ULTCW Presents
Stepping Up
A Multimedia Art Exhibit About Facing Challenges
Artist Reception Friday, June 22, 2012
In Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, CA – June 12, 2012 – 
Stepping Up, a multimedia art exhibit about rising up to meet challenges, opens officially to the public with an artist reception on Friday, June 22, 2012 in the Rampart Village office of the United Long Term Care Workers (ULTCW), west of Downtown Los Angeles.  The brightly colored, primarily figurative exhibition features works by artists such as Oscar Magallanes, Keba Konte, and Paul Barron.  Stepping Up is the newest gallery installation by ULTCW, which is part of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The artist reception, which features a DJ, light refreshments, and exhibition artists in attendance, will run from 5:00pm to 7:00pm.  The ULTCW offices are located at 2910 Beverly Blvd. 3rd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90057 (877-698-5829).  Free parking is available in the rear lot, entrance on Occidental Drive.  For more information, please visit ultcw.org/gallery .

“The Sickness 4” (Reloaded Series) by Aniekan Udofia

The exhibit, which runs through June 30th, is free and open to the public Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 5:30pm.  Curated by Oakland-based Chris Hambrick, the works in Stepping Up engage the topic of rising up to meet challenges with courage and perseverance, encouraging the transformation of working families in 2012.  Exhibition artists include Paul Barron, Yvette Brown, Rosa & Lila Maes De Anda, Jack Eastgate, Dana Ellyn, Keba Konte, Oscar Magallanes, Keena Romano & Ashley Arnold, Malik Seneferu, and Aniekan Udofia.  They use their voices to illustrate how “stepping up” strengthens, transforms and empowers us all.  Featured works range from mixed media pieces that represent childhood and the past to spray painted canvas that illuminates the Occupy movement to wings made of wood that represent transcendence.

  All of the works featured in the exhibit reflect fundamental elements of pace and growth, steps taken to get from one stage to another steadily and gradually. These steps help us keep pace, measure by measure. When we follow steps, we are reminded of what has come before and all that lies ahead. Steps guide movement and advancement, helping us embark on journeys, responding to challenges or threats, urging us forward.

“Duality” by Rosa & Lila Maes De Nada

Stepping Up Artists –



Paul Barron – Printmaker, photographer and painter noted for his politically overt and socially conscious messages coming from an anti-authoritarian perspective. www.mediadissent.com/paul

Yvette Brown – Painter who taps into the rich vein that lies between dreams of flying and nightmares of falling out of control. www.yvettembrown.com


Rosa & Lila Maes De Anda – Unique mother and daughter art team from San Francisco using reclaimed materials to examine cycles of birth, death, and transformation. www.lilarosastudios.com


Jack Eastgate – Painter and illustrator with multicultural roots inspired by the beauty that comes with struggle. fijidesigns.com

Dana Ellyn – DC artist who paints colorful critiques of social norms in her half realism/half expressionism style. www.danaellyn.com


Keba Konte – Bay Area artist whose assemblage works are about remembrance – an amalgam of protests and portraits, street moments and political movements, dignitaries and ditch diggers, hip-hop heads and mothers, continents and cultures, as well as freaks, friends and family members.  www.kebakonte.com

Oscar Magallanes – Southern California-based artist whose work uses symbolic iconography to engage issues of social injustice in relation to race, immigration, and homelessness.  oscarmagallanes.com


Keena Romano & Ashley Arnold – Bay Area artists and members of the Black Diamond Shining arts collective, which is best known for collaborative works and Afrofuturistic themes. keenarts.tumblr.com and ashroseart.tumblr.com

Malik Seneferu – African American painter based in North Richmond, CA exploring magical realism themes. www.maliksart.com


Aniekan Udofia  –  Originally from Nigeria, this D.C. artist mixes political themes with a hip-hop aesthetic and is perhaps best known for his use of color and attention to conceptual detail.  www.aniekanudofia.com


Chris Hambrick (Curator)  –  Chris Hambrick is an independent curator and art consultant based in the San Francisco Bay Area.  She has more than 15 years experience managing art collections, designing exhibits, and overseeing installations.  She earned her BFA from Howard University and developed professional acumen as a Senior Assistant in the Washington, D.C. studio of Master Printmaker Lou Stovall and later with the National Gallery of Art.  From 2002-2005, Hambrick ran the ArtBank program at the D.C. Commission on the Arts, where she managed a rotating collection of more than 2,000 works of art.  She has curated exhibits for YWCA National Capital Area, the Whitman Walker Clinic, and SEIU ULTCW.   Hambrick is a managing member of Rock Paper Scissors, an Oakland-based community arts collective.


ULTCW –
ULTCW is California’s leading long term care organization dedicated to providing and protecting quality care for some of California’s most vulnerable residents. SEIU ULTCW represents 180,000 in-home care providers and nursing home workers throughout California, making it the largest union of long-term caregivers in California.

The organization’s offices not only provide working space for the majority of ULTCW’s staff but is also “campaign headquarters,” thus a home base of sorts for over 130,000 members who reside in the Greater Los Angeles Area. This office is also home to the California Long Term Care Education Center that provides free classes to home care workers in conjunction with LA City College.

The exhibit is one of many gallery installations that will be presented by ULTCW this year. Each installation will feature a variety of artists whose art embodies the hard work and dedication that is set forth by long-term care workers as they set out to raise the standards for care in California.

As part of ULTCW’s dedication to bringing caregivers out of poverty and empowering working families to win a future for themselves and their communities, Stepping Up aims to catalyze movement while also reflecting on the progress achieved in the past.

For more information, photos, or for interviews, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.

“Maria” by Yvette Brown