May 3 - 30, 2025

By Hand / By Heart

An Exhibition in Collaboration with ECF Art Centers, Toy Bin Art & Range Projects

Opening Reception: May 3, 2025 | 2:00–5:00 PM

Range Project Gallery: 3718 W. Slauson Ave, Los Angeles, CA

Curated by Grace Kim

This May, By Hand / By Heart brings together powerful works by adult artists with disabilities from the four studio campuses of ECF Art Centers. Curated by Grace Kim from Toy Bin Art and presented at Range Project Gallery, the exhibition honors the role of creative expression as a form of dignity, identity, and resistance.

“As a curator, I was first drawn to ECF artists in 2022 by their fearless mark-making and raw visual honesty,” Kim shares “There are no rules in their lines. It’s not about fitting in, it’s about feeling, sensing, being. Their art was fresh and freeing for me, and I knew I had to keep showing their work.”

Founded in 1968, ECF Art Centers have provided a nurturing and dynamic studio environment for adults with developmental disabilities to explore their creativity and grow as artists. Through mentorship, training, and community, ECF has helped hundreds of artists gain confidence, exhibition experience, and a voice in the broader art world.

In a time when public discourse too often reduces neurodivergence and developmental disability to narratives of limitation, this exhibition insists on another truth: creativity knows no bounds. As ECF’s President and CEO Veronica Arteaga recently stated, “The individuals my organization serves are not destroyed. “They are learning, working, creating art, volunteering, making friends, and building lives of purpose.”

By Hand / By Heart is both celebration and affirmation, a vibrant offering of beauty and a call for justice. Too often, artists with developmental disabilities have been excluded or tokenized. This show challenges that narrative. With works spanning drawing, painting, printmaking, ceramics, and mixed media, the exhibition presents a dynamic, diverse, and unapologetically human body of work.

“This exhibition was curated with great care, though space limited how many works could be shown. “Kim adds. “There were so many beautiful pieces. I promise to show more in the near future.”

This is more than an exhibition, it’s a stance. A reminder that difference is not deficiency, and the art world must be expansive enough to hold every voice. Especially now.

Let us gather, not just to view, but to stand with these artists.

- Grace Kim -

Participating Artists:

Debra Alexander, Angelica Alvarado, Angie Alvarado, Maria Alvarado, Elizabeth Alvarez, Saul Amaya, James Archuleta, Leticia Arredondo, Brian Bailey, Juana Baltazar, James Basilio, Kelvin Belt, Tammy Brackens, George Anthony “Tony” Brown, Will Carrillo, Camille Chang, Mary Jane, Chavez, Heon Choi, Nelson Cobian, Eddie Cole, Trisha Cozine, Alejandro Diaz, Jaleesa Diaz, Heidi Dong, Larry Dunbar, Heather Easdale, Jesus Estrada, Maria Estrada, Hikaru Fong, Eugenio Galvez, Sarah Gerke, Paul Greeley, Kat Hastings, Chris Heathcote, Mona Heathcote, Taleea Hill, Adriana Homsi, Antwan Jones, Eubene Kim, Gary Kolster, Patrick Kreusch, Koun Lee, Jennifer Little, Diana Lopez, Aaryn Maes, Jose Martinez, Vanessa McConnell, Cindy Niyashiro, Anthony Morris, Alyssa Nagahiro, Ms. Anna Cookie Norton, Jasmine Nunez, Shafik Ortiz, Leslie Paul, Maria del mar Pereda, Maribel Perez, Deveron Richard, Valeria Robledo, Carlos Robles, Humberto Saldana, Naseem Sabokpey, Armando Saucedo, Marilyn Schmidt, Thomas Sedgwick, Ivan Serrano, Janelle Stallworth, Sarah Telkamp, Brendan Tury, Richard Villarreal, Willie Walls, Clifford Williams, Jose Zamora.

Exhibition Details:

Duration: May 3 – 30, 2025

Opening Reception: May 3, 2025 | 2–5 PM

Location: Range Project Gallery, 3718 W. Slauson Ave, Los Angeles

Curated by: Grace Kim | Toy Bin Art

In collaboration with: ECF Art Centers, Toy Bin Art & Range Projects

Press & Inquiries:

For this exhibition : Grace Kim | toybinart@gmail.com 424-212-1708

For ECF interviews & media inquires : Lauri Gavel | lgavel@ecf.net 310-903-2811