NORTH COUNTY STUDENT CREATIVES
APRIL 21, 2023 through May2. 2023
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, April 21, 2023, 5:00 - 8:00 pm ( Free Admission)
EXHIBITION HOURS: 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM, M- F and Weekend, appointment only

North County Student Creatives showcases local emerging North County student artists from Mira Costa College, Palomar College, and California State University San Marcos. The artwork exhibited will highlight students in their early stages of creative development to those that encompass mature works of art from students finishing their undergraduate studies at CSUSM. The exhibit is hosted at the Hill Street Country Club for one week from April 21, 2023, through May 2, 2023. The opening reception is on Friday, April 21, 2023, from 5-8 pm.

Artists featured:

Estefania Bojorquez-Dence, Makayla Haynes, Liam Huffman, Melissa Lugtu,Kaitlyn Reiter, Tristan Tulledge, Graciela Flores Miranda, Manuel Ceci,Isabella Harris, Rachael Klock, Soleil Navarro, Benjamin Poarch,Olivia Prior, Peter Dold, Emma Dill, Jacob Raineri, Bailey Schoelen, Natalie Sumitra, Helena Westra, Julia Martinez,Zoila Adaljiza Lara-cea, Aliyah Camargo, Isabella Parrales, Nicole Johnston, Rocio Villanueva, Julia Dinerman, Gaby Espina, Kelly Ibarra

Note from the Curator:

Creatives thrive professionally by knowing other creatives. That was the original inspiration for developing this exhibition opportunity for student artists. As an artist and educator, I recognize the critical need for student artists to gain experience in exhibiting their work and building their network of creative colleagues in their own backyard. This project focused solely on San Diego North County students as a means to build an immediate geographic community for local artists. It was also crucial for this exhibition to be held at the Hill Street Country Club, a community-responsive cultural hub of North County's creative energy. My deepest gratitude to the team that has helped make this possible: our visionary guest jurors, Dinah Poellnitz & Michelle Montjoy; North County Higher Education Alliance collaborators from our two other North County colleges: Professor Judit Hersko from California. State University, San Marcos, Professor Ingram Ober from Palomar College; and Dara Vasko, Co-Curator from MiraCosta College.

- Xuchi Eggleton, Co-curator & professor at MiraCosta College.

This exhibition is made possible through the generous funding of the North County Highe rEducation Alliance, an education collaborative between MiraCosta College, Palomar College,and Cal State San Marcos. NCHEA promotes working relationships and active communication among faculty, staff and students at the three institutions by focusing on student learning and the seamless transfer of students from lower to upper division programs.

JEZABETH ROCA GONZALEZ
AGRIDULCE
FEBRARUARY 18th to APRIL 2, 2023
OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, February 18th, 2023 5:00 - 8:00 pm
EXHIBITION HOURS: 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

The Hill Street Country Club is proud to present AGRIDULCE 

a solo exhibition by Jezabeth Roca Gonzalez. The show features video works, soil prints, and terrazzo tiles that take a speculative fiction approach to explore connection, collaboration, and care against a backdrop of climate change and the lingering structures of colonialism in Puerto Rico.

“My work is about imaginaries.” - Jezabeth

Featured video works like the multi-channel piece, Isla Flotante uses a speculative fiction approach to the visual narrative and realities of the every day, that is they do not recount any particular event. Instead of constructing a story with casted characters and a final lesson, Jezebeth collaborates with their family acting as editor and composer of their personal experiences as seen through the family’s group chat. This lets each participant exist as a complex individual and brings viewers into the everyday acts of imagination and creativity required to connect across generations, space, and time. Jezebeth’s terrazzo tiles and soil prints are firmly grounded in a sense of place, literally. The distinct red/orange soil found around Jezabeth’s family’s home is a recurring material used in sculptures and printmaking processes. Accessible materials are a core part of Jezabeth’s practice and another point of collaboration with their family who collect and ship the earth from Puerto Rico in bricks. 

By positioning themselves as collaborator and caretaker, Jezabeth invites viewers to reconsider how we might draw on personal and material resources symbiotically. What does creativity look like when it is liberated from productivity? How might imagination be a means to stay connected in a world that is both passively changing and being actively changed?

AGRIDULCE - Meaning: the mixture of something sour and sweet.Something that can be pleasant and unpleasant at the same time.

