Sya Warfield

Sya Warfield is the Founder/Director of Upward Together as well as a multidisciplinary artist residing in Los Angeles, California. Since graduating with a BA in Sociology and Photography from SUNY Fredonia, she has been inspired by building community through art and amplifying the voices of overlooked communities. She has a passion for teaching and learning. Her artwork has found galley representation and expresses feelings of freedom, courage and confidence. Transforming space with vibrant colors and effervescent imagery is where her passion lies. She believes in the healing aspects of creativity.

Teaching Artists

Jasser Membreno

Jasser Membreno is a Latino artist, born and raised in Los Angeles, with an incredible facility for drawing and painting. His work is figurative and fantastical; the landscapes, buildings, and objects he creates live simultaneously in the past, present, and future of a world full of decay, mystery, and invention. Since graduating from the Character Animation program at Calarts in 2008, he has continued to create works of art that appear in galleries, film, tv/animation, book publishing, and sculpture work. Along with having illustrated two children's books, Jasser published his first illustrated, bilingual book Pensamientos/Thoughts. He also co-founded a company called CineNovel which bridged the art, literature, and entertainment worlds. Currently, Jasser is developing an animated series based on his character designs and focusing on his passion for the arts. He plans to showcase his new paintings in the spring of 2024.

Ashley Abigail Gruezo Resurreccion

Ashley Abigail Gruezo Resurreccion (siya/they/them) is a Filipina Asian-American, certified 200-Hour Yoga Teacher, and Returned United States Peace Corps Volunteer (Thailand 130) who holds a MA in Art Therapy with a Specialization in Counseling. Their work embraces mental health, social justice, and education through process-oriented, culturally somatic experiences. More information can be found on Instagram @twiichii or Twitter @twiischibis

Brigitte Nicole Grice

Born 1987 in Los Angeles, CA, Brigitte Nicole Grice is an artist, filmmaker, poet and scholar on Surrealism. She received a B.S. in Journalism and Art History from Boston University, an M.A. in Aesthetics and Politics at CalArts and recently submitted her doctorate at the University of Essex entitled International Surrealism and the Contemporary Epoch: A Surrealist Document with Questions, Principles and Memory Maps—a written thesis and ongoing documentary film project. Grice had recent solo exhibitions with MOUNTAINS in Berlin, Germany ( May 2022) and  Saint George Street in London, UK (July 2022) She is also the founding co-director of a new international artist residency and research centre based in the South of France dedicated to the ongoing dialogue of Surrealism scholarship and contemporary art set to open in 2025/2026.

Robert Borashan

Originally coming from a small town, he explored sculpture at a young age as a way to express his creativity. Years later were spent at the Academy Of Art in San Francisco, studying fine art sculpture, eventually getting sculpture work in Los Angeles where he relocated. He has continued working in art via gallery shows, commissions and many other forms, as well as art education. He is inspired by mentoring others in the possibilities of how creative ventures can change and benefit their lives.

Karim Shuquem

Karim Shuquem creates installations, sculptures, and prints that have relationship with staging, temporality, and process. He earned a BFA in Fine Art and a BA in Graphic Design and a MFA degree from Otis College, graduating in 2018. He has been teaching workshops on activist printmaking and giving online drawing lessons to students around the country, while maintaining his own studio practice.