Meditations on Resilience Curated by Michael Dee and Eve Wood - Woodbury University
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Archived: 2026-04-23 17:27
Meditations on Resilience Curated by Michael Dee and Eve Wood - Woodbury University
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Meditations on Resilience Curated by Michael Dee and Eve Wood
PRESS RELEASE
Given the fractured socio-political moment that we are currently living through, or more accurately, painfully enduring, the concept of resilience feels more meaningful and necessary than ever. Webster’s dictionary defines
resilience
as “the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties,” but I would argue that true resilience demands a kind of self-examination rarely exemplified in today’s culture, a deepening wisdom if you will, that, if we listen closely to our own deeper intentions, makes us stronger. Probably most importantly, true resiliency is the ability to prioritize hope above despair, and love above fear. The thirteen artists in this exhibition each interpret the concept of resilience differently and in accordance with their own lived human experience.
Michael Dee’s
anthropomorphized crawdad, an icon of resilience and transformation because it regenerates its limbs and sheds its skin, stands as a kind of extemporaneous mascot for the exhibition as a whole like a tiny red gatekeeper of our collective imaginations.
Shane Richardson
delivers an array of visceral imagery that oscillate between despair and euphoria—from soft and velvety alternative realities to raw and explosive undertones, forging a dialogue of incomparable visual dissonance.
Michael Arata’s
paintings posit complicated interpersonal relationships through isolation and disappearance, further exemplifying our fractured human interconnectedness and both
Brad Eberhard
and
Daniel Hawkins
employ images from the natural world, i.e. animals and monolithic architectural sites to speak to our sense of isolation from the world of nature, all the while constantly attempting to subjugate and control it.
Kelsey Kuykendall’s
employs all manner of found objects into her work including derelict mattresses, carpet padding, oil paint and resin, to create luminous large scale multi narrative works that suggest our codependency on nature as well as our culpability when it comes to how we care for the planet, i.e. the leavings of our all too human world. Yet still, nature persists in its resiliency to restore the natural order of things.
Other works in the exhibition address notions of personal resilience, i.e. how we care for ourselves and our own well-being in the face of a world gone mad.
Jim Ovelmen’s
paintings appear almost as meditations on tranquility and individualism as each of his figure’s grapple with their own inner constraints, creating a palpable tension between the public and private selves that we all cultivate.
Damon Schindler’s
Hobo Bag painting showcases yet again his singular brand of humor, while also making a statement about how we treat the unhoused in this country, and
Kiki Seror’s
archival pigment prints from her Lunar Mazalot series appear as strange, bifurcated environments that are at once seductive and unpredictable.
The natural world is probably the truest model of resilience that we know and
Renee Taylor’s
luminous images of flowers are as obsessive as they are inviting.
Marnie Weber
leans even deeper into her titular brand of humor at once whacky and wonderful, and
HK Zamani’s
series of intimate paintings, aptly titled Fashion Erasures, challenges class consciousness, standardization, and expectation. The obscuring of found images cancels their conventional orthodoxies while embellishing and empowering them to suggest both their primal origins and a potential undiscovered future.
Finally,
Eve Wood’s
oddly alluring drawings examine our human dysfunction, and the weird idiosyncratic relationships we forge with ourselves and the living creatures around us.
Meditations on Resilience
Curated by Michael Dee and Eve Wood
Opening Reception
Saturday Jan. 31, 2026, 5 – 8pm
7500 Glenoaks Blvd, Burbank, CA 91504
More News
Woodbury Named Favorite Four-Year University in Best of LA 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards
August 18, 2025
Anthony Fontenot Presents at Urban History Association’s 11th Biennial Conference
November 3, 2025
Woodbury University Dean Heather Flood Named AIA|LA 2025 Educator of the Year
September 4, 2025
Now accepting
Fall 2026
applications!
