ABOUT THE PROGRAM

The Professional Gallery + Student Mentoring Program is a collaboration between Laguna Beach First Thursdays Art Walk (FTAW) and Laguna College of Art + Design (LCAD) which pairs LCAD senior students in the Fine Arts Professional Studies class with galleries throughout Laguna Beach. The program is designed to demonstrate the intricacies involved in the business of operating a gallery where the gallery exhibits student art on its website and on its walls. All works are available for purchase, with proceeds going to the student artists and the LCAD Scholarship Fund.

Join us starting Thursday, April 6 for a virtual exhibition on our website and Instagram as we introduce our student artists Arely Sojo and Rafael Mejia. The work will be available to view by appointment through the month of April, Monday through Friday. To make an appointment please contact us.

ABOUT ARELY SOJO

Arely Sojo is a Hispanic realism painter based in Orange County, California. She is currently pursuing a BFA degree in Drawing + Painting at Laguna College of Art and Design. With her mastery of a range of wet and dry mediums, she creates stunning still lifes and figurative paintings that showcase her traditional painting techniques combined with a textural, mixed-media aesthetic. This gives Arely the means to incorporate architectural and patterned elements into her work that speak to social constructs, the urban grid, and the heritage of style. This lends to Sojo’s strong sense of portraiture, capturing the essence of her subject while speaking to broader truths.

Connect with Arely Sojo | @arely.sojo

ABOUT RAFAEL MEJIA

Rafael Mejia is currently working towards his BFA in Drawing and Painting at Laguna College of Art and Design. As a Mexican American representational artist, Mejia is interested in exploring memory, folklore, and rural life sparked by his memories of visiting his grandparents in rural Mexico. Living in Southern California he grew up exposed to life between two cultures and witnessed the complexity between them. His primary objective is to portray the life that surrounds him as well as the contemplations of his inner world. His attention to tone, form, and subtle color aims to express the coming together of two worlds, cerebral and concrete, present and past.

Connect with Rafael Mejia | @rafaelmejia_art