Excavated Selves, Becoming Magic Bodies explores resilient and supernatural bodies as proxy personae for survival. Specific geographies, heritages, and cultures are rarely noted. Instead, artists use surrealism, science fiction, and mythopoesis as stages for rebellion. Through abstract forms, heroines drawn from memory, and anthropomorphism of the environment, featured artists anchor themselves within new or existing contexts. Departing from real places, their reference points may remain recognizable but are created anew through metamorphosis.
Works by artists Ala Dehghan and Felipe Baeza exemplify the supernatural body, as their respective drawings mix human and vegetal forms to create powerful characters that toe the line between poetic and sinister. The figure in Lilian Shetreva’s work “Samovila” floats. Traditionally, Shetreva is a Slavic pagan goddess–the immortal keeper of holy nature; she asks us to revere plant and animal life. Re-enacting ancestral traditions, “Mourning Ritual” by artist duo AYDO (A young Yu & Nicholas Oh) reconfigures a traditional ceremonial garment. This garment was passed down generationally by the women in Yu’s family as a sacred object. AYDO’s performance-based film shot at the Korean Demilitarized Zone activates the garment and explores personal and collective loss. Akin to her large-scale murals, Maya Hayuk’s painting reflects her vibrant universe often borrowing motifs from nature and Ukrainian folk art. Spanish artist Selva Aparicio’s work centers on time and memory, with an installation that incorporates the leaves fallen from a tree during the fall season.
Counteracting the exoticization of the female Caribbean body, Dominican artist Joiri Minaya’s “Containers”—an ongoing series of performative photographs and a video—her models wear full-body suits in tropical prints as they lounge in suggestive poses in landscaped environments. Tariku Shiferaw’s work weaves together different historical narratives of Black culture expanding the framework of abstract art. Nyugen E. Smith’s collage “Bundlehouse Borderlines No.9 (Liberator No.1)” creates a map, his mixed media works present diasporic soils that act to destabilize borders. Investigating social constructs around nationality, Dominique Duroseau’s sound work features ASMR-like qualities, operating between journal and spoken word. Natural elements appear in artist Francesco Simeti’s “Corniculata II” which resembles seaweed or with a balance of robustness and fragility, almost breathing. Simeti’s works in clay combine references to baroque and rococo forms with a mastery of contemporary ceramics. The exhibition includes a new work by Raul De Lara whose wood sculptures often reference cacti, flora, and fauna from the Texas-Mexico border terrain.
Exhibition Dates
November 30, 2023 – January 14, 2024
Opening Reception
November 30, 2023 | 6-8 PM
Biennial Closing Party
January 14, 2023 | 3-6 PM
Artists
AYDO (A young Justine Yu & Nicholas Oh), Selva Aparicio, Felipe Baeza, Ala Dehghan, Dominique Duroseau, Mia Enell, Maya Hayuk, Raul De Lara, Joiri Minaya, Lilian Shetereva, Tariku Shiferaw, Francesco Simeti, Nyugen E. Smith
Curators
Bianca Abdi-Boragi, Katherine Adams, Anna Mikaela Ekstrand
Venue
Alchemy Gallery
55 Delancey St, New York, NY 10002
Contact
For press inquiries please contact annamikaela.ekstrand@gmail.com or +1 720 254 2997
For more information, please visit:
https://www.theimmigrantartistbiennial.com/programming2023
Host Partner
Alchemy is a process of creation and transformation; the evolution of turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. Alchemy Gallery’s mission is to celebrate that process artistically, by fostering the development of artists at all levels, in all mediums, and championing their art with the right audiences of quality collectors. The Gallery’s 1000 sq. ft footprint in New York’s Lower East Side gives art the room it needs to breathe and provides the optimal environment for collectors to discover, explore, and acquire.
Organizer
The Immigrant Artist Biennial presents immigrant artists through various formats, facilitating a platform of support for projects by often overlooked and silenced voices. Founded in 2020 by its artistic director Ukrainian-born, NYC-based artist Katya Grokhovsky TIAB is fiscally sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts and funded through its host partners, grants, sponsorships, donations, and its Patron Circle.
(text & photo courtesy of The Immigrant Artist Biennial)
