Artist Dialogue with Charles Dickson and Lisa Henry

Free with paid admission or membership

In conjunction with Visual Voice, join guest curatorial assistant Lisa Henry and iconic sculptor and Visual Voice artist Charles Dickson for a discussion of Dickson’s work and the history of the Watts Towers Art Center. Charles has been sculpting award-winning art for more than 50 years and his work has been shown in over 100 exhibitions and sites. He is Artist-in-Residence at the Watts Towers Art Center and is working with the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust and Offices of the Trust for Public land LA River Center to create sculpture within the community. Charles will discuss the Watts Towers Art Center’s influence on many of the Visual Voice artists.

Lisa Henry, an independent curator based in Riverside, will be leading this artist dialogue. Prior to assisting Visual Voice co-curators Charles Bibbs and Bernard Stanley Hoyes, she was curator for Art Works Gallery in downtown Riverside. Lisa has also worked with galleries and museums throughout Southern California. Among the exhibitions she has curated are: Young Americans at Riverside Community Artists Association Gallery, Off the Grid and Hyphen-Americans: Tintype Portraits by Keliy Anderson-Staley at UCR California Museum of Photography, Connections at Jenkins Johnson Gallery in San Francisco, Double Exposure at Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, and I’m Thinking of a Place at the UCLA Hammer Museum. Lisa will help provide critical historical context for the artwork in Visual Voice.

I am consumed with how things work in a mechanical, creative, spiritual, and political context. As a sculptor that has embraced many mediums, I have explored the nature of the materials that I use in order to understand and challenge their properties in traditional and unique applications. At the core of this process is a compelling inquiry of, “how do I learn to speak through the materials to discover the truth about the materials and express the beauty of my artistic vision?”

Being an artist is a gift, a way to pray and to create the visions of the past, present, and the future. It is a need to continue to establish a trail that reflects my growth as a sculptor, as an African American.

 —Charles Dickson