GALLERY | $5 SUGGESTED DONATION | ALL AGES | Hold Me Close is a show that treasures the small things in the lives of Rachael Chan and Maya Ruiz that continue to reignite their joy and hope for a brighter future.
The show features the two artists' innermost treasures: objects, places, and feelings that they seek out for, time and time again, with a newfound, childlike wonder. The world offers these silent gifts everyday, abundantly, relentlessly, and their work is a reflection of this beautiful phenomenon.
A protest against the life and future that they have been given, the work represents a strong belief that there can be a world where richness is not found in how much one owns; richness can be found in the smallest of things: in the feeling of pressing your cheek to a cypress, or holding the ocean's precious things in your palms.
In these works of gratitude, we hope that viewers leave the show knowing that they are held and loved quietly by the world.
Maya Ruiz is a Japanese-Venezuelan artist born and raised in Los Angeles. Their work reflects a dance between tender shapes and vibrant color to create art about the people, things, and places that she loves. Through drawing, they explore how color and line can unfold a portal one could step through into a specific time, feeling, and place where Ruiz has felt they have conversed with the universe.
This show features both their long time and most recent obsessions, including trees, water, sculptures, and more. Through this show, they contemplate what it means to be an explorer of the world, why they are drawn to what they love, and how these small things they collect can help them create a map back to themself.
Rachael Chan is a born and raised Los Angelean artist, of Taiwanese and Hong Kongese descent. Their work embraces the interplay of not knowing and knowing, of letting go and grasping, of resting and running. Often exploring their innermost world and subconscious through whatever medium they get their hands on, their work is often playful, whimsical, and strange, just like them.
Creating work for this show was Rachael's chance to reflect on the things that bring them joy, the things that they notice, the things that are not yet known, and to bring them to fruition through clay.
This event will be indoors.