N2EXISTENCE: The Oasis

LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) in partnership with Aaron Fowler, co-presents The Oasis, an experience  of Fowler’s N2EXISTENCE. N2EXISTENCE is a solution-based movement that enables people to use their passions to manifest new realities of freedom, founded by artist Aaron Fowler in 2020. N2EXISTENCE: The Oasis is an interactive creative space in which artists, makers, technologists, activists, and community organizers can come together to share their work, learn, access expensive technologies, engage in deep discussion, and explore their own creative visions.  N2EXISTENCE was the result of Fowler expanding his studio practice to building a shared vision, one that builds spaces providing community members the ability to experience the feeling of freedom that accompanies standing in, and living one’s dreams. As his studio practice expanded to not only include physical objects but reflected visions, he realized this could be a model anywhere for people to manifest their creative visions and impact their communities.

The Oasis is the result of a residency facilitated by LAND in the Residency space in Summer 2021, where Fowler met Inglewood-based peer specialist Divinity Warmsley and continued his work with activist and filmmaker Sultan Sharrief. Over the past year, they have collectively envisioned what is missing in the creative communities in South LA. Despite an influx of new residents and a multitude of creative apps for connecting, there are no accessible spaces open in the evening, where community members can imagine, engage, and manifest their creative visions leading to real impact. The Oasis is in essence a prototype that can be scaled in future iterations, including Fowler’s dream of an N2EXISTENCE town-hub constructed out of shipping containers. 

Over the course of the two months, Sharrief and Warmsley have an ambitious schedule of public programs, activating the space and providing exponential opportunities for collaboration. A sample of public programs includes CommuniTEA Conversation Series led by Warmsley, addressing issues such as parenting, local politics, technology and financial support. Sharrief will lead sessions with The Quasar Lab, his ongoing research lab that utilizes disruptive community organizing as a strategy for futurist design. At the end of the period, the community will be invited to propose their own events and programming, with a culminating public celebration. 

The Oasis is a creative solution, an ongoing experiment of structure and scale, manifestation in process. artist working in dialogue with his community, together creating an autonomous entity with large-scale social results.

This iteration of N2EXISTENCE is presented by LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division). The project was made possible with support from Angeles Art Fund

Special thanks to Residency Art Gallery.

Aaron Fowler

Aaron Fowler (b. 1988, St. Louis, Missouri) currently works in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, Los Angeles, California, and St. Louis, Missouri. Fowler received his BFA from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, in 2011, and MFA from Yale University, in 2014. His work has been exhibited at New Museum, New York (2018); Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art, Georgia (2017); Saatchi Gallery, London (2017); Beeler Gallery, Columbus College of Art and Design, Ohio (2016); Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Los Angeles (2016); Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2016); Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2015); Flanders Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina (2015); Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York (2013); and Sophia Wanamaker Gallery, San José, Costa Rica (2012). He is a recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant (2015) and was an artist in residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2014). @n2existence

Divinity Warmsley

Divinity Warmsley is CEO of The Peer Specialist LLC, a community based service that provides mental health and behavioral health supportive services to underserved communities in the Greater Los Angeles area. She has over 15 years experience in community engagement events, community outreach, group talk therapy, One on One talk therapy, facilitating active listening sessions, 90 days of evidence based peer support, life skills supportive services, service bridging and resource navigation. @thepeerspecialist.llc

Sultan Sharrief

Sultan Sharrief is a trans-media activist, filmmaker, and XR designer. He holds a BA in Film from University of Michigan, an MS in Comparative Media from MIT, and is a PhD candidate in Media Arts & Practice at USC. His directorial debut feature film, Bilal’s Stand, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and he has since produced four additional feature films and a TV program. In 2018 he founded the Quasar Lab at MIT, an institutional-hacking research lab that uses disruptive community organizing as a strategy for futurist design. @sultanreflects

LAND’s 2022 exhibitions are made possible with lead support from the Offield Family Foundation and the Jerry and Terri Kohl Family Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Fran and Ray Stark Foundation, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture, the LA Arts Recovery Fund, Wilhelm Family Foundation and LAND’s Nomadic Council. Special thanks to Artist Sponsors Karen Hillenburg, Brenda Potter, Abby Pucker, Jay and Deanie Stein Foundation Trust, and the Poncher Family Foundation. 

LAND is a member-supported organization. Support LAND’s free, public programming by becoming a member today at nomadicdivision.org.