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The Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College: Print Pomona Art Book Fair the Largest Book Fair in East LA County Returns!

Courtesy of PPABF 2022

The Pomonan
Published 2/22/2023 7:42am PST

Claremont, CA — The Arts Area and the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College are pleased to present the second annual Print Pomona Art Book Fair (PPABF) on Saturday, March 4 from 11 am to 7 pm and Sunday, March 5 from 11 am to 5 pm at Pomona College’s Edmunds Ballroom located in the Smith Campus Center.

PPABF will bring more than 50 national and international independent booksellers, distributors, and publishers to Claremont to showcase artist’s books, art catalogues, photography monographs, drawings, and other print ephemera.

The two-day fair will also serve as a meeting place for creatives, book lovers, and publishers to discuss and exchange ideas about art making, publishing, and other related topics.

The PPABF kicks off with a series of events at the Studio Art Hall at Pomona College, starting with a talk by Rebecca Ustrell from Curious Publishing on Thursday, March 2 at 3 pm followed by a book launch and reception for the Art + Book exhibition at 4 pm. At 5 pm, artist Lindsay August-Salazar will offer a performance and book signing at the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College.

On Friday, March 3 at 7 pm the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College will host an artist’s talk with John Divola followed by a reception.

FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Artist Talk with Rebecca Ustrell from Curious Publishing
Thursday, March 2, 3–4 pm
Theater 122, Studio Art Hall at Pomona College
370 Columbia Avenue, Claremont, CA
 
Art + Book Exhibition Book Launch and Reception
Thursday, March 2, 4–5 pm
Chan Gallery, Studio Art Hall at Pomona College
370 Columbia Avenue, Claremont, CA
 
Artist Performance and Book Launch with Lindsay August-Salazar
Thursday, March 2, 5–6 pm
Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College  
120 West Bonita Avenue, Claremont, CA
 
Artist Talk with John Divola
Friday, March 3, 7–8 pm
Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College  
120 West Bonita Avenue, Claremont, CA
 
Print Pomona Art Book Fair
Saturday, March 4, 11 am–7 pm
Sunday, March 5, 11 am–5 pm
Edmunds Ballroom in the Smith Campus Center, Pomona College
170 E 6th St, Claremont, CA

ADMISSION IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

The Benton’s main parking structure is located at 295 E. First Street. Additional visitor and handicapped parking is available in the Alexander Hall lot (N. College Avenue and Sixth Street). Limited street parking is situated along College Avenue.

ABOUT

Print Pomona Art Book Fair

Print Pomona Art Book Fair is a 501(c)(3) sponsored by The Arts Area and hosted in partnership with the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College. PPABF was founded in 2018 by photographer Julian Lucas with a goal to promote the recognition, distribution, and awareness of artist’s books and other publications by artists within the region of the Pomona Valley.

The Arts Area

Working at the intersection of economic development and the arts. The Arts Area, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, provides fiscal sponsorship, professional development, resource support, and civic advocacy to develop and support economic sustainability and equitable access in the creative industries of San Bernardino, Riverside, and East Los Angeles Counties. Learn more about the fiscal sponsorship and professional business services provided by The Arts Area and join the inland region’s largest professional arts network at TheArtsArea.org.

Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College

Now housed in the new Benton Museum of Art designed by Machado Silvetti and Gensler, Pomona College’s collection of art numbers 18,000 objects, including Italian Renaissance paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; works on paper, including a first edition print series by Francisco Goya given by Norton Simon; and works in various media produced in Southern California in the twentieth century. In keeping with Pomona College’s reputation as a leading center of the visual arts, the collection also includes works by such esteemed alumni as Chris Burden ’69, Marcia Hafif ’51, Helen Pashgian ’56, Peter Shelton ’73, and James Turrell ’65. Recognized globally for its commitment to contemporary art, the museum is the home of The Project Series, which has featured more than 50 contemporary Southern California artists since it began in 1999. Through its collaboration with students and faculty, the museum encourages active learning and creative exploration across all disciplines of study within the liberal arts context.

