Recipient of 2013 Multi-media Research grant:
In 2013 URBAN RANCH PROJECT was made possible by funding from Culture & Animals Foundation, an organization dedicated to advancing animal advocacy through intellectual and artistic expression. Learn more at www.cultureandanimals.org
 
 

Founded on March 24, 2012

URBAN RANCH PROJECT:
a virtual gallery on Facebook

ENTER FACEBOOK GALLERY HERE...


DOWNLOAD URP'S CALL FOR WORK / ARTIST AGREEMENT HERE...




URBAN RANCH PROJECT is an "animal" advocacy and social and environmental activism arts venue based on Facebook. Its mission is to bring awareness to the interconnectedness of racism, sexism, ageism, speciesism, and other human-made hierarchical prejudices. Using the power of social media URP inspires change.

URP features work in all media by international artists and champions creative, non-violent means for the change of human consciousness. Traditional anthropocentric views are prevalent in the art world. As a result, many artists concerned with the suffering of nonhuman animals are negatively stereotyped, alienated and forced to work on the fringe of mainstream culture. Rather than marginalizing artists that are engaged with the plight of nonhuman animals, URP presents their work alongside those dealing with more socially accepted concerns. Even among the artist activists and environmental artists, a certain unspoken taboo surrounds issues concerning other animals, such as the horrors of factory farming and its relation to our health, world hunger, sexism, violence and criminal behavior, and the environment. URP’s message is that all injustices are interconnected: looking away from one weakens the arguments made against another.

In 2013 URP received a Culture & Animals Foundation Multi-media Research Grant to continue and expand its activities, one of which was the URP 2013 GUEST CURATOR PRESENTATION SERIES. Each curator was assigned an individual photo album, which can be directly reached from URP's "about" page or the links below.

Since its inception in March 20012, URP has presented 230 works by 61 artists from 18 countries in the areas of Environment and Activism, "Animal" Activism, Photojournalism, Eco Art, Video Art, Filmmaking, Wall Relief, Sculpture, Painting, Printmaking, Performance Art, Conceptual Art, Photography, Installation, Digital Prints.

In addition to the quality of the work, the two main conditions for work featured on URP are: 1) Artists must have a personal FB account in order to be tagged on their featured work as a show of awareness and support of the project. 2) Work that has incorporated animal-derived products or has harmed animals in its making is not considered. 

URP was created and is cuated by Alysse Stepanian, a transmedia artist, curator, educator and "animal" rights advocate.

Download Alysse's suggestions for transitioning to vegan diet (PDF) here...


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URP GUEST CURATOR PRESENTATION SERIES
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May 1 - June 4, 2013
[1]: Olga Severina (Curator, Graphic Designer - U.S.A. & Ukraine)
ECO POSTER (from The 4th Block Collection)

15 artists from 10 countries:
Leo Lin (Taipei, Taiwan), Max Skorwider (Poznan, Poland), Parisa Ghaderi (Tehran, Iran), Sebastian Kubica (Poland, Warsaw), Byoung il Sun (Seoul, Korea), Yuri Surkov (Moscow, Russia), Eduardo Picazo (Puebla, Mexico), Toyotsugu Itoh (Japan), Aleksey Bokov (Moscow, Russia), Evgenia Khomenko (Kiev, Ukraine), Tomasz Kipka (Radzionkow, Poland), Mehdi Saeedi (Tehran, Iran), Elmer Sosa (Puebla, Mexico), Finn Nygaard (Copenhagen, Denmark), Siamak Pourjabbar (Tehran, Iran).

Olga Severina's 4 Selections from the URP archives:
URP FEATURED WORK #23, #24: Gao Brothers (China (Beijing), #61: Guli Silberstein (London/UK), 99c: Laleh Mehran (Colorado, USA)

*Above image/right: Max Skorwider




June 5 - July 5, 2013
[2]: Philip Mantione (Composer, Artist - USA)
"Beyond the Sound"
(pro bono curation)

José Manuel Berenguer (Barcelona, Spain)
Christopher DeLaurenti (Virginia, USA)
Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky) (New York City, USA)
Joel Chadabe (New York City, USA)

Philip Mantione's 4 Selections from the URP archives:
URP FEATURED WORK #23: Gao Brothers (Beijing, China), #49: Farideh Shahsavarani (Tehran/Iran), #59: Guli Silberstein (London/UK), #90: Jo-Anne McArthur (Toronto, Canada)

*Above image/right: Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky)





September 1 - October 27, 2013
[3]: Christy Roberts
Berkowitz (Artist, Curator - USA)
"Intrepid Optimism"
(various media)

Erin Payne (Los Angeles/USA)
Dai Toyofuku (Los Angeles/USA)
Joel Tauber (North Carolina/USA)
Hannah Chalew (New Orleans/Louisiana/USA)

Christy Roberts' 4 Selections from the URP Archives:WORK #31: Christopher Coleman (Colorado/USA); #39: Jonathan Monaghan (Brooklyn, New York); #67: Philip Mantione (California/USA); #97a: Laleh Mehran & Christopher Coleman (Colorado/USA)

*Above image/right: Dai Toyofuku





November + December 2013

[4]: Karen Fiorito (Artist, Curator - USA)
"V³: Vegan Art, Artists and Activism" (various media)

