On view April 09 - May 01 | 340 E 64th St. New York, NY 10065
Diego Anaya, Christina Barrera, William Camargo, Vitória Cribb, Daniela Espinosa, Juan Giraldo, Cecilia Lopez, Lorena Molina, Sherry Muyuan He, Jean Carla Rodea, Piero Rossini, Angelica Yudasto
Curated by Diana Guerra & Emily Malave
When it comes to the identity of an immigrant we continue to struggle to find a sense of placement. Whether we choose to define immigrants politically, personally, socially, or in relation to their private or professional life, there isn’t a way to computate such identity. Immigrants hold sensibly differing status within their own communities. ‘Que Prosiga (That It May Go On)’ provides creative speculation into the livelihood of the immigrant identity. A malleable mapping that will lead to a recess of possibilities into inclusivity and safety.
It is morally impossible to claim knowledge over the immigrant experience. Traditionally speaking, identity is defined through the algorithmic tethering of the binary. Legal and Illegal, alien or citizen, home-land or new-land, the past and the future, along with the lost and the found. This is a monotonous swirl of duality that shields our consciousness from the vastness within immigrant identity. It is the unintelligible known-unknown fluidity of self that teaches us to reach for the attainable ideal directed by the created self.
After reading Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987), Gloria Anzaldua’s legacy marks the spirit of ‘Que Prosiga (That It May Go On)’. The artwork meditates on the ways of seeing the world from a cross-roads. It is an experiential continuance where art and spirituality merge in everyday living. It is a seance to reprieve those who are deemed illegal, alien, and a prisoner. Collectively we are reflecting on the imaginative influx of what is shown through Joy, Strength, and Conviction.
We will exhibit works in different mediums that activate the senses and revive motives in a response to gesture away from objectivity and complete-materiality. ‘Que Prosiga (That It May Go On)’ is founded upon artists who are sustaining Latinx diasporic ephemera, language, concepts, and images. The exhibited works are in the form of photography, sculpture, text, textural fabrics, and multimedia.
Lastly, this exhibition is an attempt to reconcile our inner binary wounds of a previous self and life, with that of who we are presently. From the created-self we cherish the symbolic contract we have with a sustainable future. To be an immigrant is to decide amidst the void. It is to live in the incompleteness of it all. It is to find community at work, and in your neighborhood, and to come together with your chosen family.
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GROUP SHOW: THE OTHER UTOPIAS
Curated by Diana Guerra and Emily Malave
Arpi Adamyan, OlaRonke Akinmowo, Daniel Aros, Camille Breslin, Zoe Brice, Heeseo Choi, Jazzmint Dash, Marielis Garcia, Kathleen Granados, Red Sagalow & Kiyomi Taylor
February 20th - March 5th, 2020
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 20th, 2020 / 5:30 - 7:30 PM
Location: The Cohen Library Archives Gallery
Morris R. Cohen Library, 5th floor. North Academic Center (NAC) Room 5/301. 160 Convent Ave, New York, NY 10031
We are pleased to present a group exhibition curated by Diana Guerra and Emily Malave. The Other Utopias will feature artists from The City College of New York, Hunter College, Parsons School of Design, New York University and Columbia University. The exhibition will take place at The Cohen Library Archives Gallery from February 20th to March 5th, 2020. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, February 20th from 5:30 to 7:30PM.
The Other Utopias envisions an otherworldly material and immaterial outlook. As multiple discourses and identities arise from the past, present, and future we weave together the work of artists who take marginalized sources of knowledge from ancient and contemporary scripts, and reproduce a Utopian outcome. When we look for art, we are looking for something that magically ignites our physical senses. Not only does it invoke thought, but we perceive the artist as the caster of a spell. We consider identity as multiple and acknowledge its possibilities of transformation and diverse manifestation. The inclusivity present in this exhibition is in the form of photography, video, painting, installation, mixed-media and animation.
The Other Utopias will precede the ‘CCNY Women Make Art’ show that is organized every year by the Archives & Special Collections as part of the Women’s History Month. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday 9:30 - 5:30PM. For additional information please contact Sydney Van Nort, Archivist and Assistant Professor, svannort@ccny.cuny.edu; Diana Guerra, dianaguerra14@gmail.com; or Emily Malave, emilymalave@gmail.com.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its role at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.2% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight professional schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic, and visionary as New York City itself.
About the curators
Diana Guerra and Emily Malave are MFA candidates in Digital and Interdisciplinary Art Practice (DIAP) at The City College of New York - CUNY.