PRINT POMONA ART BOOK FAIR 
2910 S Archibald Ave #A145
Ontario, CA 91761

BENTON MUSEUM OF ART
AT POMONA COLLEGE
120 West Bonita Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711
(909) 621–8283
Museum Hours:
Wednesdays–Sundays, 12–6 pm
Art After Hours: Thursdays until 10 pm

THE ARTS AREA
2910 S Archibald Ave #A145
Ontario, CA 91761

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Interview with Viviana Carlos - Sobre Adaptaciones

Interview by Julian Lucas
Published 9/28/2022 12:00 am PST
This Interview was Produced by Mirrored Society, A Bookstore on the Arts. The Pomonan is co-publishing this interview.

I met Viviana a few months ago at the Print Pomona Art Book Fair. She'd handed me a copy of her most recent book, 'Sobre Adaptaciones.' When I finally had an opportunity to sit down and look at it, I found myself delving further into the book and was blown away by the design, craftsmanship, and, most importantly, the meaning. I was curious about Viviana and what inspired her to create such a gorgeous book.

Can you tell us where you are from?
I am from the northern part of Mexico, Monterrey, Nuevo León. 

Did you grow up in Monterrey, Nuevo León? Is there a art book scene there at all? Did Mexico influence your artistic journey?

Throughout my life, I grew up in many places, which is why most of my work addresses themes of uprooting and nomadism. If I had to recall my introduction to my artistic journey I would have to say that some of it came from my parents although they weren’t artists and were ordinary people. From a young age, my mother introduced me and my siblings to literature - especially fiction - and surrealism, our house was flooded with Frida Kahlo’s remarkable work (it wasn’t as much of a cliché back then) on the other hand my father was fascinated by historical books.

As far as the artbook scene, around 2013 I remember having the itch of using the book or fanzine as a narrative vehicle when I was attending college in Guanajuato, some of my friends back then created fanzines, and then later on I gradually gained courage and started my own projects. Another life influence is that when I moved to the US I spent hours at public and university libraries looking at photo books. However, a big influence on the book art scene I would say came from attending an art residency in Oaxaca in 2020 and meeting Rigoberto Diaz Julian and his practice. I was able to land my concerns about image and text and its possibilities within the book form thanks to talking and collaborating with him. He is the co-editor of this book.

I do think Monterrey has an art book scene but I can’t say from experience since I have not resided there in a long time. Although the project Miradas al Foto Libro led by Celeste Alba Iris has brought to light many enthusiasts and professionals of the artbook scene from many cities in the northern and central part of Mexico.

“Self publications are a tool and narrative vehicle that can help to approach very complex topics such as mental health, grief, and trauma.“

What are your accomplishments that have led to your book? 

Self-publishing the book was an accomplishment in itself. I was able to exhibit it here in San Francisco at the end of 2021 and also at the Print Pomona Art Book Fair early this spring. I was interested in collaborating with other professionals in the process of making a publication. I worked with experienced designers, bookbinders, printmakers, and conceptual thinkers. The most recent accomplishment for the book was to create an exhibition from it. I enjoy exploring the idea of taking the book outside its formal form. The exhibition space allows to amplify the possibilities of reading an artists’ book. The book saw its beginning thanks to a workshop I took with Eunice Adorno during the summer of 2020 thanks to the cultural project Miradas al Foto Libro led by the artist and writer Celeste Alba Iris. This is the first time I get the chance to design an exhibition from an artist’s book. I am very happy and grateful for the results and the opportunity. The exhibition is up until November 6 at el Centro de las Artes in San Luis Potosí, México.

What have you learned about your book? What have you learned about yourself while creating the book?

