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Featured on 25 independent public sites around the Bay Area, including Montalvo’s public park and the entry foyer of the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, lone some includes works by Lucas Artists Fellow Chloë Bass, Modesto Covarrubias, Jane Chang Mi, Leena Joshi, Susan O’Malley (1976-2015), and Alyson Provax. Each artist created work considering the theme of isolation and loneliness in the ever-changing landscape of our urban areas. 
Explore the interactive map below to learn more about the works included in lone some.

​In 2019 we launched the thematic program SOCIAL: Rethinking Loneliness Together. This initiative grew out of our concern about the global rise of loneliness and social isolation, a phenomenon many, including the 19th US Surgeon General, Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, have called an epidemic. It also grew out of our understanding that the arts have an extraordinary ability to help us feel more connected to one another. With mounting evidence that the quality of people’s relationships is the single clearest predictor of their physical health, longevity and quality of life, we intended to start a public conversation that would use the lens of the arts to investigate such questions as: How can we nourish social engagement? and How can we build a future based on true connections and meaningful communities?

Through 2019, we convened important conversations with leading thought leaders like Dennis Boyle—one of the founding team members of the design firm IDEO and a leader of its Design for Health Studio in San Francisco—who helped us think through the role loneliness plays in our health and wellbeing and explore strategies to reduce its effects. We organized exhibitions featuring the work of internationally significant artists like Taiwanese-American Lee Mingwei, whose interactive installation The Mending Project brought strangers together in the shared social acts of repairing and embellishing garments and storytelling and conversation. San Francisco Bay Area artist and educator Kija Lucas, in contrast, invited us to consider the role our sentimental objects and memories can play in alleviating feelings of social isolation in her exhibition The Museum of Sentimental Taxonomy. While the group outdoor exhibition and related festival, Threads, asked us to think about how we weave together a social fabric that is resilient and inclusive. 

But in 2019, we had little inkling of what lay around the corner. The onset of a global pandemic and directive to physically isolate in spring 2020 gave our thematic new meaning. The beginning of the pandemic was accompanied by concerns that it would lead to a social recession—a fraying of social bonds that would unravel the longer we went without human interaction. Into this moment, we launched lone some, a public art billboard project featuring new and existing works by six artists all of whom were seeking to inspire and provoke questions about loneliness. As museums, art centers and galleries shuttered their doors and began the work of figuring out how to reach their audiences, serendipitously lone some was an exhibition that could be experienced in isolation either on foot on by transit. Like many other arts institutions, we launched a series of virtual conversation with the participating artists where they discussed such themes as the relationship between isolation, colonization, and sustainability, and how poetry can build connection. These virtual gatherings convened around a shared exploration of loneliness in the time of the coronavirus were restorative; they demonstrate how we can find ways to connect even amid quarantine. The pandemic has made us more aware and appreciative of the relationships that sustain us, and we have adapted and found ways to maintain social connection despite the circumstances. Perhaps more importantly, we now have a shared sense of solidarity that ‘we are all in this together’ and a deeper understanding of the essential work that artists do in strengthening our bonds with one another. 
Meet the Artists
Chloë Bass
Chloë Bass is a multiform conceptual artist working in performance, situation, conversation, publication, and installation. Bass has held numerous fellowships and residencies, most recently as a 2020-2022 Lucas Artists Fellow at Montalvo and 2019 Arts Matters Grantee. Her projects have appeared nationally and internationally, including recent exhibits at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Kunsthalle Wilhelmshave in Wilhelmshaven, Germany; BAK basis voor actuele kunst in Utrecht, Netherlands; and The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; among many others. Bass’ short-form writing has been published on Hyperallergic, Arts Black, and Walker Reader. Her monograph was published by The Operating System in 2018 and she also has a chapbook, #sky #nofilter, forthcoming from DoubleCross Press. Bass is an Assistant Professor of Arts at Queens College, City University New York, where she co-runs Social Practice Queens with Gregory Sholette. Learn more about the artist at ​chloebass.com.

