immigration – Page 2

December 18, 2023December 24, 2023, by Xuezhu Jenny Wang

The Immigrant Artist Biennial, In Dialogue

Thread and Fiber: Jovencio de la Paz, Juna Skënderi, and Lilian Shtereva

Lilian Shtereva. *Samovila*, 2023. Yarn, thread, batting, cochineal, and indigo dye on canvas. 24 x 18 inches. Courtesy of the artist and The Immigrant Artist Biennial.

As noted by Julia Halperin in a September T Magazine article, “[l]ong caught in the liminal space between craft and something more prestigious, works of thread and fabric are reaching newfound institutional recognition.” With the advent of AI spurring a complicated mix of overwhelm, anxiety, and curiosity, an increasing interest in fiber art seems to stem from its tactility and materiality, generating a contrasting tension with what’s available in the virtual world. Fiber art is also welcomed by the art-loving public as a medium supporting marginalized communities and their traditions. As participating artists of The Immigrant Artist Biennial 2023, Jovencio de la Paz, Juna Skënderi, and Lilian Shtereva discuss how their fiber-based practice relates to heritage, empowerment, technology, and dimensionality.

November 20, 2023November 20, 2023, by Xuezhu Jenny Wang

The Immigrant Artist Biennial, In Dialogue

Sanié Bokhari and Umber Majeed Discuss the Forbidden

Sanié Bokhari. It’s 11.49 pm here, 2022. 36 x 48 in. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist and The Immigrant Artist Biennial.

As part of The Immigrant Artists Biennial: Contact Zone, Sanié Bokhari, and Umber Majeed present their work in the Enmeshed: Dreams of Water group exhibition. As artists of Pakistani descent currently residing in the US, both Bokhari and Majeed tap into the changing landscape of globalization and the unstable experience of international migrants’ identity formation. Evoking water as a symbol of fluidity and change, Bokhari’s painting and Majeed’s video deploy a metaphoric framing that is beautiful and complex. In this conversation with Jenny Wang, they critically reflect on the geopolitics of belonging and identity.

November 15, 2023September 17, 2023, by Anna Mikaela Ekstrand

The Immigrant Artist Biennial- In Dialogue

Art as Political Vehicle? Pritika Chowdhry, Marcelo Brodsky, and Rafael Yaluff

Marcelo Brodsky. *1968, Fire of Ideas. Kingston, 1968*. 60 x 90 in. Overwritten photograph. Courtesy of the artist and Henrique Faria Fine Art.

Exhibiting in Conflictual Distance at EFA Project Space within the framework of The Immigrant Artist Biennial: 2023 Contact Zone Pritika Chowdhry, Marcelo Brodsky, and Rafael Yaluff explores, in Oraib Toukan’s formulation, ‘cruel images.’ Images that contain evidence of political and bodily violence but are confronted at an extreme political or geographic distance from their events’ site of occurrence. Together with the artists, co-curator Anna Mikaela Ekstrand discusses the politics of art and how the artists approach personal histories and historical and political events before the exhibit.

November 1, 2023November 7, 2023, by Anna Mikaela Ekstrand

The Immigrant Artist Biennial – In Dialogue

Reproducing as an Im/migrant: Young Joo Lee, Maria Kulikovska, and Coralina Rodriguez Meyer

Young Joo Lee. Disgraceful Blue, 2016. Digital Animation. 10:24 min. Courtesy of the artist and The Immigrant Artist Biennial.

During a talk at NYU, feminist post-Marxist scholar and author Silvia Federici said: “The image of the worker is not the image of the person at the assembly line; it’s the immigrant.” With this statement, she is referring to vulnerable migrants whose movements are fueled by the climate crisis, corporate control of natural resources, and economics. With her social practice project Mama Spa Botanica, Coralina Rodriguez Meyer attempts to recreate the bond between nature and the female body to enhance healthcare for black and brown pregnant women, empowering them to advocate for themselves and their communities within an inadequate maternal healthcare system. In her book, Beyond the Periphery of the Skin: Rethinking, Remaking, and Reclaiming the Body in Contemporary Capitalism, to explain the link between migrants and reproduction, Federici cites “the war on human reproduction” which encapsulates the separation of people from land, soil, sea, and independent means of reproduction acted out by corporate interests. This is a separation that Rodriguez Meyer both highlights and resists in her work.