ABOUT JEZABETH: Jezabeth Roca Gonzalez (they/them/Elle/Le) is a multidisciplinary Cuir-Diaspo-Boricux artist based in Oceanside, California. They hold an MFA from the University of South Florida where they received the Dedalus MFA Fellowship In Painting and Sculpture in 2020. Jezabeth has completed multiple residencies in the United States and Canada and is currently in residence at the Hidrante project space in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Editor: Akiko Surai

PRESS CONTACTS
Dinah Poellnitz
dinah@thehillstreetcountryclub.org

AGRIDULCE ZINE BY JEZABETH ROCA GONZALEZ AND PRINTED BY LUNCHTIME PRINT HOUSE ZINE

The Hill Street Country Club is proud to announce an open edition of AGRIDULCE zine created by Jezabeth Roca Gonzalez in community with and printed by Lunchtime Print House Zine to raise money for the social justice organizers at Colectiva Feminsta PR.

AGRIDULCE zine series features video stills and photography by Jezabeth's archival imagery of their home in Puerto Rico in collaboration with their family.

Colectiva Feminista PR: Proyecto político que agrupa a feministas desde las intersecciones de género, raza, clase y sexualidad en lucha contra el capitalismo y el patriarcado.

English: Political project that brings together feminists from the intersections of gender, race, class and sexuality in the fight against capitalism and patriarchy.

in conversation with artists

JEZABETH ROCA GONZALEZ | EDRA SOTO | AKIKO SURAI

The Hill Street Country Club and Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego Host Artists Jezabeth Roca Gonzalez and Edra Soto in Conversation on March 14th, 2023

[Oceanside, CA] The Hill Street Country Club and ICA San Diego invite you to a conversation between artists Jezebeth Roca Gonzalez and Edra Soto. Despite their geographic and stylistic differences, both Gonzalez and Soto make use of Puerto Rico's vernacular architecture and intimate scenes of domestic life to deepen and extend their connection to the island. The coincidence of their exhibitions in San Diego County provides an opportunity for an inter-generational exchange about art as a vehicle for communication, connection, and care across the Puerto Rican diaspora and beyond.

Tuesday, March 14th from 6-8 pm at The Hill Street Country Club [530 S Coast Hwy, Oceanside, CA 92054]. The artists will spoke over a game of dominoes with score keeping and moderation by San Diego artist/writer Akiko Surai.

Jezabeth Roca Gonzalez (they/them/Elle/Le) is a multidisciplinary Cuir-Diaspo-Boricux artist based in Oceanside, California. They hold an MFA from the University of South Florida where they received the Dedalus MFA Fellowship In Painting and Sculpture in 2020. Jezabeth has completed multiple residencies in the United States and Canada and was recently in residence at the Hidrante project space in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Edra Soto (she/her) is a Puerto Rican-born Chicago-based artist, curator, educator, and co-director of the outdoor project space, The Franklin. Soto has exhibited extensively at venues including El Museo del Barrio, NY; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art's satellite, The Momentary, AK; Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, IL; Smart Museum, IL; and the Abrons Arts Center, NY. Current exhibitions include a large-scale public art commission titled “Screenhouse”, on view at Millennium Park in Chicago and no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria at the Whitney Museum of American Art; NY.

Akiko Surai (she/they) is an artist and writer working in San Diego, California. She explores touchstones for memory and conceptual signifiers through diverse studio, research, and curatorial projects. They envision an art world connected by community and critical discourse.

Surai earned her Bachelor’s degree in Studio Art with honors and distinction at San Diego State University in 2011, completed graduate work at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2013, and holds a specialized certificate in museum studies with an emphasis in contemporary art. Outside of traditional studio arts, Surai has a passion for tattoo culture and history. She was invited to participate in Lee Mingwei’s Living Room Project at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 2014 where she designed and presented a correspondence project exploring tattooing as a contemporary craft.

Jezabeth Roca Gonzalez: AGRIDULCE | February 18 to April 2, 2023 | The Hill Street Country Club

Edra Soto: GRAFT | March 4 to August 6, 2023 | ICA San Diego/North

AUTHOR’S NOTE

This presentation was developed by Akiko Surai for a conversation between Jezabeth Roca Gonzalez and Edra Soto via the Hill Street Country Club and ICA San Diego. Both these artists are from Puerto Rico and feature vernacular architecture specific to their lives and the island in their work. This presentation will look at a slice of history in San Diego through local buildings and how influences from that era have driven trends and become a marker of identity for the wider region.

Please join us IN CONVERSATION and share your personal, communal and universal message after watching the artist talk and reading the presentation with audience questions by HSCC’s Community Partner, Akiko Surai.