Alicia Cheatham
Felled, not Fallen

June 3rd - June 25th

Monte Vista Projects is pleased to present Felled, not Fallen, a solo exhibition by Los Angeles based artist Alicia Cheatham.

Artist Statement

“Growing up in the Pacific Northwest instilled in me a wonder for the woods. There were forts and treehouses and nooks and crannies to play in. Backyards bled into backwoods. Fairytales told me of hidden dangers and how to navigate them. Trees came to life in books and movies. There was even one that gave everything to a man.

I flew a lot as a kid. I could get a distance from the trees and look down over the wider landscape. There were all the visual narratives of human and environment playing out for me on a grand scale. I saw bursts of wild untouched forest intermingling with the refined lines and color fields of agriculture. As years went on, I watched the changing geometry of this patchwork. There became more and more regular shapes and measurable angles. And though the massive grid kept forming, it still had to bend to the landscape and trees still grew out of the seams.”

-Alicia Cheatham, 2023

Alicia Cheatham is a multi-disciplinary artist and curator living and working in Pasadena, California. Her most recent venture, Ruth Gallery, is an artist-run space in her home, where she organizes exhibits with friends; contemporary, funny, and abstract. Earlier this year, she guest curated a two-artist show for the East Gallery at Claremont Graduate University. Cheatham came from a design and technology background before pursuing her fine art career. She studied painting and ceramics at CSU Los Angeles (2015) and earned her MFA at Claremont Graduate University (2022).