Gracie Moon and Sean Sarmiento explore the complex concepts of home, identity and belonging in an exhibit at Arts District Liberty Station featuring the two Emerging Artists from the Visual Arts Residency Program.
Tackling the title, “All the Places We Belong,” through their experiences and memories, Moon critically examines the intersection of heritage, culture and commodification, while Sarmiento creates collages transforming everyday household objects into emotional landscapes.
“Artists are memory keepers and storytellers and markers of our history. The exhibit is an opportunity to have cultural conversations of all the things we experience as humans,” said lead curator Dinah Poellnitz of The Hill Street Country Club, an Oceanside-based arts and culture nonprofit that is partnering with the Arts District on a curator-in-residence program that offers regional curators like Poellnitz the chance to work on exhibitions, mentor young artists and collaborate with the Arts District on future initiatives.
“All the Places We Belong” continues through Friday, June 13, at Liberty Station’s Gallery 201, 2820 Roosevelt Road, Point Loma.
The NTC Foundation, the nonprofit that oversees the Arts District, gave the two artists free studio space in Barracks 14 for six-month under the Emerging Artist program. It is intended to give artists the chance to enhance their skills, explore their creativity, engage with other artists and increase their audience and patron base.
Gracie Moon
Moon, who grew up in a multi-racial family, said she “really wanted to make a piece that was an homage to her childhood.”
Her Japanese grandparents on her mother’s side both spent time in an internment camp during World War II through an executive order by then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt that resulted in at least 120,000 Japanese Americans, mostly in the West, being forcibly relocated and incarcerated between 1942 and 1946.
Moon said her relatives rarely discussed their experiences in the camp.
However, “because they had this incredible American experience, the foods I grew up eating were a mixture of both Japanese food like sushi and American Jell-O and deviled eggs,” she said.
“These foods that were very familiar and very typical were very informed by a blend of American and Japanese culture. I didn’t understand the blend of the two, but now that my grandparents have ed, I value it a lot more. It was such a rich childhood for me.”
Moon’s artwork includes food, found objects, trash and other domestic and industrial materials that she combines to create “visual poetry.”
In the exhibit, clear resin molds contain a variety of colorful objects, including Japanese food wrappers, condiments and snacks such as seaweed salad, pickled ginger and candy.
The molds are connected to one another by a loose arrangement of silver rings, resulting in an airy chain.
Other pieces include cast produce with googly eyes and boards of Japanese pop culture.
Among her favorite aspects of her residency were working with the Hill Street team and having a studio space.
“Everyone on the team provided a lot of and guidance; they were integral to my processing the concepts of the works I was making,” Moon said.
One of the things she is taking from the residency, she said, is enjoying the creative process rather than rushing for output.
“I’m learning to not need my studio space to be a physical space but a mentality that I inhabit and incorporate creativity in everything I do,” she said.
Moon finished art and music degrees at Point Loma Nazarene University last May. But she said she never intended for art to be her full-time career, though she did intend that it “be in my life all the time.”
She said she’d like to attend graduate school to continue to “educate and raise art awareness in my local community.”
Overall, she said, “the thing that makes me happiest [about her work] is people who also have a complex identity walk away with a celebration of that,” Moon said.
Sean Sarmiento
Before moving to San Diego, Sarmiento lived all his life in a single-story blue ranch-style house in the Los Angeles area.
“There was nothing unusual about it,” he said, other than many features dating to the 1940s and ’50s.
When he was growing up, Sarmiento spent hours with his father renovating and working on fun projects for their home, making it more suitable for his parents and five siblings, he said.
For one project, they sawed a door in half to make a Dutch door. For another, they renovated the front yard with new trees and grass.
“I think I had a really good upbringing and felt the ease of being at home,” he said. “I felt really connected with my family, and we could all spend time with each other.”
After completing high school, Sarmiento graduated from the University of San Diego in 2023 with a degree in visual arts and decided to stay in the area.
The mixed-media artist uses photography, collage, sculpture and installation to explore themes of home, LGBTQ+ identity and more. He often incorporates innovative materials such as folded vinyl and layered prints, which serve to blur the boundaries between two- and three-dimensional forms.
As soon as he was awarded the Arts District residency, he wanted to use his term “to experiment and not create what I created before,” he said.
For the exhibit, he created a lot of photographs and collages, “taking everyday objects and trying to transform them into expansive emotional horizons,” Sarmiento said.
The images incorporate objects such as stove and night lights, wallpaper, lace and other familiar household items, often using warm amber tones.
In one collage, a single vertical strip of vintage wallpaper is slightly offset to the right of a mostly white background. A Polaroid photo, to the right of the strip, shows a white lace shirt, reminiscent of a lace tablecloth. The collage is balanced by a Col-Claro cigar band on the bottom right.
“The pattern of the wallpaper mimics lace clothing and creates a visual conversation between the two mediums,” Sarmiento said. “The wallpaper is a nostalgic domesticity — the past — vs. the Polaroid, which is the present.”
“I think before I had the debut show, a lot of my art had to do with connecting back to my past. Now I’m thinking more about the present,” he said.
He said he particularly enjoyed getting the chance to experiment and have the studio space. It was an opportunity “to really dive into my art and connect with the community,” he said.
His residency taught him to balance multiple things at once, such as working two jobs, completing the residency and finding time for his personal life.
“Being an artist is a way of life you choose to partake in,” he said.
Sarmiento, who wrote the poetry book “Hidden in Plain Sight,” said poetry is another part of his creative practice.
“I feel like no matter where I go, I always have this home to go back to,” he said. “Right now it’s a physical place, but it’s really always about my family and friends and the grounding I have.”
Poellnitz said her Hill Street team has formed a relationship with the artists through their residency.
“Gracie is intelligent, she has ambition and drive,” Poellnitz said. “In the beginning, she was insecure in her messaging, but now she is very confident in her work and her identity and celebrating her mixed race.”
Poellnitz added that watching Sarmiento and his work grow through the process is “phenomenal.”
“He’s becoming experimental,” she said. “Knowing that he can do more than where he started is a beautiful thing.”
Gaby Quevedo, associate director for creative programs for Arts District Liberty Station, said the “All the Places We Belong” exhibit, which opened in February, “is amazing and the public is receiving it very, very well.”
“Struggling and embracing identity and struggling with it again is very relevant to current topics,” Guevedo said. “I think we got so lucky with these two artists and all of our artists. They are such beautiful people, such a delight to work with. Both are very community-minded and both are very good human beings.”
Moon and Sarmiento occupied the Emerging Artist studio through December. The new residents are Amanda DiGiovanni and Helena Westra, who will be there through June.
DiGiovanni is a multimedia artist focusing on sculpture, performance and photography. Her work explores profound reflections on human existence.
Westra is known for her earth-based sculptures and land art. Her work encourages introspection and a grounded, meditative experience.
For more information about “All the Places We Belong” and Gallery 201, visit libertystation.com/do/all-the-places-we-belong-1.
