For Immediate Release:  March 11, 2011

Create:Fixate Presents
RISE
Celebrating 9 Years of Emerging Art & Music
Saturday, April 9, 2011

LOS ANGELES, CA – Arts organization Create:Fixate (C:F) celebrates nine years of infiltrating Los Angeles with curated events of emerging art and music for culture seekers of Southern California. After a brief hiatus in 2010, C:F returns to its downtown roots with a spring-themed show entitled RISE at the Premiere Events Center. The exhibit will take place on Saturday, April 9, 2011 from 7:00pm to 2:00am and features over forty local artists, DJs, and musicians with vibrant artwork and music. Admission is $15.00 before 9:00pm and $20.00 for the remainder of the night. Premiere Events Center is located at 613 Imperial St., Los Angeles, CA 90021. For more information, including an image gallery of participating artists’ works, please visit www.createfixate.com. C:F can be reached by phone at 310-590-7199 for other inquiries.

The evening begins with a preview of the exhibit from 4:00pm to 7:00pm. There is a $5 suggested donation during this period but kids twelve-years old and younger are allowed free entry.  Parents are encouraged to bring the whole family during the preview hours and take advantage of the Kids Kreativity Zone.  Overflowing with art supplies, the Zone provides a supervised space where youth can dive into their own expression while parents explore the evening’s exhibit. While all ages are welcome during the preview, attendees must be 21-years old or older to enter after 7:00pm.

Create:Fixate Founder and Artistic Director Michelle Berc chose the title RISE to describe the spring-timed event. “During this time of year, the season brings renewal in all forms. The theme of this event speaks to the awakening of creativity.”

RISE will feature the creativity of over thirty visual artists in the “Optical Lounge” – the evening’s visual feast – presenting a stunning array of painting, photography, multi-media, interactive installation, and performance art. Highlights include: Danuta Rothschild’s otherworldly landscapes and portraits capture the scope of the human experience – from the ominous to the magically affirming. Nighttime is when Garret Suhrie explores, contemplates, and photographs the world; from surreal cityscapes to serene landscapes he utilizes long exposures on transparency film.  Rachel Schultz uses the less traditional technique of reverse painting on plexiglass.  The energetic applications of vibrant paint colors bring a unique livelihood to the stillness in her abstract “tree-scapes.” Gwen Samuels wall sculptures consist of multiple transparent film prints sewn together by hand, like patchwork quilts, forming compound images that hang unframed. The “Chromastrobe” produced by Leif Maginnis is an interactive kinetic light installation that mixes moving elements with electronically-controlled colored lights and ultra violet strobe lights. A Create:Fixate exhibit is never complete without the spontaneity of live painting. On-site painter Ashley Montague will be joining the festivities all the way from Portland, Oregon. He uses his work to explore the unseen around him.

The “Audio Lab” – otherwise known as the music portion of the evening – completes Create:Fixate’s signature blend of art and music.  After a long history of hosting many of KCRW’s finest DJs, C:F finally welcomes award winning, critically acclaimed radio personality, DJ, and culture critic Garth Trinidad. The LA-based DJ is known for finessing the airwaves to expose new and progressive international music while paying homage to the classics, by weaving together intergalactic tapestries of sound. Whether on the radio or live, Trinidad artfully explores a multitude of genres and movements. With skill and ease, he anoints with jazz, indie rock, hip hop, world rhythms, and electronic music to make his point. Felix Bloxsom aka PLASTiC PLATES will be joining us all the way from Australia. As a musician, Bloxsom has toured and recorded with many artists including Empire of the Sun, Sam Sparro, Jamie Lidell, Sia, The Presets, and Sneaky Sound System, performing at music festivals including Coachella, All Points West, Capital FM Summertime Ball, V Festival UK and Radio 1′s Big Weekend. By embracing all moods and genres, Pumpkin is the music producer and curator behind the Wandering Marionettes and their eclectic event, Kabinet Theatre, as well as member of the famed Los Angeles collective POCKET Underground. His remixes and DJ sets – that walk the line between hip-grinding rhythms and bittersweet lyrical melodies – have been known to inspire lust, love and laughter.

See below in the bio section to learn more about the musical acts rounding out the evening.  Don’t miss a special “Leisure Listening Lounge” hosted by SuperTall Paul Newman.  At 6’6” the improvisational musician/magician/MC/street performance clown will bring his multi-instrumental, live sampling, silly ukulele stage show to an intimate, interactive, headphone lounge. SuperTall creates a world ‘inside’ where the listener gets to experience this audible art as a process.

Since Create:Fixate is all about building community around Angeleno artisans, The Equation will be joining the festivities with an interactive project that will be revealed the night of the event. The Equation’s mission is to create opportunity and to keep the arts alive by cultivating community within creative industries.  They bring people together through unique and interactive events that support and nurture our fellow artists.  To become a part of The Equation go to www.theequation.org.

As part of Create:Fixate’s community outreach efforts the organization often works with nonprofits facilitating youth empowerment through arts education projects. For the second time, C:F and Youth Speak Collective (YSC) will join forces. YSC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Pacoima, California. Youth Speak’s mission is to empower low-income, at-risk youth and their families with the skills necessary to pursue higher education and create strong communities. The organization provides teens throughout the Northeast San Fernando Valley with creative, high-quality programs that channel their intellect and talent, build their academic skills, and strengthen their investment in their own communities. Create:Fixate has saved a wall to exhibit student artwork – as it often does – so that kids from YSC can create an art piece inspired by the RISE theme.

Create:Fixate is an arts organization based in Los Angeles completing its 9th year producing art/music events that bring together emerging artists and musicians, along with thousands of art lovers and party goers in massive, and at times intimate, warehouse locations and alternative spaces on a quarterly basis.  Founder Michelle Berc curates, produces and hosts these ambitious group art shows that present creative beings from around the globe with an emphasis on the local talent of Los Angeles. The production team also includes Music Coordinator Andrea Giardina, and a core team of volunteers and dedicated advisory board members. Awe-inspiring painters, photographers, sculptors, and multi-media artists exhibit alongside an equally impressive array of Los Angeles’ finest DJs and musicians. Each event’s aural artists are poised to create a soundtrack for the night that transforms this from a simple ‘art show’ into one of the city’s most anticipated art events.

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For more information, images or to set up interviews please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada (née Hasty) at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.