Angels Gate Cultural Center (AGCC) emerged from a group of San Pedro artists in the 1970s that created art studios and exhibition space within the WWII era army barracks of Angels Gate Park near the Port of Los Angeles. Today, AGCC hosts over 50 artist studios in addition to a variety of programs to engage the diverse communities of the Los Angeles Harbor region, including arts education in local schools, community classes, cultural events, and exhibitions of contemporary art. More information about AGCC is available at angelsgateart.org.

Host or Publisher Angels Gate Cultural Center