THE NEW NORMALCY
Artists Examine the
Post 9-11 World

February 25th through March 26th, 2006.

Vallen will be exhibiting works at, The New Normalcy, a group show at Carlotta's Passion Fine Art in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles. Over 20 artists will present artworks depicting the realities of the post 9-11 world - endless war, militarism, terrorism, state surveillance and repression.

The exhibit will offer original and limited edition works of art by Mark Vallen, Robbie Conal, Gregg Stone, Gilbert "Magu" Lujan, Poli Marichal, Margaret Garcia, Francisco Letelier, Patrick Merrill, Fei Lu,
Hanaa Al-Wardi, Zandra van Batenburg, Peter Carrillo, Carlos Callejo, Thomas E. Ellis, Carlos Flores, Sergio Hernandez, Cyndi Kahn, Deborah Krall, Juliana Martinez, Manuel Martinez, Louie Metz, Laura Molina, Andres Montoya, Roberto Munguia, Cindy Nine, Robert Nuengaye, Ramon Ramirez, Wm. Neil Roberts, Keri Rosebraugh, Hector Silva, Charles Thompson, Janice Tieken, Van Arno, Amanda Unzueta, and others.

ARTIST'S RECEPTION & OPENING PARTY
Saturday, February 25th, from 6 to 9 pm.

IRAQ WAR THIRD ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EVENTS
March 18th will mark the Third Anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. During the exhibit, Carlotta's Passion will sponsor numerous events related to the war's anniversary and to human rights and social justice. Read more about these events here.

Friday, March 10th, 8:00 pm.
Marcielle Brandler Reads Her Social Justice-Related Poetry.
Saturday, March 11, 8:00 pm.
Nightwing performance art tackles the US-supported military in Colombia.
Friday, March 17th, 8:00 pm.
Maria Armoudian & Dennis Davis Performance
Saturday, March 18th, 8:00 pm.
Francisco Letelier Performs.

Gallery Statement: "On October 19th, 2001, former Halliburton CEO and now current sitting Vice President, Dick Cheney, christened a new term. Describing the curtailment of civil rights taken for granted by American citizens as the "new normalcy," Mr. Cheney was notifying Americans that constant surveillance, arrest without charge, secret trials and military tribunals, were the order of the day. Moreover, according to Cheney, "Many of the steps we have now been forced to take will become permanent in American life." By naming this exhibition The New Normalcy, Carlotta's Passion Fine Art and the artists in the exhibit remind Mr. Cheney and other members of the Bush administration that the only things permanent in American life are our cherished freedoms and constitutional rights as United States citizens - that and our promise of liberty and justice for all."

Carlotta's Passion Fine Art is located at 2012 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles, California (Eagle Rock,) 90041. Contact gallery director, Robert Squires, at: 323-259-1563. For more information, including previews of the art, a full schedule of exhibit related events, and directions to the gallery, visit:
www.art-for-a-change.com/exhibits/normalcy.htm

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LA - IST: Interview with Mark Vallen

The LAist website has conducted and published an interview with Mark Vallen. LAist writes about all things LA, and is part of Gothamist.com, a global network of similar websites writing about life in eleven other metropolises like New York City, London, Paris, and Shanghai. The focus of these "-ist" sites is always the cultural and political life of the city - theater, food, sports, politics and a million other topics that help describe each unique location.

In the interview Vallen expresses opinions about his home city of Los Angeles and its divergent art scene, the contemporary art world, Ed Ruscha, political art, minimalism, the Stuckists, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and East LA’s Self Help Graphics - all that and more. You can read the LAist interview here: www.laist.com

VALLEN'S WEB LOG: www.art-for-a-change.com/blog
Topics pertaining to socially conscious art and culture are daily posted to Vallen's Art For A Change web log. Recent posts have included: An Abstract Expression of Horror - The new school of "Action Painting" founded at Abu Ghraib prison. The Failures of Public Art - A major cause of the breakdown in public art is that it must compete with the overwhelming and ubiquitous presence of commercial advertising. Mohammed in Art: Drawing The Line - In 2003 the Dutch newspaper Jyllands-Posten rejected cartoons that satirized Christ, declining to print them on the grounds they would "provoke an outcry." Two years later the same paper published cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. 2006 Olympics: Art, Sports & Fascism - The Turin Winter Olympics are taking place in a stadium ordered constructed by dictator Benito Mussolini in 1932-33.