FINAL FRIDAY: LIZ HARVEY AND JOSE NAVARRETE

Liz Harvey and José Navarrete present Travels with Gulliver (working title)

Liz Harvey works primarily in sculpture and in response to texts both written and sung. She works from source material ranging from folk music and fairy tales to poetry and satirical texts, exploring their sexual politics, homoerotic potential, and humor. Liz Harvey’s current projects include a collaboration with performer José Navarrete. Harvey and Navarrete will be presenting collaborative work in progress centering on Jonathan Swift’s classic 1726 text, Gulliver’s Travels. Focusing on Part 1 of the satirical travelogue, this sampling of approaches uses improvisational movement informed by sculpture.

They are engaged in exploring how Swift’s use of the fantastic reveals an underlying bitter commentary that points us towards absurdities of the human condition. While Gulliver is a stranger in foreign lands, everything he sees becomes a commentary on “home” and, increasingly, on his part in accepting the status quo of irrationality, greed, corruption, and violence in England.

Harvey’s practice “actively engages the rich and multifarious history of feminist art practice, while also attesting to a highly personal and singular vision,” according to Los Angeles critic and poet Eve Wood. Harvey’s solo exhibitions include Whittier College’s Greenleaf Gallery in Whittier, CA; Ed Giardina Fine Art in Santa Ana, CA: and Matrushka, Los Angeles. Selected group exhibitions include Sherry Frumkin Gallery, Santa Monica; the Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena; San Francisco Museum of Craft and Folk Art; and the Holland Tunnel Gallery, New York. She was the recipient of the Peninsula Artists Grant in 2007 and the California Arts Council Artists Fellowship in Sculpture in 1997. She teaches Visual Thinking Strategies, art integration and violin to youth and adults, including coaching teachers.

José Navarrete, Collaborator/Performer, has an M.F.A in Dance from Mills College.  Navarrete studied contact improvisation with Sara Shelton Mann, Taiko Drumming with Hiroyuki (Jimi) Nakagawa and Argentine Tango with Nora Dinzelbacher. Since 2001 he has co-directed NAKA Dance Theater with Debby Kajiyama, presenting work both nationally and internationally. Navarrete’s choreographic work with NAKA Dance Theater has been presented by Theater Artaud, ODC Theater, Dance Mission Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Movement Research NY, Southern Theater Minneapolis, Philadelphia Dance Projects, Velocity Seattle and the Hemispheric Institute of NYU in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2004, he was the recipient of a Bessie Schönberg Choreographers residency at The Yard in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts and the Djerassi Resident Artist Program fellowship in Woodside, California. Currently Navarrete works at YBCA as a Performance Arts Educator for the YAAW Program (Youth Artists At Work).

Visit our Facebook page for this event - RSVP, and become a fan!