Photo courtesy of Texas Isaiah​.
Jane Chang Mi
​As an ocean engineer and an artist, Jane Chang Mi assesses the post-colonial ocean environment through an interdisciplinary and research-based lens. She examines the narratives associated with the underwater landscape considering the past, present, and future. Mi most often focuses on the occupation and militarization of the Pacific Ocean by the United States as her livelihood would have reinforced the legacy of the American military complex. The ocean has always played a large role in her life; she has been an avid Scuba diver for over 25 years. She was the inaugural artist in residence at the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, researching the pre-contact history of Pearl Harbor. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at Te Uru Waitakere and ST Paul St Gallery in Aotearoa. She has been a scientist on the Arctic Circle Program, a recipient of the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts grant, and a fellow at the East West Center at the University of Hawai’i, Manoa. She is currently based out of Honolulu and Los Angeles, where she teaches at Scripps College. Learn more about the artist at janecmi.com.
Modesto Covarrubias
Modesto Covarrubias is a solo and collaborative artist whose work investigates the physical, psychological, and emotional connection to environments. His interdisciplinary practice employs a broad range of media including drawing, photography, installation, printmaking, textiles, and performance. He is an adjunct professor at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco. His practice includes RoCoCo, an ongoing collaboration with fellow CCA Associate Professor KC Rosenberg. Covarrubias’ work has been included in exhibitions at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery; Galleria Civica in Modena, Italy; The Poor Farm in Little Wolf, Wisconsin; The Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico; the Children’s Museum of the Arts, New York; and at the Oakland International Airport. His work has been featured at Oakland Museum’s Gallery 555, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), and in Oakland Magazine and San Francisco Magazine. A Bay Area native, Covarrubias lives in Berkeley and maintains a studio in Oakland, California. Learn more about the artist at modestocovarrubias.com.
Leena Joshi
Leena Joshi's work explores the lateral roots of affect, gender, sexuality, and labor through interdisciplinary configurations–including text, video, performance, and objects. Their current projects consider materiality and desire within the digital as protective/productive measures for minoritarian people. Leena’s written works and poetry can be found in The Felt, SFMOMA's Open Space, Monday: the Jacob Lawrence Gallery Journal, Tagvverk, La Norda Specialo, Poor Claudia, and bluestockings magazine, among others. They earned a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from University of Washington, Seattle and a Master of Fine Arts in Art Practice from University of California, Berkeley. Learn more about the artist at cargocollective.com/leenajoshi.
Susan O'Malley
Susan O’Malley (1976-2015) was an artist and curator from the San Francisco Bay Area. From posters to pep talks, billboards to vending machines, her art uses simple and recognizable tools of engagement to connect people to one another. In her Advice from My 80-Year-Old Self project, she interviewed people of all ages and transformed their words into bold artwork that has been shared widely as a book, prints, and public murals. O’Malley’s artwork has been exhibited in public projects across the United States—including Montalvo Arts Center, Kala Art Institute, and Palo Alto Art Center in California; the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston; and the Parthenon Museum in Nashville—as well as in galleries and museums in the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Poland. Her installation Finding Your Center was recently featured at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and her project A Healing Walk is permanently installed at Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, California. Learn more about the artist at susanomalley.org.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Garcia.
Alyson Provax
Born in Aptos, California, Alyson Provax currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Letterpress and text are at the center of her practice, which extends into publications, public projects, objects, and animations. Provax has shown regionally at Wolff Gallery in Portland, Oregon; The Vestibule in Seattle, Washington; Carnation Contemporary and Upfor in Portland, Oregon; among many others and internationally at the Blueproject Foundation in Barcelona, Spain. Her work has been published in Poetry Northwest, The Buckman Journal, and Eleven Eleven, and her first book was published by Volumes Volumes in 2019. Provax has shown temporary public art installations in Portland in 2019 as something nameless and in Seattle in 2018 as part of Vignettes + Gramma project, a lone. Learn more about the artist at alysonprovax.com.

Photo courtesy of ​Shannon O'Connor.
Lone Some Conversation Series
LONE SOME CONVERSATIONS
Meeting Where We Are
Join lone some participant Alyson Provax in conversation with Christina Amini, steward of the Susan O’Malley estate and longtime collaborator of the artist, as they discuss text based art in public space and meeting the people where they are.
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LONE SOME CONVERSATIONS
How much of sight is invention?
​Join lone some participant Chloë Bass in conversation with photographer, Jules Allen as they discuss the power of image construction for public presentation and the secrets they hold.
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LONE SOME CONVERSATIONS
What's goin' on?
Join lone some participant Modesto Covarrubias in conversation with Chris Evans, Ernest Jolly, and Constance Lewis as they discuss their practice, their projects, and coping in times of isolation, cultural shifts, and social pivot.
​Watch Here >>
LONE SOME CONVERSATIONS
Island
Join lone some participant Jane Chang Mi in conversation with artist Ulrik Lopez as they discuss isolation, sustainability, colonization, and islands of the ocean.
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​LONE SOME CONVERSATIONS
Poetry of Connection
Join lone some participant Leena Joshi, along with Imani Elizabeth Jackson and Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta, for an hour of poetry reading and conversation around themes of loneliness, isolation, and connection in today's world.
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Related Press
​Montalvo Displays Original Artworks Around Bay Area Examining The Issues Caused By Social Isolation
by BWW News Desk
Throughout June and July, Montalvo Arts Center will present original artworks around the Bay Area for viewing on billboards and bus shelters, in a new public exhibition entitled lone some. In association with its 2019-2020 programming initiative, SOCIAL: Rethinking Loneliness Together, Montalvo will transform traditional advertising and commerce medium spaces into catalysts for conversation and connection.
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