November 2019

Naida Osline: Chasing Clouds

November 2 – 29, 2019

Reception November 2nd, 6-10pm

 

About the show

An ambitious solo exhibition brings together several bodies of photographic work by Naida Osline that coalesce around our human intersection with mystical and natural worlds. The artist combines and manipulates images sourced from both analog and digital processes that blend conceptual and documentary practices.Each series often takes years to develop, sometimes involving imbedding herself within a community or growing the plants that become the subject matter in her work.


About the artist

“Naida Osline has been involved in the arts for decades. OCCCA is proud to present her first major solo exhibition after her recent return to Orange County two years ago. She consistently explores economic and cultural structures, as well as community and identity in her work. They are important and relevant issues in today’s cultural dialog,” says Robin Repp, of OCCCA Executive Board.

Naida Osline is a practicing artist who lives and works in Huntington Beach, California. She has had numerous solo exhibitions and has been included in many group shows throughout Southern California, as well as internationally. Her work has been reviewed in the Los Angeles Times, Artillery Magazine, Huffington Post, the Orange County Register, Artweek, and ArtScene.

Website: http://naidaosline.com/


Naida Osline Explores the Transformative Interactions Between Plants and People

The newest series at the heart of the show is “Chasing Clouds” (2019), which explores the visual manifestation of a breath pattern. The works suggest ectoplasm, escaping spirits, auras, chakras, energy fields, and the dissolution of the self. The title is inspired from a vaping subculture that references the practice of exhaling large amounts of vapor to produce complex formations for the purpose of competition or spectacle.

Other works in the show include those from her ongoing “Visionary Plants” project (2007 to present). Overall, the various series under this title—including tattooed tobacco leaves, portraits of opium poppy heads, and fantastical arrangements of marijuana, magic mushrooms and Datura plants—pay homage to important psychoactive plants that have contributed to global economies, challenged beliefs, caused violence, fueled addiction, promoted spirituality, raised consciousness, inspired art and generated photographing them at various stages and finally recombining them into fanciful compositions that suggest their psychoactive nature. The scale of the plants is much larger than life-size enhancing their mythological status.

Selections from “Las Reinas De La Selva (Queens of the Jungle)” (2014), will be on view for the first time in the United States. This series features drag queens, women, and transgendered people from Colombia, surrounded by jungle environs, while donning local fauna, as if the two have transformed into a third being; connecting the work back to other of Osline’s series in the show that focus on plants that are consumed by humans. The “Las Reinas” images evoke ideas about identity, power, representation, gender, fame, beauty and fashion. The notion of a self-appointed “queen of the jungle” explores concepts of privilege, hierarchy and self-empowerment. The series was among those produced during an artist residency involving several visits to Colombia over aperiod of three years.

In the back gallery will be an ongoing screening of a series of twelve, ten-minute video shorts that comprise “Gringotopia” (2018), which has been widely viewed on Vimeo. For this project, Osline traveled to an area south of Guadalajara that is a magnet for U.S. and Canada expatriates who have moved there for a better quality of life. The artist spent a total of three months over a period of two years interviewing a diverse group of 25 people who tell insightful, intimate, and humorous stories about life-changing moves across more than just a geographic border. “Gringotopia” interweaves these interviews, which are fast-paced, mimicking the structure of a social conversation. All videos are in English with Spanish subtitles.

Image: Naida Osline, Chasing Clouds, Amanda, 2019, dye sublimation
print on aluminum, 24 x 36 inches, oval. High resolution images available upon request

 

Press Mention

A Sublime Farewell From Lutz Bacher at UCI, and an Escape Via Naida Osline at OCCCA,
OC Weekly, By Dave Barton. November 27, 2019
   
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