It has errors, but I welcome them. Self publications are a tool and narrative vehicle that can help to approach very complex topics such as mental health, grief, and trauma. Talking especially about trauma can be misleading. I choose to see trauma as a power source to heal. I’ve learned how to harness it in my own work instead of ignoring it or building a stigma around it. Trauma and its representation can be weakening and that only prevents people from healing. There is no shame in healing.

First of all, that knowledge should be accessible to everyone, everywhere. While thinking about the book conceptually, I had access to educational and research tools that I’d never had access to before thanks to the place I worked in. I made this book primarily relying on public archive databases and accessing information freely. Now, I have a different relationship with what intellectual property is or how free culture means and functions. An idea is a precious thing and we are allowed to keep them to ourselves if we decide to. I was one of those persons that held an idea as a treasure but then I asked myself what would happen if I let go and share it. However, I believe that intellectual labor, especially from women need to be rewarded and recognized to avoid following uncomfortable terms and discussions around bropriating. But in the midst of defining that and opening a dialogue of having fair play for everyone and their intellectual labor, this book helped me to cultivate and share a single idea working with other people’s social and collaborative dynamics. The idea branched. I saw its expansiveness and it was beautiful. 


Your work seems to lean towards education as well artistic, was this intentional?

No, but it was inevitable. In the process of elaborating on this artist's book, I combined two things: my personal experience with labor and imagination. If art means expression, then this book’s intention was to speak from a personal voice in how I survived a period of acute grief and how poetry, the city’s nature, and imagination helped me to survive and take care of my mental health due to a PSTD. 

My approach to working with public domain and archival images for this artist's book was because I worked as a cataloguer in a historical photographic archive. The repetitive duties I performed there such as seeing, organizing, and cataloging hundreds (sometimes thousands) of images daily in front of a monitor influenced without a doubt my creative process and art practice. Not so long ago I read a tweet saying that cleaning databases forge your character and I proudly carry that flag with me. There’s no distinction between working in an administration job and being creative, perhaps only the time that is left during the day to create. Thanks to revising thousands of historical images digitally and physically, I started questioning the rigidness of historical documents and also the production of more images. This professional experience created a rupture in what I thought the representation in photography was and naturally, I became extremely aware of who makes the images that we consume in media, and who is behind the lens. For this same reason, I decided to start working with archival images and vernacular photography. It gave me the freedom to explore personal and visual narratives under a different creative scope. In terms of education, I firmly believe in de-romanticizing the idea of when and under which conditions art can be created. Art does not always happen outside or in the studio. Art happens in life, at work, at home, or reading a book at the library. It is a powerful tool for healing. If we as creatives find a method that worked for us maybe we can share it with someone else. Perhaps in the classroom. There is no growth if we don’t let the other grow and heal as well.

You talk about the origin of palm trees and the landscape of California. You also intertwine the pages with some color images of either the interior of a room with a shadow that casts over a bed or the image taken at dusk of a front porch. My initial thought was you were documenting the start of your morning and the end of your day. Can you explain why you choose to include them?

You are right. Both images reflect on the duration of a single day during my life at that time. Also as you mentioned in the book I use palm tree imagery to talk about their transplantation and introduction to the landscape of California. These plants aren’t from here, they are migrants just like me and my parents when they used to live here.  When my parents resided in the US I saw them live in somewhat precarious conditions as many migrants live here without too much open space. People living outside the US usually have an almost idyllic image of how is to live here, especially in big cities. The reality is that most of the time five or six people can share a single household with one bedroom, luckily two bedrooms. Right after my father’s passing, I decided to move to a different city to start a new job. I had to take care of myself. The photo with the mattress on the floor was taken on my last day sleeping at my parent's apartment, while I helped my mom pack her stuff. I slept and woke up there many nights and mornings until I finally moved. These two pictures were taken during a process of grief and the transition of moving into a new city and navigating it as a pedestrian from dawn until dusk.

What are your plans, any new projects in the works? Will it be similar to Adaptaciones? 

