NOTE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED. STAY TUNED FOR NEW PROGRAM DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON
Join ICA LA’s curators in a discussion with the artist Samar Al Summary around their first institutional solo exhibition Samar Al Summary: Excavating the Sky.
NOTE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED. STAY TUNED FOR NEW PROGRAM DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON
Join ICA LA’s curators in a discussion with the artist Samar Al Summary around their first institutional solo exhibition Samar Al Summary: Excavating the Sky.
Samar Al Summary (b. 1988 in Jeddah; lives and works in Los Angeles) studied at UCLA following her undergraduate studies at the University of Arizona. From 2019-2020, she was part of the Ashkal Alwan Home Workspace Educational Fellowship in Beirut, Lebanon and in 2022, she studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Her most recent exhibitions include Organ Vida International Photography Festival in Zagreb, Croatia (2020); Film Festival Oberhausen at Oberhausen, Germany (2020); Rencontres de la Photographie at Marrakech, Morocco (2019); and Voices Off Awards Screening at Arles, France (2019).
Samar Al Summary (b. 1988 in Jeddah; lives and works in Los Angeles) studied at UCLA following her undergraduate studies at the University of Arizona. From 2019-2020, she was part of the Ashkal Alwan Home Workspace Educational Fellowship in Beirut, Lebanon and in 2022, she studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Her most recent exhibitions include Organ Vida International Photography Festival in Zagreb, Croatia (2020); Film Festival Oberhausen at Oberhausen, Germany (2020); Rencontres de la Photographie at Marrakech, Morocco (2019); and Voices Off Awards Screening at Arles, France (2019).
Amanda Sroka is a curator whose creative work focuses on global histories of contemporary art with a specialized interest in interdisciplinary practices that operate at the intersections of our personal, political, and material worlds. In 2022, she joined as the Senior Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles where she has organized presentations dedicated to the work of Carmen Argote, Jackie Castillo, Chris Emile and No)One. Art House, Will Rawls, Christine Sun Kim, Trương Công Tùng, and Alberta Whittle, and supported with Scientia Sexualis (2024), Barbara T. Smith: Proof (2023), and Milford Graves: Fundamental Frequency (2023). She was previously Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where she organized solo projects with Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Martine Syms, Zoe Leonard, Senga Nengudi, Marisa Merz, Yael Bartana, and Jitish Kallat, as well as group exhibitions such as _Fault Lines: Contemporary Abstraction by Artists from …
Amanda Sroka is a curator whose creative work focuses on global histories of contemporary art with a specialized interest in interdisciplinary practices that operate at the intersections of our personal, political, and material worlds. In 2022, she joined as the Senior Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles where she has organized presentations dedicated to the work of Carmen Argote, Jackie Castillo, Chris Emile and No)One. Art House, Will Rawls, Christine Sun Kim, Trương Công Tùng, and Alberta Whittle, and supported with Scientia Sexualis (2024), Barbara T. Smith: Proof (2023), and Milford Graves: Fundamental Frequency (2023). She was previously Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where she organized solo projects with Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Martine Syms, Zoe Leonard, Senga Nengudi, Marisa Merz, Yael Bartana, and Jitish Kallat, as well as group exhibitions such as Fault Lines: Contemporary Abstraction by Artists from South Asia. Prior to that, Sroka was a curatorial assistant at the New Museum in New York.
Emilia Shaffer-Del Valle (she/her/ella) is a writer and curator whose interdisciplinary research centers on decolonial notions of selfhood and community. Her interests include image (un)making, language, poetics, and reimaginations of archival practice. Her writing can be found in Rewind Review Respond, The Dancer Citizen, and New Body (Wolfman Books), among other publications, and recent curatorial projects include Tierra Sagrada: L.A. is an Altar and an Offering (FOCA, 2025) and As Yet and Still to Come (Tiger Strikes Asteroid LA, 2023). Shaffer-Del Valle received her MA in Visual & Critical Studies from California College of the Arts. She was born and raised in Los Angeles.
Emilia Shaffer-Del Valle (she/her/ella) is a writer and curator whose interdisciplinary research centers on decolonial notions of selfhood and community. Her interests include image (un)making, language, poetics, and reimaginations of archival practice. Her writing can be found in Rewind Review Respond, The Dancer Citizen, and New Body (Wolfman Books), among other publications, and recent curatorial projects include Tierra Sagrada: L.A. is an Altar and an Offering (FOCA, 2025) and As Yet and Still to Come (Tiger Strikes Asteroid LA, 2023). Shaffer-Del Valle received her MA in Visual & Critical Studies from California College of the Arts. She was born and raised in Los Angeles.