RTS is excited to host Real Talks with resident artist Elena Yu and RTS member Emma Spertus Thursday, March 21st from 6-8pm PST at RTS located at 125 10th St. Oakland.
Elena Yu is an interdisciplinary artist and arts organizer from Los Angeles, CA. Her practice weaves together many mediums and intentions including textiles, performance, drawing, sculpture, archival research and community practice. Elena is currently a UCSB Arts Equity Commons Campus Artist-in-Residence, where she is working in partnership with the UCSB Art Department, the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archive (CEMA), and UCSB Library’s Ethnic and Gender Studies (EGS) collection. During her residency at UCSB and RTS, Elena is working on archival research, a series of workshops, and objects for an intervention in the UCSB library that aims to engage students with histories of radical student organizing towards racial justice and the formation of Ethnic Studies programs at UCSB. For her Real Talk, Elena will be speaking about this project and sharing in-progress works.
In both her artist and organizing practices, Elena’s emphasis is on developing public programs and exhibitions that consider and care for all aspects of a community ecosystem, bringing together local residents, artists, partnering organizations and sites around contemporary art and issues. She has worked in arts programming at Arts Connection the Arts Council of San Bernardino (2022-2023), High Desert Test Sites (2016-2022), Headlands Center for the Arts, and the MAK Center. In 2022, she co-founded The Firehouse (@thefirehousejt) and Sun Spot (@sun___spot), two artist-run spaces in Joshua Tree, CA. Elena is currently the Ruffin Gallery and Visiting Artist Coordinator at University of Virginia’s Department of Art in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Emma Spertus creates sculptures and architectural interventions, which bring attention to two- and three-dimensional space in humorous or unexpected ways. Her work focuses on questions around the vacancy, materiality, resource use, language, and display. Emma lives and works in the Bay Area. She is founding director of Real Time & Space. She holds an MFA from Hunter College in New York, and BA from Macalester College in St. Paul. This July, Emma will be in residence at the Winslow House Project, Vallejo, CA. www.emmaspertus.com