Announcing Our Next Residents

Our 2020 resident artists: gabbah baya, Coffee Kang, and Emmet Prieto Webster.

Level Ground is pleased to announce our 2020 cohort of resident artists. After assessing the application materials that we received from a record number of candidates, our inaugural selection committee chose three artists who each expressed a thoughtful and unique artistic vision, held a sincere commitment to collaboration and experimentation, and demonstrated a strong potential for both personal and professional growth through our program. On behalf of the entire Level Ground community, we send our congratulations and welcome to our new residents gabbah baya, Coffee Kang, and Emmet Prieto Webster.

Now in its fourth year, the Level Ground artist residency provides mentorship, production resources, and training to an annual class of emerging and underrepresented artists. Over the course of their residency, each artist develops a major artistic project exploring questions of identity, culture and self, which will become the centerpiece of their debut solo gallery exhibition. Produced by Level Ground, these immersive, multimedia shows will be free and open to the public. To learn more about our programs for artists, click here.

gabbah baya

Informed by their Arab American upbringing, gabbah baya (they/them) uses the immersive, digital medium of video games to address gender, race, and international politics. gabbah baya—the artistic pseudonym of Yasmine Batniji—uses sound, video, and 3D animation to construct alternate worlds where contradictory and multifaceted realities coexist alongside each other. In these hyperreal, virtual environments, gabbah deconstructs symbols of hegemony and critiques U.S. perceptions of the Middle East.

Born and raised in south Florida by a Moroccan mother and a Palestinian father from Gaza, gabbah has enjoyed making art their entire life, attending various art academies and art magnet schools throughout their upbringing. They hold a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, where they studied digital arts.

Coffee Kang

Coffee Kang (she/her) is a concept-driven visual and performance artist who uses her work to navigate the moves and shifts of her personal narrative through various media. Emphasizing both the temporality of performance as well as the inherently performative process of making, Coffee’s artistic practices offer a reflection of the state of fluctuation present within our larger social context.

Though currently based in Los Angeles, Coffee has exhibited her work all over the world, from Hong Kong and Vienna to Budapest and Liepzig. She has also exhibited locally in Los Angeles at The Box, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Last Projects, Nomad Pavilion, and Spring/Break Art Show. Coffee holds a BA in Creative Media from City University of Hong Kong and an MFA in Photo and Media from California Institute of the Arts. In addition to our residency, Coffee is currently in residence at Eastside International in DTLA and previously was an artist-in-residence at Pilotenkueche in Leipzig, Germany.

Emmet Prieto Webster

Born and raised in Echo Park, Emmet Prieto Webster (he/him) is a multimedia artist who explores cultural fantasies and speculative realities in his work. He first began making art amongst the diverse music communities of Los Angeles, primarily the backyard punk scene and the youth mariachi circuit. He became fascinated by the opportunity these audio/visual environments created for individuals to speculate on and implement alternative identities and realities. Through archival and research practice, audio collage, and visual staging, Emmet digests, documents, imagines and reimagine these speculative cultures found within the urban environment.

Emmet studied Visual Art and Music at both UC San Diego and California Institute of the Arts.

As our residents continue developing their solo shows over the course of the year, you can stay up-to-date with their progress by following Level Ground on Facebook and Instagram, and by signing up for our email newsletter.