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.