I am working on continuing my education and applying to graduate school this fall. If anyone knows about scholarships to fund private education please send them my way. Currently, I am working on some collaborations with other editorials and I am still defining my next publication, it will take some time to cook.

Thank you for the space!

Viviana is a visual storyteller born and raised in Mexico. During her childhood her family was nomadic. Being an immigrant living in the United States along with these transitions in her personal history, aroused curiosity about the biological and cyclical processes that occur in nature and on the landscape. Read more here.


Julian Lucas, is a photographer, creative strategist, a purveyor of books and writer in training, but mostly a photographer. Julian also works as a housing specialist which, includes linking unhoused veterans to housing.

Paul Guilmoth: At Night Gardens Grow

Text by Laura Chen
Published February 1, 2022 9:57 Am PST
This Review was Produced by Mirrored Society, A Bookstore on the Arts. The Pomonan is co-publishing this review.

In between dusk and dawn, the world gives rise to darkness. In the dead of the night, emotions and atmospheres are heightened by the intensity of near absence. Lack of light means lack of vision but stimulates vivid dreams and vivacious imagination. We see and hear things that may not be there, and even places that are most familiar to us can change within the murky depths and moonlit shadows. However, this nocturnal interval does not only equate to that which is daunting. Rather, we can liken it to the Chinese philosophical concept of Yin and Yang, which describes the duality of life: how everything is twofold. The opposing forces of “dark and light” prevail the 124 pages of Paul Guilmoth’s most recent publication ‘At Night Gardens Grow’, in which elements of menace melancholy and blissful hope peacefully co-exist.

When we think of a garden, the conventional image that comes to mind is one on a sunny afternoon, yet the title of this book suggests a different account. Here, the garden — the periphery between the home and the outside world — is depicted at a time when most of us are fast asleep, safely tucked in bed. Using a harsh flash, Guilmoth captures the garden and its surrounding fields in rural New England, and all the flora and fauna that breathe, linger, lurk, creep, and crawl there. Unfurling from the landscape the artist calls home, the transmute hours of the night become a stage for a mystifying tale.

Courtesy of Stanley/Barker

Eerie and spectral in appearance, the black and white photographs feature the land and its inhabitants in an ethereal state, at times as if caught in the midst of some age-old ritual or ceremony. From births to baptisms, funerals, and folklore, a myriad of symbolic and religious references prevail in the work. We see nymph-like women bathing in water and bodies buried underneath layers of soil. A bearded man lies down on leafy and earthy ground, pointing at something outside of the frame. A woman stands by a door opening, bewildered as if sleep-walking. Both are dressed in a delicate white nightgown. Elsewhere, a smoldering fire engulfs a house in such a way that it looks like the whole structure was made from paper and was set alight by just a single spark.

In another, we see a cycle of life, a biorhythm: a tranquil-looking newborn baby surrounded by a circle of mushrooms, presented as a sacrifice or offering for worship of the innocence of youth. We see two children with maturing faces and vacant stares amongst pungent plants, foreshadowing the image of a lonesome man sitting on a bed of flowers, with his hands in his hair, seemingly in a state of despair. We arrive at a predicated realisation: how did we grow up so quickly? The fragility of life is that it comes to us in fleeting moments.

As the boundaries between reality and fantasy are indiscernible, it becomes difficult to tell whether a scene or gesture was found or fabricated. As a result, the viewer is invited to fill in the blanks, bringing their own beliefs to the narrative.

Along with the magical and spiritual, there is also a sense of longing that protrudes from the work. The artist explains: “The photographs have one foot in modern America and the other in a land of the past. Any clear sense of locality is lost in favour of a more fluid and universal language.” In one image we are stood in the middle of an empty road, watching flames appear like clouds of smoke in the shape of lost souls, followed by an image of another impenetrable road with two deer — one stood on either side — drawing us further into the vacuum void beyond. Later, a ladder occupies the inner walls of a cave, resting against the entrance that dwindles to a vanishing point. These are images that offer an escape from reality; a gateway into Guilmoth’s haunting world that is laced with the subtle sentiment of grief and tenderness.

