Press release for "Travis Somerville: Dedicated to the Proposition..."

              growing up in the south in the 1960s during a period of immense social upheaval has deeply informed the narrative content of his work. His work simultaneously tries to reconcile his personal struggle with his own Southern Christian upbringing and the overt tumultuous racial politics of then with the mixed messaging backlash of now. According to the artist in an interview with Nathan Larramendy, “My southern identity will always play a part in my work because that is who I am. . . I feel the overall theme [of my work] is oppression and greed. I want the oppressed to be validated and the oppressors to be guilty. I want people to realize that we are all connected in some way and we are responsible for each other.”
Somerville studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and at the San Francisco Art Institute. Select solo exhibitions include Another Song of the South at University of Georgia, Athens; American Cracker Too at Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Exhibition Gallery, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; and New Work at University of Houston, Texas. His work has been included in numerous exhibitions including: the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibition In the Spirit of Martin Luther King: the Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Whiteness: A Wayward Construction at the Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California; and Lincoln: Man, Myth, and Memory at the Amistad Center for Art and Culture in Hartford, Connecticut.
His work is included in the permanent collections of the di Rosa Preserve: Art & Nature, the Achenbach Collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Laguna Art Museum, and the San Jose Museum of Art, among others. He has garnered critical attention in numerous publications including Art in America, Flash Art, Kitchen Sink, and The Washington Post. He is represented by Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, www.cclarkgallery.com.
Schedule of exhibition related events:
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Saturday October 3, 3:15: Exhibition tour with the artist, followed by public reception 4-6pm
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Wednesday October 7, 11:15am-12:30pm: Conversation with the artist and Dr. Carol Branch, Director of the Student Resources Center and Otis Faculty Member
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Saturday November 7, 11am: Exhibition tour and conversation with the artist, Gallery Director Meg Linton, and Mark Steven Greenfield, Artist and Director of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
Image above right: Travis Somerville, The New Land of Lincoln, 2009, Oil, oil stick and mixed media on paper on canvas, 80 x 96 inches
Location: Otis College of Art and Design, 9045 Lincoln Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045
Parking & Admission: Free.Visitor parking in structure on La Tijera.
Hours: Tue-Sat 10am-5pm / Thu 10am-7pm. Closed November 26-30 for Thanksgiving
Gallery Tours: 310.665.6909 to schedule tours for school, museum or other groups
Gallery Info: 310.665.6905, galleryinfo@otis.edu, www.otis.edu/benmaltzgallery
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