“Flowers grow out of dark moments. Therefore, each moment is vital. It affects the whole.” —Sister Corita Kent
Throughout our 30 years of publishing, we have always strived to put community first. I want to think we have championed a whole as opposed to just a very few. As we were working on the Summer Quarterly, this quote from artist and activist Sister Corita Kent rang very true, not only in a global perspective but also within our own neighborhood. In February, we lost a member of our community, Shawn Hosner, co-founder of Thinkspace Projects in Los Angeles. Through incredible effort, her decades of commitment to the arts and creation of a cherished kinship within the gallery gave everyone an opportunity to truly appreciate such special bonds within the art world, and we salute Shawn’s talent for building and nurturing such a rich dynamism in the creative community.
One of the reasons Shawn was so vitally important was her commitment to the underdog. We spend so much time in this era of the art world talking about biennales, auctions, speculation and who’s hot in the market that sometimes we forget about that simple and all so vital part of all of this: community. What can we build? Can we create a family of artists, curators and gallerists who grow, learn and build together? When I think about Shawn, I think about a love of underground movements, of emerging artists and ideas about making the world a more inclusive space, and of course, how Shawn’s husband, Andrew Hosner, will continue that mission with the team at Thinkspace. What we at Juxtapoz learned over the course of this issue and the memorial held for Shawn this past February, is that there are flowers in these dark moments, that there is vitality still to be shared and experienced, and that the loss of such a friend can help us all understand the true meaning of that word (once again): community.
This reflects our Summer Quarterly in so many ways, beginning with Mickalene Thomas’ exhibition at The Broad, All About Love. If there was ever an artist who championed community, of sharing space with others, of growing with peers, it is Mickalene. And the title of her show couldn’t be more appropriate for the time. When we look at all the other featured artists, Katherine Bernhardt, rafa esparza, Nehemiah Cisneros, Noelia Towers, Ivy Haldeman, Timothy Lai, Rebecca Ness, Joy Yamusangie, and Eric Yahnker, I think about growth and sharing. As the world continues to roar with the destruction of war and the potential for more conflict, there is a simple lesson to be understood in the life of Shawn Hosner, in the words of Sister Corita Kent, and in the career of Mickalene Thomas. Where there is love, there is community, so let that garden grow. —Evan Pricco
Enjoy Summer 2024. Buy it here now.
