calendario eventi  :: 

X

4/1/2012

Three Exhibitions

A.I.R., New York

Illegitimate and Herstorical

curated by Emily Roydson

A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Illegitimate And Herstorical, a group show curated via an open-call by Emily Roysdon. The exhibition features works by A Feminist Tea Party collective, Bland Boydston III, Rachel Farmer, Barbara Hammer, Reena Katz, Lucretia Knapp, Barbara Greene Mann, Alice O’Malley, Lacey Jane Roberts, Tobaron Waxman and invited artist Chris Vargas. This exhibition is the second in the Currents Exhibition series at A.I.R. Gallery.

Illegitimate And Herstorical presents works by eleven artists that consider alternative economies of labor, love, power, crossings and collectivity. Exhibiting queer relationships to history and a healthy disrespect for master narratives these artists work through the precariousness of legitimacy. The projects displayed offer a telling that bridges reportage and creative proposition. Portraiture, consciousness raising, incitement, and insertion – poetic and effectual strategies that all come to bear on the stability and functionality of institutions. Each work a stone thrown. Illegitimate and Herstorical.

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 5th 6 to 9pm.

Closing Reception with Emily Roysdon:
Saturday, January 28th from 4 to 6pm, including a Performance by A Feminist Tea Party: 2 to 4:45pm.

Performance: Equipment Lending by Reena Katz: Friday – Sunday from 12 to 4pm throughout the exhibition and during both receptions.

----

Regine Romain, Portraits for Self Determining Haiti

Régine Romain photographs and researches Haiti’s shifting yet distinct presence throughout the world in an ongoing visual diaspora project. Her work is grounded in individual and community portraiture. This exhibition bridges two compelling views: Romain, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, as the composer of portraits on Haitian life rarely seen, and the reality of Haiti as a self-determining nation – a principle historically rooted in the people’s DNA as resurgent hope.

Portraits for Self Determining Haiti are vibrant photographs of Haiti, three weeks after the 7.0 earthquake that killed more than half a million people. Elemental themes of faith, dignity, honor and respect are keenly displayed. The title is inspired by a series of essays published by The Nation in 1920 entitled “Self-Determining Haiti” written by James Weldon Johnson, a journalist, lyricist, and renowned civil rights leader of Haitian heritage.

In Ways of Seeing, John Berger states that “…every image embodies a way of seeing, our perception or appreciation of an image depends also upon our own way of seeing.” The world psyche is awash in distorted narratives of Haitian people and society, and Romain’s acts of visual resistance stoke the collective imagination and keep new ways of seeing alive.

In addition to the opening reception, Regine Romain will give a brief artist talk at 6:30pm on Thursday, January 5th.

----

Katsura Okada, The Re-Origin: After the Last First

Katsura Okada draws inspiration from “all experiences – happiness, sadness, anger, pain, beauty and ugliness all influence my work and mature my mind, to be expressed perhaps ten years later.” The Re-Origin: After the Last First specifically contemplates the effects of nuclear weapons and radioactive contamination on Japan. Playing with light, color, and textural sensitivity, Okada describes The Re-Origin: After the Last First as a kind of prayer for the health and safety of the people of Japan and people all over the world, and as expressive of her hopes – that the first use of nuclear weapons in warfare will be the last “first.”

Okada’s ‘prayer’ is abstract, simplistic, and organic, and yet it is vocal. Her work is heavily influenced by sound, as the artist states “sounds create a picture in my mind.” The catalogue of Okada’s latest work includes an essay by curator, art historian, and critic Susanne Altmann. In her essay, Altmann notes the visual rhythm, vibrant coloring, and meditative potential of Okada’s work: “Katsura Okada composes her minimalist yet colourful wall structures in deliberate repetitions. Made of small rolls of rice paper, the works reveal Okada’s roots in Japanese visual culture and its contemplative qualities. Yet her rhythmic arrangements also evoke synaesthetic experiences and make us “feel the sound” of a piece with our eyes.” As Okada explores boundaries and relationships of line, space, color, sight, sound, and feeling, she invites the viewer also to explore their own capacity for perception and internalization.

----

Image: Barbara Hammer, Protege 2, 1971, photograph, edition of 5

Opening: Thursday, January 5, 6 - 9 PM

A.I.R.
11 Front Street, 228 (in the DUMBO) - New York
Free admission

stampa

permanent link