Opening Exhibition Saturday Feb. 8 from 12 to 8p.m.
More than an art show, the Open Arms Exhibition is an experience of Los Angeles’ cultural history of theater, performances, songs, art and more, that now runs through March 22nd.
Held at Ambience Doré, celebrating 25 years in business, Open Arms is a retrospective show featuring two artists whose symbiotic lives have been dedicated to art and creative exploration.
Foremost, this powerful exhibition showcases the life and fascinating career of Native American Latino SoCal playwright, producer, and artist Josef Rodriguez White Cloud, who goes by “Doc” and contemporary visual artist Mar Dorè, known as M3.
Doc’s “When Quasars Suck and Black Holes Blow,” “Songs of the Singing Glyphs” and “Wormholes Rock in Dead Tattoos” depicts alternative realities of ethnic life: lucha libre figures, mythic cultural symbols, a mother earth figure and skulls moving through the multiple wormholes of alternate parallel worlds.
During the show, guests will take a step back in history to see grassroots theater and hear songs with lyrics and scripts still pertinent to today’s time. You’ll find a fascinating story of how Doc emerged from the farming community in Fowler, California. In high school, he won the National Forensics’ Original Oratory Championship in 1962 which led to more opportunities.
Six years later Doc produced one of the first minority-written plays, “El Manco” produced in American Theater at the Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center in 1968. From there, Doc worked with Luiz Valdez in the early ‘70s in San Juan Bautista with his Native America version of “La Virgen de Tepeyac.” In the San Francisco Bay Area, Doc did performances and theater including work at the Hatley Martin Gallery.
Doc carried on the tradition of the theater through his 1992 production of “The Get Lost Again Columbus Opera” premiering for the National Indigenous People’s Days Protest in Berkely. Written in history as the first native American Opera, you can discover the full history in person including his new Sci-Fi Opera script at the Open Arms Exhibit.
Doc and Mar traveled to Indigenous communities. Doc was instrumental in connecting Engineers without Borders to the Indigenous community of Nueva Catalina De Ixtahuacan, Guatemala. The community was relocated after mudslides from Hurricane Mitch.
The combined art of the two is charged with an unspoken energy. Doc’s theatrical performances, scripts, drawings, paintings and photos are juxtaposed with M3’s abstract contemporary sculptural wall art in metal, rock and mixed media from large to small handheld wearable art.
M3, an MFA graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, is premiering her original Metal Giest series of 3D paintings and contemporary explorations. This art has been intentionally kept off the internet and out of public exposure. For M3, it represents a lifetime of development and discovery.
Recently, Doc has experienced some medical issues that inspired M3 to celebrate his life through the Open Arms exhibit.
“I want Doc to feel honored for his creative life’s work. Now is the time for him to shine,” M3 said.
“Doc has titled all our shows and my works of art, including this show,” she added. “We welcome all with open arms to see the work and be inspired to celebrate your own history, try new things and keep dreaming.”
Open Arms Exhibition is open for viewing Tuesday- Sunday 3-8pm thru March 22, 2025& by appointment at Ambience Dore, 831 S. Main Street, Burbank, CA 91506.
To read Doc and M3’s full biography, visit AmbienceDore.com/open-arms-art-show.
For appointments, call 310 213-9951 or email mar@ambiencedore.com
