Contributors
Betty Ann Brown (she/her)
Betty Ann Brown, Ph.D., is an art historian, critic, and curator. A Professor Emeritus of Art History at California State University, Northridge, she has been active in art world politics and served as President of the Board for both the Los Angeles Woman's Building and the Southern California Women's Caucus for Art. Among the many exhibitions she has curated are retrospectives for Hans Burkhardt, Roland Reiss, Linda Vallejo, and John M. White. Brown has written over 100 reviews, a dozen stand-alone books, and multiple exhibition catalogues.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Betty Brown
Email: bab42984@yahoo.com
Melanie Chapman (she/her)
Melanie Chapman is a Los Angeles lens-based artist and writer. In addition to writing art reviews for Art and Cake, Melanie is a contributing editor to Photobook Journal and is currently working on a documentary film as well as an ongoing photo essay featuring outreach activists in the local transgender community. Melanie is also a freelance photographer, photo assistant, and co-studio manager at the Los Angeles Center of Photography in DTLA.
Instagram: @tipheadpictures
Tatou Dede (she/her)
Tatou Dede is a theater director and multidisciplinary artist. Starting as a pianist, she moved into dance and acting before finding her path in directing. Her practice focuses on developing original work and reimagining existing plays through a contemporary, multidisciplinary lens. At a time when genuine liveness—real person-to-person connection—is harder to find, she believes theatre remains our most powerful tool to reassert our humanity.
Website: https://tatou-mdt.com
Lorraine Heitzman (she/her)
Lorraine Heitzman is an artist, curator, and art writer living in Los Angeles since 1987. She earned her BFA from The Philadelphia College of Art and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to her studio practice and reviews focused on local contemporary art, she has written essays for numerous catalogs. Most recently she was the recipient of the FOCA Curators Lab award.
Website: https://lorraineheitzman.com
Instagram: @lorheitzman
Katherine Kesey (she/her)
Katherine Kesey is a writer and fine artist based in Los Angeles. She holds an MFA from Otis College of Art and Design, and her writing can be found in Art and Cake, Space on Space Magazine, KAIROS literary magazine, and Bristol Noir.
Website: https://www.katherinekesey.com
Instagram: @katherinekesey
William Moreno (he/him)
William Moreno is a Los Angeles native and an independent art advisor, writer, critic, and curator. He was previously the Executive Director of The Mexican Museum, San Francisco, and the founding Director of the Claremont Museum of Art. Currently he is a consultant and advisor for collectors, artists, and the Los Angeles County Arts Department. He has written for Artillery magazine, CALO News, artist catalogs, and independent publications, among others.
Website: https://wmcontemporary.com
Instagram: @artmavenLA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bill.moreno
Dakota Noot (he/him)
Dakota Noot is a Los Angeles-based artist, curator, and writer. He is the Acting Director of the Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion at Orange Coast College.
Website: https://www.dakotanoot.com
Instagram: @dakotanoot
Barbara Patterson (she/her)
Barbara Patterson is based in Southern California. She is a UCLA alum.
Mary Singh (she/her)
Mary Singh is a writer and art enthusiast who lives and works in Los Angeles, exploring as many corners of the city as possible through exhibits, food, nature, architecture, and community events. Outside of her day job as partner at digital studio Pel, she spends her free time pursuing her own creative projects.
Creative Projects: https://www.marysingh.com
Pel Studio: https://www.pelstudio.com
Instagram: @socalsobright
Nancy Kay Turner (she/her)
Nancy Kay Turner is a Los Angeles artist, art critic, educator, and founder of the Hana Kark art collective. For over fifty years she has centered her practice around memory, time, domestic life, and hidden emotional currents embedded within ordinary materials. Working across assemblage, collage, artist books, works on paper, and installation, Turner transforms overlooked and nontraditional materials into layered visual narratives moving between personal history and collective memory. Her work is held in public, private, and corporate collections including the Hawai'i State Foundation for Culture and the Arts, Glendale College, Warner Brothers Studios, ABC Studios, Jay Chiat/Chiat and Day, Freya Gowrley (Edinburgh, Scotland), and The Doug and Laurie Kanyer Art Collection. For more than four decades Turner has written art criticism and published over two hundred reviews and catalog essays for artists.
Website: https://www.nancyturnerstudio.com
Instagram: @nancykayturner