Love, Loss and Living

The Greater the Obstacle, the More Glory in Overcoming it Chapter 25

The Peabody Art Foundation
2020 Gala Celebration
Friday May 29, 2020
JW Marriott, Diamond Ballroom
900 W. Olympic Blvd CA, 90015
Cocktails at 6p
Dinner 6:30p
We look forward to Honoring PAF's 2020
Gala Honorees:

ANIMATOR & ARTIST JEFF HONG
Jeff is an animation storyboard artist from Los Angeles, previously working as an animation artist on several famous Disney movies. He uses his talent to produce work highlighting environmental and social issues worldwide with Disney characters, called Unhappily Ever After. His work includes images of Elsa from Frozen on melting ice caps and Alice from Alice & Wonderland taking drugs down a dark alley. His thought-provoking work that plays on mainstream pop culture means a whole new audience is captured.

"I had earlier conceived an idea of putting Disney princesses into more photographic rough urban environments, something that is completely opposite of their fairy tale world...In part, the work became even more powerful and engaging and I was able to quickly realize that many other Disney characters could be used to shed light on messages that are important."

POLITICAL STREET ARTIST BANKSY
The infamous and anonymous 'vandal' Banksy, is famous for political street art and adding to an art revolution. Banksy joined a type of art that wasn't curated and could be seen by everyone, street art. Street art was created in the 1970's by TEJN in Copenhagen, Denmark. Banksy does not sell or reproduce any art, displaying it randomly on public display on walls.

Show me the Monet is a rework of Claude Monet's Water Lilies, with shopping trollies and a traffic cone in it, showing the destructive nature of mankind on the environment.

His work is powerful as it shows the impact one person can have against centralised power. His themes commonly touch on anti-consumerism, anti-fascism and human greed.

REALIST ARTIST ZARIA FORMAN
Zaria is an exceptional artist, using pastel to highlight and document climate change and the beauty of nature. Her activist side was inherited from her mother, who used to photograph the most remote areas of the world.

Her work is exhibited worldwide and has been featured in multiple publications from Huffington Post to National Geographic. Her work is incredibly realist, comparable to photographs. Her work is well worth checking out, check out her TED talk here.

Artistic Activism is a dynamic practice combining the creative power of the arts to move us emotionally with the strategic planning of activism necessary to bring about social change.

Art and activism do different work in the world. Activism, as the name implies, is the activity of challenging and changing power relations. There are many ways of doing activism and being an activist, but the common element is an activity targeted toward a discernible end. Simply put, the goal of activism is action to create an Effect.

Art, on the other hand, tends not to have such a clear target. It's hard to say what art is for or against; its value often lies in providing us perspective and new ways to envision our world. Its effect is often subtle and hard to measure, and confusing or contradictory messages can be layered into the work. Good art always contains a surplus of meaning: something we can't quite describe or put our finger on, but moves us nonetheless. Its goal, if we can even use that word, is to stimulate a feeling, move us emotionally, or alter our perception. Art, equally simply stated, is an expression that generates Affect.