News Release

LA ARTCORE PRESENTS THE VIEW FROM HERE: VISUAL ART BY ARTISTS WHO ARE VISUALLY IMPAIRED AND BLIND
February 1–28, 2004

Los Angeles, CA, January 16, 2004
From February 1–28, 2004, LA Artcore presents the exhibition The View From Here: Visual Art by Artists Who Are Visually Impaired and Blind, www.zoot.net/theviewfromhere, guest curated by Christine Leahey. The opening reception is Sunday, February 1, 2004 at 3 p.m. at the Union Center for the Arts, 120 Judge John Aiso Street, Los Angeles, 213 617-3274. The exhibition catalog contains essays by Leahey, Dr. Susanna Millar, Ph.D, Hon. D. Litt, AFBPsS, a Research Lecturer in the Psychology Department, Oxford University, and Dr. John M. Kennedy, Ph.D, University of Toronto, Scarborough College.

he View from Here is made possible through the support of the AT & T Foundation, the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, Dr. Fred Kurata, Roger Leahey, and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

The six California-based artists in the exhibition have varying age-onsets and types of blindness, and work in a variety of media.

Leahey notes in her catalog essay “[the artists] demonstrate formal
principles of art thought to be limited to sight, such as perspective,
occlusion, and the ability to translate such concepts onto a
two-dimensional surface…when blindness is recognized as a spectrum of
vision loss, the concept of a blind visual artist seems less of an anomaly.”

JAMES CADIZ is totally and congenitally blind. He works in drawing,
painting, photography and mixed media. Known for his vast imagination
and boundless creativity, Cadiz works out of the studios at First Street
Gallery Art Center, a program for adults with developmental disabilities
in Claremont, California.

HELEN FUKUHARA is totally and congenitally blind. She was introduced
to print making after taking a course in art history at the Braille
Institute of Los Angeles. A resident of Santa Monica, Fukuhara’s
experience of creation is limited to touch, but her tactile impressions
are transferred onto a flat picture plane in collaboration with an
assistant who helps with the selection of colors.

MICHAEL LEVELL is legally and congenitally blind, deaf, and non-verbal
autistic. Enamored with /Architectural Digest/, his obsessive drawings
and paintings of architectural interiors are marked by unusual aerial
vantage points. Levell is a founding artist of First Street Gallery Art
Center.

MICHAEL RICHARD became legally blind in 2002 following surgery to
remove a tumor in his right eye. A professional musician, arranger,
composer, and guitar player, the Studio City resident has in addition
enjoyed black and white photography as an avocation for much of his
adult life. He was inspired to pursue photography as a career after
taking a course at the Braille Institute.

KURT WESTON had an accomplished career as a fashion photographer
before he was diagnosed with AIDS and became legally blind due to AIDS
related Cytomegalo Virus. His limited visual acuity permits him to view
the world as if it were an impressionist painting. He is now pursuing
his lifetime ambition to be a fine art photographer.

ALISON ULMAN is legally blind due to hystoplasmosis, a condition that
obscures her central vision. A professional artist and masseuse, this
Oakland resident has been featured in numerous exhibitions and residency programs. She is a conceptual artist and sculptor.

CHRISTINE LEAHEY is director of visitor services at the Santa Monica
Museum of Art and a graduate of Swarthmore College.