FREESTATE: THE FREE REPUBLIC OF CALIFORNIA 

ARTIST COLE STERNBERG CONSTRUCTS a nation through A MYRIAD OF WORKS, TEXT & EPHEMERA ONLINE & AT ESMOA THIS FALL / WINTER

Los Angeles, CA - For ESMoA’s Experience #47 FREESTATE, artist Cole Sternberg will conceive and enact an agitprop public movement via exhibition, dedicated website and propaganda factory that conjures into conceptual existence The Free Republic of California. Taking place both inside and outside the museum, as well as an online digital revolution, FREESTATE prolifically details and addresses concepts of human rights, the environment, democracy and freedom through a multi-media and publicly activated artistic journey, one that recalls Joseph Beuys’ 7000 Oaks (which precipitated the founding of Germany’s Green Party in 1980).  Sternberg employs sculpture in its 3-dimensional totality: physical, performative, and social to turn a mirror onto American society’s past moral choices and previously unconsidered future. The show is intentionally slated to take place just before the 2020 presidential elections. The Museum will be split into three rooms, forcing the viewer to experience each as a separate moment along the path to the Free Republic.

The Exhibition (October 3, 2020 – February 2021):  Taking ESMoA and LA’s South Bay City of El Segundo as ostensible “campaign headquarters,” FREESTATE will feature new artworks that Sternberg conceives as fabricated historical ephemeras and objects, sovereign documents, and fictional propaganda. The gallery space will be split into three rooms, forcing the viewer to experience each as a separate moment along the path to the Free Republic. 

 Room one is an elaborate canvasing office, replete with posters, buttons, lawn signs and other public activation propaganda. Sternberg has even drafted a new Constitution for California, published in pocket form for easy mass dissemination. Room two is the brain of the concept. As “California Dreamin’” plays on repeat, the walls of this room are filled from floor to ceiling with works on paper chronicling the artist’s mind map of secession. They explain the historical heartache, the environmental elegance and the logistics of a peaceful and beneficial transition. The final stage is the largest and calmest. Feelings of escape and freedom permeate from Sternberg’s environmental sculpture and collage, which sit quietly against a traditional Museum backdrop, demonstrating a future where one can breathe.

The ESMoA Experience Award recipient for FREESTATE is Álvaro D. Márquez. Márquez is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher who works primarily around issues of historical and contemporary forms of displacement, using print-based installation, sculpture, and fiber art.  Márquez is creating an artwork that explores a radical future while taking an accounting of the past. His research addresses the ownership of land and physical displacement of Indigenous peoples. The work itself is a giant map of California with intertextual references that show points in history. Fibers (embroidery) and linocut prints will augment the map. A guiding question of the work: What is the history this map is responding to?

ESMoA’s Experience 47: FREESTATE is curated by Dr. Bernhard Zuenkeler.

Cole Sternberg was born in Richmond, Virginia. He lives and works in Los Angeles and practices in a range of formats including painting, installation, video, and writing. Series of his work have focused on a variety of social issues, from current human rights activism and its relationship to the law, to the environment, to the media and concepts of content overload. The works tend to be subtle or subversive in nature, driven by elegant visual concepts and poetry. He is interested in the intersection between humanity and humankind and how their lack of congruity hinders social progression and development.  Sternberg has exhibited nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at the American University Museum (Washington, DC), Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND, Los Angeles), LA><ART (Los Angeles), Primary (Miami), David B. Smith Gallery (Denver), MAMA (Los Angeles & Berlin), Praz Delavallade (Los Angeles) and There-There (Los Angeles). His works are held by major collections throughout the world, such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), the El Segundo Museum of Art (ESMoA), the American University Museum (AUM) and Deutsche Telekom. 

 ESMoA is an art laboratory located in El Segundo, California and it is run by artlab21 Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3). Founded in 2013, our mission is to spread the spark of creativity through the display and education of visual arts. ESMoA functions as a catalyst for creative thinking offering unique Experiences. The Experiences - our word for exhibition/exhibit - present a variety of media, including sculpture, painting, works on paper, performances, and photography.  ESMoA's activity is based on three fundamental pillars: Experiences, Arts Education Programs and Artist in Residence. ESMoA provides an array of programs and events, such as school programs, artist-led workshops, art talks, and family days. Admission and participation are free.  www.esmoa.org