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CURRENT
ARTIST TALK with Isa Gagarin, Saturday, July 19, Noon Pacific Time
Isa Gagarin will be giving an artist talk on July 19 . We will beam her into the gallery space at Pilele Projects from her home in Minneapolis, Minnesota (Mni Sota Makoce). She will give a virtual tour of her exhibition and share insight into her creative process. Presented in an informal bilingual format, Gagarin will highlight the way in which learning fino' Chamoru (Chamoru language) has transformed the way she thinks about and creates her work.
ON VIEW
Isa Gagarin
I Hagan Sirena (The Daughter of Sirena)
June 28 - August 9, 2025
Gallery hours Friday & Saturday from 11 - 4pm
Pilele Projects is honored to present Isa Gagarin's first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, I Hagan Sirena (The Daughter of Sirena). Gagarin will present three works that represent i tinituhon, the beginning, of incorporating Chamoru language into her creative practice. Themes of beginning, birth and rebirth can be found in the exhibition’s centerpiece, a large ink-on-paper painting Tataotao i Tano’ (Body of the Land), it is accompanied by an audio and text work I Estorian Tataotao i Tano’ (Story of Body of the Land), and an artist book I Hagan Sirena (The Daughter of Sirena). Drawing from Gagarin’s experiences of visiting Laso’ Fuha in Guåhan (Guam), studying a kantan Chamorita song and recalling the sounds of luring dukduk crabs out of their shells, the artist invites the audience into a moment when her worldview is transformed through learning her maternal heritage language.
Pilele Projects has printed 20 copies of Gagarin's artist book, I Hagan Sirena (The Daughter of Sirena), for sale during the exhibition. The book is an experimental score written by Gagarin, in collaboration with Minneapolis-based musician Nona Invie. Written for a performance which took place in June 2025 at Invie’s music residency at the venue Berlin in Minneapolis, I Hagan Sirena tells the story of an imaginary descendent of Sirena, a legendary figure from a Chamoru folktale. The story becomes embedded into Gagarin’s personal narrative, as she shares experiences of reconnecting with her motherland and grandmother tongue. In this hybrid poetry and musical score, storytelling is incorporated with ambient sounds, a kantan Chamorita song and simple instrumentation using hands, shells and sand. Gagarin invites the reader into a dreamlike space where the light, air and waters of Guåhan (Guam) are embodied by sonic textures and spoken Chamoru.
Isa Gagarin is an artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota (Mni Sota Makoce). Her work draws from experiences of relating to her birthplace of Guam (Guåhan) through visual art, storytelling and Chamoru language revitalisation. Educated in painting and drawing, Gagarin’s artistic practice has expanded to include experimental writing and performance. Gagarin was born in Guam and was raised throughout the US including Hawai’i. Her Chamoru heritage comes from her maternal lineage (Barrigada, Hagåtña), which also includes ancestry from Europe, and she inherits Filipino ancestry from her paternal lineage (Ilocos Norte, Philippines). Gagarin received an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University (2018), and earned her BFA in Painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (2008).
Email hafa@pileleprojects.org
RECENT
JP / Jason Pereira
Tā Vā: a prism of time through space
May 17 - June 14
Gallery hours Friday & Saturday from 11 - 4pm
Closing event June 14
Pilele Projects is honored to present this new exhibition of work by JP / Jason Pereira. The show begins in response to a portrait series titled Future Ancestors by art collective Art25: Art in the 25th century. Art25 gifted Pilele Projects and our community 13 large scale offprints from the original exhibition of the series, shown at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in the winter of 2020-2021, inviting us to translate and transform the materials and spirit of the original series into new work. JP selected one of the portraits to weave into his own form of self-portrait as Future Ancestor. The resulting work is presented here as Tā Vā Woven (2025), which physically weaves together one of the photographs from Future Ancestors with a painting of the Milky Way galaxy that JP made on a repurposed and repaired polyethylene tarp.
The spirit of repurposing and reusing materials is central to the piece and carries forward the intentions of Art25’s gift. The panel that it is mounted on is also twice repurposed; first it served to protect the windows at PIEAM during the 2020 George Floyd protests, later it became a graffiti panel which JP painted in response to vandalism of one of the Yapese money stones in PIEAM’s garden. The weaving was done by hand and in community at the opening of the show, with the vertical strips of the photograph left as an unfinished fringe at the base of the panel. This is in keeping with traditional Samoan forms of mat weaving, where the fringe represents the future, the work that remains to be done, and the connections that remain to be made.
Across the gallery, facing back at Tā Vā Woven, are three more portraits drawn from earlier moments in JP’s trajectory as an artist. The central piece, Grace & Space Mirror Column (2024), is a septagonal column of mirrors, which matches JP’s physical height. Each mirror is painted with symbols and anecdotes from different phases of the his life, with the exception of the mirror facing across the gallery which remains clear. To each side of Grace & Space Mirror Column, mounted on a thin shelf on the back wall are two portraits done in charcoal and acrylic on panel, titled Tamaiti Tautua - Koko and Tamaiti Tautua - Kerisiano, both from 2019. The immaculate precision of the portraits combined with the tight graphic orange and blue two-tone of the words Tamaiti Tautua produce an extraordinary dimensionalizing effect. The children in the portraits smile deeply in their traditional regalia, reminding us of the cycles that link all past, present, and future. Tamaiti Tautua means “the children who serve” or are in service to the community.
Bridging the works on each side of the gallery, JP’s The Long Hard Way (2024), hangs from the ceiling. Originally commissioned for a City of Long Beach Health & Human Services project, the painting represents the struggles of Pacific Islander communities as they strive toward a better future. Each plus sign marks another step forward in the long hard way. It is a story of resilience and commitment.
Email hafa@pileleprojects.org
PROJECTS
October 14, 2023
New Nuebu Call Back
February 24 - April 30, 2024
Queer Theirstories of Polynesia
May 12 - July 28, 2024
September 28 - Dec 7, 2024
March 29–May 10
Tā Vā: a prism of time through space
VISIT
Pilele Projects3307A West Washington Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90018
Gallery hours exhibition dependent.
See Current
Appointments can be made by email or direct message on our Instagram page.
hafa@pileleprojects.org
Los Angeles, CA 90018
Gallery hours exhibition dependent.
See Current
Appointments can be made by email or direct message on our Instagram page.
hafa@pileleprojects.org
ABOUT
Founded by Mariquita “Micki” Davis and Edward Sterrett, Pilele Projects is an exhibition and workshop space dedicated to supporting projects by Pasifika artists in Southern California. We are working towards developing grant funded residencies for artists, cultural practitioners, curators, and scholars emerging from and focused on Pacific Island cultures and their diasporas.
Pilele Projects takes its name from the creative director’s Chamoru Grandfather who ran a Mom and Pop store and Laundro-mat in post-war Guam. The store was beloved in the village for being more than a convenience. It was a community center, a place for ceremonies, and a support for local artisans.
Pilele Projects takes its name from the creative director’s Chamoru Grandfather who ran a Mom and Pop store and Laundro-mat in post-war Guam. The store was beloved in the village for being more than a convenience. It was a community center, a place for ceremonies, and a support for local artisans.