Vibrant colors and feminist themes filled the Eastern Star Gallery space for the program’s second show of the 2015-2016 school year featuring Los Angeles based artist Rachel Lachowicz on Thursday, Jan. 28. But before The Eastern Star Gallery (ESG) can open its doors to the community for this or any show, the students involved in the gallery program spend weeks preparing.

One of the Gallery program’s goals is to expose the Archer community to influential female artists.

“We try not to be too heavy on male artists,” ESG Adviser Chad Attie said.

Gallery director Alana Parpal from Shoshanna Wayne Gallery suggested Lachowicz to the ESG a couple years ago, believing she would be a good match. 

Planning each show starts off with artist research — contacting the gallery representatives and artists to see if there might be a possible show. Then the students conduct more research on the type of art that is available to show.

The team will then set up appointments with the artist to meet at either their gallery or studio spaces.

In this case, the ESG team first visited Shoshana Wayne Gallery because that is where most of the artist’s work is located.

After the visit, the team made plans to meet with Lachowicz at her studio for a more in-depth look at her pieces and process. They discussed what they liked and chose their angle for the show.

“We get to see the ins and outs of the artist’s process from production to emotional and mental purpose of the art,” Gallery Director Carina Oriel ’16 said.

Students visited Lachowicz’s studio the following Saturday to see where she works with her materials, including eyeshadow and aluminum.

According to Oriel, after they visited the studio, Lachowicz and the team continued to communicate about the show’s installation and made sure that the show is well-curated and put together properly.

The next steps are to decide how they show should be publicized. 

Kisa Rozenbaoum ’18 creates the designs for the gallery show’s posters and invitations.

Oriel drafts press releases based off of past shows and artist statements that are provided by their respective galleries, which are sent out to roughly 50 emails at the end of the overall process to different news outlets in Los Angeles. 

“Setting up vinyl and getting all the logistics covered after we met with her which was really beneficial,” Artist liaison Sky Edenfield ’17 said.

Her role is to set up all of the communications with the gallery directors and installation and deinstallation.

“Once you know the meaning and the theme, everything just falls into place,” she said. 

Rachel Lachowicz’s show “Context is Queen” closes Friday, Feb. 26.