Roland Straller (Bavaria/Germany)
Dana Ellyn (Washington DC/USA)
Hartmut Kiewert (Witzenhausen/Germany)
Amelia Von Grüne (Arezzo/Italy)

Karen Fiorito's 4 Selections from the URP Archives:
URP FEATURED WORK #7: Margaret Roleke (Connecticut/USA), #12: Lynne Hull (Colorado/USA), #88: Jo-Anne McArthur (We Animals) (Toronto/Canada), #101: Kim Abeles (Los Angeles/USA)

*Above image/right: Amelia Von Grüne





March - May 2014
[5]: Carolina Caycedo (Los Angeles/Berlin)
"Looking into the Jaguar's Eyes"
(various media)

Juliana Gomez (Marseille, France)
Julia Paull (Los Angeles, USA)
Maria Isabel Rueda (Puerto Colombia, Colombia)
Chemi Rosado Seijo (Santurce, Puerto Rico)
Beehive Design Collective (Maine, USA)
Guache (Bogotá, Colombia)

Carolina Caycedo's 4 Selections from the URP Archives:
URP FEATURED WORK #106 a & 106 b: Kim Abeles (Los Angeles/USA), #9: Lynne Hull (Colorado/USA), #55: Deanna Pindell (Washington/USA), #2: Christy Roberts (Los Angeles/USA)

*Above image/right: Beehive Design Collective

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URP CURATED ARTISTS
(see 2012, 2013, 2014 albums)

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[01]: Philip Mantione (USA, SOUND ART)
[02]: Christy Roberts Berkowitz (USA, ENVIRONMENT & ACTIVISM)
[03]: Eva Olsson (Sweden, VIDEO ART)
[04]: Wilfried Agricola de Cologne (Germany, VIDEO ART)
[05]: Margaret Roleke (USA, WALL RELIEF)
[06]: Lynne Hull (USA, "ANIMALS" / ENVIRONMENT / ACTIVISM)
[07]: Kasumi (USA, VIDEO ART)
[08]: Gao Brothers: Gao Qiang and Gao Zhen (China, PERFORMANCE ART / CONCEPTUAL / PHOTOGRAPHY / SCULPTURE / INSTALLATION / PAINTING)
[09]: 99 Hooker (USA, VIDEO ART)
[10]: Lenore Malen (USA, VIDEO INSTALLATION)
[11]: Christopher Coleman (USA, VIDEO ART / MIXED MEDIA / DIGITAL ILLUSTRATIONS)
[12]: Morehshin Allahyari (USA, VIDEO ART)
[13]: Jonathan Monaghan (USA, VIDEO ART / DIGITAL C-PRINT)
[14]: Ron Diorio (USA, VIDEO ART)
[15]: Farideh Shahsavarani (Iran/Tehran, VIDEO ART / INSTALLATION)
[16]: Eric Hynynen (Ivalo/Finland, VIDEO ART)
[17]: RKDB (Oakland/California/USA, VIDEO ART)
[18]: Deanna Pindell (Washington/USA, ENVIRONMENT / ACTIVISM)
[19]: Wei-Ming Ho (Taipei/Taiwan, VIDEO / PERFORMANCE / ENVIRONMENT / ACTIVISM)
[20]: Guli Silberstein (London/UK, VIDEO ART)
[21]: Michael Lasater (USA, VIDEO ART)
[22]: Karen Fiorito (USA, PRINTMAKING & "ANIMAL" ACTIVISM)
[23]: Beverly Naidus (USA, ECO-ART, COMMUNITY-BASED ARTS)
[24]: Jo-Anne McArthur (Toronto/Canada, PHOTOJOURNALISM / "ANIMAL" ADVOCACY & ACTIVISM)
[25]: Liz Marshall (Toronto/Canada, DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING / "ANIMAL" ADVOCACY & ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM)
[26]: Laleh Mehran (USA/Colorado, INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION)
[27]: Sarah Stolar (USA/San Francisco Bay Area, VIDEO ART)
[28]: Kim Abeles (USA/Los Angeles, SCULPTURE, PROP, DIGITAL PRINT, INSTALLATION)
[29]: Raheleh (Minoosh) Zomorodinia (USA: Berkeley/California, PHOTOGRAPHY, PERFORMANCE, ENVIRONMENT ART, INSTALLATION)
[30]: Tahereh (Tara) Goudarzi (Iran/Khorramabad, COMMUNITY RECYCLING ARTS, PERFORMANCE / PHOTOGRAPHY / ENVIRONMENT ART)
[31]: The Open-5 Group: Shahrnaz Zarkesh, Raheleh (Minoosh) Zomorodinia, Tara (Tahereh) Goodarzi, Atefeh Khas, Mahmoud Maktabi (Iran & USA, (INSTALLATION/ INTERACTIVE ART/ MIXED MEDIA/ PERFORMANCE/ PHOTOGRAPHY/ CONCEPTUAL/ ENVIRONMENT ART/ SOCIAL ART)
[32]: Carolina Caycedo (Los Angeles/Berlin, SOCIAL ACTIVISM / INSTALLATION / PERFORMANCE / URBAN INTERVENTION / RESEARCH-BASED)