MSJC Art Gallery To Host In-Person Exhibit ‘She Se Puede’

Press release from MSJC:

March 18, 2022

The Mt. San Jacinto College (MSJC) Art Gallery is pleased to present “She Se Puede,” a special solo exhibition by artist and MSJC associate art instructor Conchi Sanford, from March 21 to April 21 at its San Jacinto Campus location.

An MSJC Art Talk, generously sponsored by the MSJC Foundation, will take place from 1 to 2 p.m. March 24. A closing reception for the exhibit is scheduled for 4-6 p.m. Saturday, April 16. Details will become available at www.msjc.edu/artgallery.

“She Se Puede” is a unique opportunity to explore Sanford’s sculptural and luminescent resin-stained glass works. Sanford’s abstract sculptures have a basis in representational art, however her forms often resemble bodies in motion or compositions that have defined their own development and growth.

Sanford approaches artmaking in a very corporeal way. The physicality of her art making extends beyond her own studio practice and reaches out to the viewer. Her forms almost ask you to place your own body in relationship to the sculptures themselves. Sanford creates armatures layered with colored resin. The resin has a mysterious quality in Sanford’s hands, it simultaneously looks like it is letting light in while emitting light out from the inside.

Sanford also brings the idea of light into her new resin-stained glass works. In Sanford’s continually creating mind, she turns the classic stained-glass window into an enigmatic vehicle for artistic exploration. Her windows use a similar layering of diaphanous color to illuminate an antiqued idealized form.

As a first-generation American, Sanford’s goals reflect in her lifetime exposure to her own ethnic background, cultural diversity and embody her response to her bi-national upbringing.

Sanford is an adjunct instructor at MSJC and Crafton Hills College and CTA union board member. She received a bachelor’s degree in 2000 from California State University, Long Beach, and an MFA from Claremont Graduate University. There, she was able to transition from painting to sculpture, with a degree in Integrated 3-D Design with an emphasis in wood, fiber and metals.

The MSJC Art Gallery is in Building 1400 on the college’s San Jacinto Campus, 1499 N. State. St. It is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Mt. San Jacinto College serves nearly 24,000 students annually in a district covering 1,700 square miles from the San Gorgonio Pass to Temecula, with campuses in San Jacinto, Menifee, Banning and Temecula.

MSJC awarded a record-breaking 3,848 degrees and certificates to 2,173 graduates in May 2021.

This press release was produced by MSJC. The views expressed here are the author's own.