Exhibition Opening | Stampede by Christina Joseph

GALLERY | $5-10 SUGGESTED DONATION | ALL AGES | Stampede was a term first coined in an 1847 Cincinnati newspaper to describe mass escapes of enslaved people from the American South. The “Grand Stampede” marked a critical period in America’s metamorphosis, right before the Civil War, when the country was brought to its knees in reckoning. Stampede is a visual survey of the ever-moving kaleidoscope of systems of labor, building, and destruction. Artist Christina Joseph created this body of work inspired by her research on the Underground Railroad in and around her family’s inn in Maysville, Kentucky. From this research, emerged a clearly sophisticated network written into the walls, basements, and crawl spaces illuminating the stories that are stitched together through ancestral whispers, lore, and corrupted nineteenth-century documents. Stampede considers the force of movement that hinges on the power of mass necessary to initiate the momentum. The work examines the systems we run from, the systems we build, and the spaces of ambiguity that exist between them. Lest we forget. Christina Joseph was born in Los Angeles, October of 1990. She grew up in Southern California studying painting and drawing from a young age. She attended college at Maryland Institute College of Art where she learned ceramics, performance art, and installation. She graduated in 2012 with a BFA in sculpture with concentrations in ceramics and curatorial studies. After graduating, Christina became involved in the art scene in Baltimore both with local galleries and community outreach. For years after graduating college, Joseph focused primarily on her performative works, performing at Baltimore’s Light City, Fields Fest, and other local galleries and events. Joseph moved back to Los Angeles in 2017 and works primarily with ceramics to address themes of identity, history, beauty, and labor. Joseph is currently pursuing her MFA from UC Irvine.