FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 15, 2018
Contact: Eliaichi Kimaro
Email: ekimaro@9elephants.org
Phone: 206.779.2653

MY LIFE IN 24 FRAMES

PopUp Exhibit & Artist Talk explores being a queer, mixed-race, Black-skinned daughter of immigrants in today’s America

Seattle, WA – Local artist, Eliaichi Kimaro will be presenting the latest paintings in her encaustic mixed media series, “My Life in 24 Frames” on Tuesday, October 23 from 6-7:30pm at Columbia City Gallery. At 6:30pm, there will be a brief talk where the artist will share the inspiration behind these paintings.

“My Life in 24 Frames examines what it means to be living in my skin, in my body, in this country, at this moment in time…”
~Eliaichi Kimaro

Eliaichi has lectured around the world, engaging audiences in conversations about how our experiences of gender, culture, and trauma shape our sense of identity and belonging. Eliaichi uses every media necessary to explore the stories she has inherited, and the stories she is passing down; and her creations invite us all to consider where we stand in the flow of cultural inheritance and legacy. Over the years, her lens has shifted — from her father’s Tanzanian/Chagga culture (in her 2011 film, A Lot Like You) to her mother’s Korean culture (in her 2017 multi-media installation, The Truth Has No Borders), and now to her own US culture with My Life in 24 Frames.

A Lot Like You won 6 Best Documentary Awards. The journey of her film culminated in her TEDxSeattle talk, Why The World Needs Your Story. Last year, Eliaichi was the Artist-in-Residence for COCA’s Storefronts [UN]Contained Residency, and in 2018, she was the recipient of the Artist Trust Fellowship, the CityArtist Grant through Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture, and a scholarship from the International Encaustic Association.

Eliaichi has served on numerous non-profit Boards, art grant panels, film festival juries, museum exhibition planning committees, and advisory committees. She is a member artist at Columbia City Gallery and the Center on Contemporary Art Gallery, and a juried member of the City of Seattle’s Ethnic Artist Roster.

“My Life in 24 Frames”
Columbia City Gallery
4864 Rainier Ave. S.,
Seattle, WA 98118
Tuesday, October 23, 2018, 6-7:30pm
6-7:30: Public exhibit of new paintings
6:30: Artist Talk

EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Eliaichi Kimaro (https://elikimaro.com/) is an award-winning filmmaker and artist who finds beauty in the rusty, weathered and worn. She loves the stories that scars hold ~ and feels compelled to take those stories of struggle, resistance, and survival, and turn them into something beautiful to behold.

This project is made possible thanks to the generous support of the
2018 CityArtist Grant from Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture.

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Emerge: The Journey is Everything

For me, the journey is everything.  I am far more interested in the process of becoming than I am in the final state of being.  The journey is dynamic, energetic – constantly evolving, transforming and expanding.  While creating, I exist in a suspended state of not-knowing.  I open myself up to what my painting is showing me, and then intuitively respond to it. This dialogue of discovery is what I crave.

As a self-taught artist and creative storyteller, I am constantly reinventing myself, learning whatever medium it takes to tell the story that is emerging.  Over the past 40 years, I have used writing, music, photography, film, storytelling, and now encaustics to explore my personal/family narrative.

The paintings in this show hang together loosely.  They demonstrate new directions I am exploring in my work (using mark-making, texture, and organic materials to tell a story.)  Some of these pieces came into being fully-formed.  Some were labors of love, with 2-3 completely different paintings living beneath the surface.  And still others have yet to find their final form.

While I am in love with the current incarnation of these paintings, I know some will be radically transformed when they return to my studio – melted, scraped down, carved into, painted over.  But as a lover of process, I believe that even our evolving selves deserve an occasional spotlight…to be seen, witnessed and lovingly considered in our current form.

The EMERGE show at the Columbia City Gallery (Seattle) is currently exhibiting through Sunday, May 13. 

The most consistent comment I’m hearing about this body of work is that these are pieces that need to be seen live and up close.  So if you’re in the Columbia City neighborhood, please stop by!  (Gallery hours: Wed-Sun, 11-7).