Students
Academic Calendars
Associated Students
Bookstore
Catalog
Complaint Resolution Process
Health & Wellness
International Students
The Los Angeles Times Library
Making Complex Reservation-LA
Math, Science & Subject Tutoring Center
Merch Store
Canvas
Commencement 2026
Order Transcripts
Parking Permits
Portal
Self-Service
Student Handbook
Student Job Board
Syllabus Library
Woody's Info
Writing Center
Faculty/Staff
Academic Calendars
Bookstore
Catalog
The Los Angeles Times Library
Merch Store
Canvas
Portal
Self-Service
Syllabus Library
Woody's Info
News & Events
Latest News
Upcoming Events
Parents & Families
Frequently Asked Questions
Meditations on Resilience Curated by Michael Dee and Eve Wood
PRESS RELEASE
Given the fractured socio-political moment that we are currently living through, or more accurately, painfully enduring, the concept of resilience feels more meaningful and necessary than ever. Webster’s dictionary defines
resilience
as “the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties,” but I would argue that true resilience demands a kind of self-examination rarely exemplified in today’s culture, a deepening wisdom if you will, that, if we listen closely to our own deeper intentions, makes us stronger. Probably most importantly, true resiliency is the ability to prioritize hope above despair, and love above fear. The thirteen artists in this exhibition each interpret the concept of resilience differently and in accordance with their own lived human experience.
Michael Dee’s
anthropomorphized crawdad, an icon of resilience and transformation because it regenerates its limbs and sheds its skin, stands as a kind of extemporaneous mascot for the exhibition as a whole like a tiny red gatekeeper of our collective imaginations.
Shane Richardson
delivers an array of visceral imagery that oscillate between despair and euphoria—from soft and velvety alternative realities to raw and explosive undertones, forging a dialogue of incomparable visual dissonance.
Michael Arata’s
paintings posit complicated interpersonal relationships through isolation and disappearance, further exemplifying our fractured human interconnectedness and both
Brad Eberhard
and
Daniel Hawkins
employ images from the natural world, i.e. animals and monolithic architectural sites to speak to our sense of isolation from the world of nature, all the while constantly attempting to subjugate and control it.
Kelsey Kuykendall’s
employs all manner of found objects into her work including derelict mattresses, carpet padding, oil paint and resin, to create luminous large scale multi narrative works that suggest our codependency on nature as well as our culpability when it comes to how we care for the planet, i.e. the leavings of our all too human world. Yet still, nature persists in its resiliency to restore the natural order of things.
Other works in the exhibition address notions of personal resilience, i.e. how we care for ourselves and our own well-being in the face of a world gone mad.
Jim Ovelmen’s
paintings appear almost as meditations on tranquility and individualism as each of his figure’s grapple with their own inner constraints, creating a palpable tension between the public and private selves that we all cultivate.
Damon Schindler’s
Hobo Bag painting showcases yet again his singular brand of humor, while also making a statement about how we treat the unhoused in this country, and
Kiki Seror’s
archival pigment prints from her Lunar Mazalot series appear as strange, bifurcated environments that are at once seductive and unpredictable.
The natural world is probably the truest model of resilience that we know and
Renee Taylor’s
luminous images of flowers are as obsessive as they are inviting.
Marnie Weber
leans even deeper into her titular brand of humor at once whacky and wonderful, and
HK Zamani’s
series of intimate paintings, aptly titled Fashion Erasures, challenges class consciousness, standardization, and expectation. The obscuring of found images cancels their conventional orthodoxies while embellishing and empowering them to suggest both their primal origins and a potential undiscovered future.
Finally,
Eve Wood’s
oddly alluring drawings examine our human dysfunction, and the weird idiosyncratic relationships we forge with ourselves and the living creatures around us.
Meditations on Resilience
Curated by Michael Dee and Eve Wood
Opening Reception
Saturday Jan. 31, 2026, 5 – 8pm
7500 Glenoaks Blvd, Burbank, CA 91504
More News
Woodbury Named Favorite Four-Year University in Best of LA 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards
August 18, 2025
Anthony Fontenot Presents at Urban History Association’s 11th Biennial Conference
November 3, 2025
Woodbury University Dean Heather Flood Named AIA|LA 2025 Educator of the Year
September 4, 2025
Now accepting
Fall 2026
applications!