Yaron Michael Hakim’s work draws inspiration from the migratory nature of parrots and their ability to assimilate. Through bold paintings on used Dacron sailcloth, he uses this subject matter to explore his own relationship with assimilation, living between cultures, and the exoticization of his heritage. 

Yaron Michael Hakim: Psittaciformes is based on an exhibition curated by Director and Chief Curator John D. Spiak at Grand Central Art Center (GCAC), California State University, Fullerton, Santa Ana, California (September 4, 2021–January 9, 2022) and a companion project by the artist presented with artist Elliott Hundley in his Los Angeles-based studio (October 30, 2021–January 14, 2022). 

Yaron Michael Hakim: Psittaciformes is a vibrant 104-page publication featuring 34 full-color spreads, a foreword by Spiak, a text by poet Amy Gerstler, and a conversation between artist Hakim and MoCA Senior Curator José Luis Blondet. 

Yaron Michael Hakim lives and works in Los Angeles. Hakim received an MFA from the University of California, Irvine in 2013 and a BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2002. Hakim has exhibited in Europe and the United States and had solo exhibitions at Sargent’s Daughters West in Los Angeles (2023), Herrnando’s Hideaway in Miami (2018), and LAXART in Los Angeles (2016). He has been included in group shows at Art+Chateau, Ladoix-Serrigny, France (2020), The Pit, Los Angeles (2019), BBQLA, Los Angeles (2018); and at The Box, Los Angeles (2017), among others.

John D. Spiak is Director/Chief Curator of Grand Central Art Center (GCAC), where he organizes exhibitions and leads the Artist-in-Residence Program. Prior to his appointment at GCAC, he was curator at Arizona State University Art Museum (1994–2011), founding and directing the ASUAM Short Film and Video Festival (1997–2011) and cofounding, with Marilyn A. Zeitlin, the residency series Social Studies (2006–12). His curatorial emphasis is on contemporary art and society, with a focus on works in socially engaged practices, installation, and video.

Curator José Luis Blondet has organized numerous exhibitions and commissioned performance projects, including NOT I: Throwing Voices (1500 BCE–2020 CE) (2021); Merce Cunningham, Clouds and Screens (2018); Liz Glynn: The Myth of Singularity (2015); Various Small Fires (Working Documents) (2015); and Compass for Surveyors: Nineteenth-Century American Landscapes from LACMA’s Painting and Photography Collections (2012). As a guest curator, he has organized exhibitions for CAPC Musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, and co-organized several projects, including the biennial SITElines, Santa Fe, New Mexico (2018) (with Candice Hopkins and Ruba Katrib).

Amy Gerstler’s is a poet, writer, and author of Index of Women (Penguin Random House, 2021), Scattered at Sea (Penguin, 2015), and Dearest Creature (Penguin, 2009). Her work has appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies, including the New Yorker and Paris Review. Her book Dearest Creature was named a New York Times Notable Book and was short-listed for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry. Her book Bitter Angel: Poems (1990) won a National Book Critics Circle Award.

ELLA is a Los Angeles-based design studio founded by River Jukes-Hudson, Stephen Serrato, and Dante Carlos. The ELLA team has worked with artists, cultural institutions, writers, architects, performers, educators, and other designers for over 15 years. ELLA specializes in printed matter (mainly books) and design for exhibitions. Priorities of the studio include: representing multiple perspectives, translation, play, learning, disruption, and justice.

Grand Central Art Center (GCAC) is committed to the open exploration of contemporary art and visual culture through socially engaged collaborations among artists and communities. GCAC is a unit of California State University, Fullerton – College of the Arts in partnership with the City of Santa Ana, CA.