Culver City Observer -

While imprisoned in the Soviet Union from 1957 to 1964, sculptor Léonid Nedov clandestinely rendered scenes of prison life onto broken pieces of enamel dishware in haunting detail, until his release thanks to mediation by the dissident author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Nedov's powerful creative expression in the face of terror formed the inspiration for our new exhibition Visions of Transcendence: Creating Space in East and West, which opens this Saturday!

Visions of Transcendence presents artwork created by people who have lost their rights of privacy and security by being incarcerated or unhoused, comparing art from the Soviet Bloc countries with art created by the incarcerated and unhoused in contemporary American society.

Also opening is Ceija Stojka and Scenes of Roma Life, which delves into the resilient world of the marginalized Roma and Sinti communities. At the heart of this exhibition lies the work of Ceija Stojka, a Holocaust survivor whose evocative art pieces echo the trials and triumphs of the Roma community.

Also opening are the new East German guardhouse installation Wende Times, a "fake newsstand" created by high school students from the Watts-based Operation Progress during their professional development internships at the museum; and Anne Bobroff-Hajal's monumental work Darling Godsonny: Ivan the Terrible Advises the Infant Stalin.

The public opening event for our newest exhibitions will run from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, November 11. The inaugural tour will begin at 12:30 p.m., followed by complimentary wine offered in the garden beginning at 1:30 p.m. At 2 p.m. there will be a program of remarks by curators Joes Segal and Emma Diffley, formerly incarcerated artist Kitione Paepule, incarcerated artist Obie Weathers (via prepared recording), artist and historian Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll, Jacques Paige of The People Concern, artist and organizer Manuel Compito, Lorely French and Michaela Gobbel of the Ceija Stojka International Association, and students Cristina Muñoz and Vanessa Garcia from Operation Progress.