Curator Anne Eder says, "Angelique Benicio’s Nostalgia made me laugh out loud when I first saw it despite the darker implications of the title and the frightening fly people in red dresses.

I love that these fanciful monsters also seem ornery and gleeful, lending them a more fleshed out persona and adding intrigue and interest."

Angelique Benicio says, "My work is about human experience and emotion that we don’t normally talk about but we live with. Every day, it’s running in the back of our brains, these unsettling feelings, these emotions that we all have in common but we don’t really verbalize — the little fears, the anxieties, the ideas we believe in but don’t really want to admit out loud."

Angelique Benicio is a mixed media artist, painter and performance artist with professional experience in both the United States and in Europe. 

Her work has been exhibited at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art in Novato CA; Art Works Downtown in San Rafael CA; The Brayer Gallery in Ventura CA; Axis Gallery in Sacramento CA; Umpqua Valley Arts Association in Roseburg OR; Trans-Art Gallery in Trondheim, Norway; and at Casa Cor Annual Architectural Design Exhibition in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. 

Her performance work has been presented at Art Works Downtown in San Rafael CA; The Crucible in Oakland CA; and at Trails and Vistas in Truckee CA.

CV-
SOLO EXHIBITIONS

• Waking Dreams, Art Works Downtown
Solo exhibition
San Rafael, California
August 4 - September 18, 2017
• Max Occupancy Art Projects, Mystic Hotel by Charlie Palmer
Solo exhibition curated by Michele Foyer
San Francisco, California
Extended Exhibition Dates: November 2015 – February 21, 2016

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

• 4th Annual Juried Show, Piedmont Center for the Arts
Curated by Sarah Roberts, Curator of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA and Carin Adams, Curator of Art and Material Culture at the Oakland Museum of California
Piedmont, California
January 7 - January 29, 2016
• Sculptural installation and performance, Trails And Vistas
Donner Lake, California
September 2016
• Order and Chaos, Arts Benicia
Curated by Cathrine Clark
Benicia, California
August  6 - September 14, 2016
• Mixed media design and performance, The Crucible - Hot Couture
Oakland, California
February 12-13, 2016
• Sculptural Installation and Performance, Trails And Vistas
Donner Lake, California
September 2015
• 10th National Juried Exhibition, AXIS gallery
Juror:  Max Presneill, Head Curator of the Torrance Art Museum, Torrance CA and Curatorial Director of ARTRA Curatorial

www.angeliquebenicio.com 

-----------------------------------------

Curator Anne Eder says, "Shine Huang’s Fishman is a gorgeous image in black and white, and while perhaps connecting to the theme of monsters somewhat tangentially, it feels folkloric and makes use of symbolism such as water, the fish, the moon, and the tower, all related to the unconscious and what may emerge from it, be that beauty or horror."

Shine Huang says, "What really scares you is not the monster you see, it’s your own fear. Monster is like a mirror reflecting deep inside of your mind. Don’t be scared, because fear is not supposed to shut you down, it wakes you up."

Shine Huang is an international photographer, who born and grew up in Shanghai, China. He started his photography career as a photojournalist in Xinmin Newspaper Shanghai in 2000. In 2008, Shine moved to the United States. He obtained his Bachelor of Science Degrees in Sports Management and Journalism. After graduating, Shine relocated Atlanta, GA. In the past 10 years, he worked in The Herald Newspaper, KAIT8 TV station, Canyon News Santa Monica, CNN Films and CTRL Studios.

In 2017, Shine completed an MFA in Photography at Savannah College of Art and Design. He had several shows in Manson Fine Art Gallery, SXSE Gallery, and SCAD Open Studio. Shine is specialized in black and white film and historical photographic process.

Shine’s photography also gains high reputation in commercial world. Shine's clients include: Hennessy USA, Crown Royal, Cognac Martell, Isakson Living, etc
 

Curator Anne Eder says, "Pato Hebert’s Oscillator series is at its best in Oscillator in Tualatin Hills Nature Park, where the complicated composition of green woods and posture of the figure extends an invitation to try and piece together the story behind the creature’s mood and circumstances."

Pato Hebert says, "In, If Not Always Of is a series of performances for the camera in which a character or presence that I call, “The Oscillator,” appears in various landscapes.

The Oscillator reflects its environment, without simply or easily being of its context. Inspired by Buddhist notions of interconnectedness and the limitations of the ego, The Oscillator queries our relationship to place and space, and our false distinctions between human and nature.

Where do we feel like we belong? When are we comfortable in our own skin? What makes us feel like aliens? What do we define as ours, sacred, everyday, untouched? Who and what are excluded by these delineations? What does it mean to be of a place, not simply in it or passing through? How might we connect with all that is around us, to all that is us without simply making “us” the center of a myopic worldview?
 
In Ecology Without Nature, Timothy Morton reminds us that the West’s very notion of nature as being “over there” and separate from humans is part of our ecological challenge. We cannot simply see ourselves as exceptional and apart. We must consider what Richard Grusin and others have called the non-human turn. I have been exploring these ideas through the presencing of The Oscillator in parks and nature reserves, areas that have been demarcated by the state and private organizations as “nature,” or apart from the built, yet which are nonetheless shaped actively (if not wholly) by human hands.
 
The Oscillator can sometimes mirror its surrounding environment, but it can also be encompassed, even configured by its landscape. It oscillates between alienation and belonging. Sometimes The Oscillator seems to announce its presence and difference. Other times it seeks to seamlessly blend in, appearing to shape shift. Still other times it is almost indistinguishable from its context. Throughout these cumulative encounters, we might wonder what makes something or someone feel un/natural, in/accessible, in/vulnerable?"

Pato Hebert is an artist, teacher and organizer. His work explores the aesthetics, ethics and poetics of interconnectedness. He is particularly interested in space, spirituality, pedagogy and progressive praxis. Recent projects have been presented at Beton7 in Athens, PH21 Gallery in Budapest, the Contemporary Art Museum in Quito, the International AIDS Conference in Durban and The Glass Studio at The Chrysler Museum in Norfolk. In 2016 he was a BAU Institute/Camargo Foundation Residency Fellow in Cassis, France. Hebert’s work has been supported by grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Creative Work Fund, the National Education Association and a Mid-Career Fellowship for Visual Artists from the California Community Foundation. In 2008 he received the Excellence in Photographic Teaching Award from Center in Santa Fe. 

He teaches as an Associate Arts Professor in the Department of Art & Public Policy at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. He has also worked in community-based HIV prevention initiatives with queer communities of color since 1994. He continues this grassroots work through his current projects with the Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF), where he helps to develop innovative international approaches to community mobilization, programs and advocacy.

www.patohebert.com/home.html

-------------------------------------------------
Click on arrow to continue Honorable Mention