We are carried through the sequence of the book at an apprehensive pace, but according to an observant and deliberate edit, one that flourishes in a poised and palpable way. Though it may feel calm and quiet at times, ‘At Night Gardens Grow’ is never mute: stark bursts and blinding rays of light enter through the gaps of a condensed family of trees and shrubs, revealing buzzing swarms of insects, bats, and birds that fly across the pages. Filled with a bewitching and turmoil energy, the light further illuminates dew and raindrops on spiderwebs that form floating silk constellations between the branches, far and wide. In some images, Guilmoth has captured infinite exposures of stellar skies within the same frame, creating an abundance of corporeal and visceral presence.

Courtesy of Stanley/Barker

Courtesy of Stanley/Barker

From desolate forests to streaming waterfalls and carved rocks — Guilmoth’s allegorical images show the non-permanence of everything around us, and the intrinsic relationship between humans and nature. Though there is no text in the book, a thank you page at the end calls for another layer of understanding. It reads: “For Trula Drinkard-Goolsby (1915-2021).” Evidently, this was someone close to the artist. In their statement, Guilmoth reveals how they decided to centre this photographic study around Trula’s last day spent laying in the field, before she passed away on July 17th. In their own words: “The week before Trula died, she began spending entire days reclined in her field. Her body would be so still we would come up closer to be sure she had not left us. A slight movement of her head chasing a loose swallow, or a finger grazing a plucked blade of grass was enough. Tuesday night she had come into the kitchen after a particularly long 12 hours in her field. Her hair disheveled like a bird’s nest. She looked at a rhubarb stalk on the table and said to us ‘all this time I have never seen the flowers growing, but they are taller every morning.’”

The full story behind Guilmoth’s muse remains a mystery, but regardless of how little we are told, we might read and see her in some of the photographs that commemorate her in a way words never could. The penultimate image in the book features a cave-like passage once more. It is partially lit up by a graceful and heavenly incoming source of light that casts a shadow of a person. A goodbye: the final appearance of Trula, perhaps?

Because of the minimalist blank layout of the book, a recurring motif becomes apparent when we come to its end: spiderwebs. Spread out across several pages, we are lured in like prey. They not only break up the sequence of the work but also act as a metaphor for the overarching message, which is one of potency, endurance, and resilience. More than anything, ‘At Night Gardens Grow’ is an elegy to a queer world and the ubiquitous terrains of identity. It is about the island it was created on, just as much as it is about the worlds and loved ones we carry within ourselves.

Paul Guilmoth (b. 1993) is an American photographer currently based between the UK and New England, USA. They graduated with a MFA in Photography from Maine College of Art in 2015 and co-founded the publication studio Wilt Press. They are focused on bookmaking, photography, and their intersections. Guilmoth’s photographs utilize subtle levels of interference and performance that exaggerate uncertainty over truth while describing a world strangely familiar and palpable. They have had exhibitions globally, including at Leica Gallery London, Aviary Gallery Boston, Red Hook Labs New York, among many others. Most notably, their collaboration in the collection ‘Sleep Creek’ is featured in New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. ‘At Night Gardens Grow’ was released in 2021 and is available for purchase from Stanley/Barker.

Laura Chen is a Dutch image maker and writer based in London, UK. Working within the fields of photography, mixed-media, and found or archival material, her multidisciplinary practice associates a fine art and documentary approach where research, implementation, and intervention are closely intertwined. Recurring themes and interests include identity, memory, tactility, the marginalised, disregarded, and overlooked - whether in everyday objects or groups of people who live and work on the fringes of society. Her work has been featured in and published by British Journal of Photography, Photo London, Lensculture, Canon, PhMuseum, GUP, amongst others. In 2020 she graduated from Birmingham City University with a BA in Photography. She is currently undertaking an MA in Photography Arts at the University of Westminster London.