Orange County Center for Contemporary Art reopens with an exhibit about healing

Following a closure due to the pandemic, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art has reopened with an exhibit featuring works about healing by Andrea Moni and Yuri Boyko called “Collaborate, Create and Heal.”

In 2015, Moni dealt with the aftermath of a serious burn accident. Inspired by the people who helped her during her recovery, she created a collaborative way of working with other survivors of trauma.

Moni sets up a temporary studio near an ocean shore where she and a participant paint on a large canvas using natural earth pigments and the motions of waves. The process is meant to be a healing ritual with a message of collaboration and letting go. The canvas created together then becomes the background for a finished piece that is hung like tapestry instead of stretched or framed.

Boyko’s black-and-white photographs depict nude figures leaping and jumping. The artist, who was born and raised in Ukraine, focuses on the deconstruction of identity, exploring states of loss and triumph, pain and pleasure. He has said his goal as an artist is to reveal subconscious and concealed qualities of identity by employing light and color intertwined with symbols and metaphors. The “Collaborate, Create and Heal” includes work from his “Desideratum,” “Transience” and “Salve” series.

OCCCA held a socially distanced reception for the show on May 1 and is open on Fridays and Saturdays or by appointment between 1 to 4 p.m.

If you go

What: “Collaborate, Create and Heal”
Where: Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, 117 N. Sycamore St., Santa Ana
When: May 1 through 29
Cost: Free
Info: (714) 667-1517, occca.org

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