December 14, 2022December 12, 2022, by Sara Farrell Okamura

Mary Ann Unger: To Shape a Moon from Bone at WCMA

A picture containing indoor, wall, floor, room

Description automatically generated — Installation view of Mary Ann Unger, WCMA

Power. Power, not bravado, not ego, but the power of intelligence, skill, fortitude, and vision is what Mary Ann Unger possessed and that is what is on exhibition at Williams College Museum of Art (referred to as WCMA). Throughout her life she defied limitations frequently imposed overtly and subconsciously on women. Attending Mt Holyoke College in the mid-60s, she studied biochemistry when few women were found in science departments, then transferred to studio art taking up welding, casting and carving. This was not the typical route for women during the mid-to late 60s. She traveled on her own to North Africa and this journey greatly influenced her work. Returning to New York she completed an MFA at Columbia and launched her career as a post minimalist sculptor, finding herself in the minority amongst a sea of men.

July 14, 2022December 30, 2022, by Art Spiel

Yikui Gu and Eustace Mamba at Commonweal

Featured Project: with gallerist Alex Conner

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Description automatically generated with medium confidence — Image from the opening of the exhibition at the gallery

For its final exhibition of the gallery year, Commonweal in Philadelphia is featuring mixed media works by Yikui (Coy) Gu & Eustace Mamba, whose imagery and use of material create layers of multi faceted cultural cues, prompting a nuanced glimpse at the complexity of American identity. The exhibition runs through July 30th, 2022.

March 25, 2022November 2, 2022, by Art Spiel

To Have and to Hold at the Clemente

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Description automatically generated — *To Have and To Hold* exhibition with works by from left to right: Jean Carla Rodea; Maria De Los Angeles; Micaela Martello; Julia Justo, Maria De Los Angeles; and Jeff Kasper

Featured Project: with curators Anna Shukeylo and Yasmeen Abdallah

The group show To Have and to Hold at the Abrazo Interno Gallery at the Clemente brings together work by Maria de Los Angeles, Julia Justo, Jeff Kasper, Michela Martello, Patricia Miranda and Jean Carla Rodea, who explore in their work notions of beauty and soulful trajectories through the potency of heirloom-like objects. Co-curators Yasmeen Abdallah and Anna Shukeylo share their thoughts on their collaborative curatorial experience.

March 16, 2022November 2, 2022, by Art Spiel

The sky is higher here at Transmitter

Featured Project: with curator Leila Seyedzadeh

Hedwig Brouckaert, *Flesh of Light (I)*, 2017, Mixed media on archival inkjet print on paper, 33.8 x 43.34 inches, photo courtesy of Hedwig Brouckaert.

The artworks featured in the group show The Sky is higher here at Transmitter in Brooklyn reference the subtle boundaries between what is free of the physical and what is not—how can we mirror what we find in the sky and what does it reveal in us? Through a variety of mediums such as painting, textile, photography, textile weaving, and mixed media, Hedwig Brouckaert, Simone Couto, Edi Dai, Saba Farhoudnia, Victoria Martinez, and Ingrid Tremblay explore the vastness of the sky and find refuge in this great space with no borders. The curator of the show, Leila Seyedzadeh sheds some light on the curatorial vision and process.

January 5, 2022November 2, 2022, by Art Spiel

A message from the Underground at Mana Contemporary

Featured Project: with curator Maria De Los Angeles

Ryan Bonilla. Hope, 2004. Encapsulated Digital C Print, 20 in x 30 in.

The group show, A message from the Underground at Mana Contemporary Jersey City, curated by artist and curator Maria De Los Angeles, featuring 18 artists from Mana Contemporary whose work explores current political climate, love, and sense of place. The exhibition runs through 1/15/2022, 3rd floor, Mana Contemporary in Jersey City

October 9, 2021November 2, 2022, by Art Spiel

An Architecture of Longing at Hopkins Art Center

Featured artist

Keren Kroul, An Architecture of Longing, series of four works, 2021, watercolor on paper, 60” x 48” each. Photo courtesy of Keren Kroul.

Minnesota based artist Keren Kroul shows watercolor on paper in her current solo exhibition at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. The show runs through October 23^rd, 2021.

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