Exhibition

Final curatorial projects from MA Curatorial Practice fellows.

"Cocoon"
Curated by Lux Yuting Bai
Artists: James Chan, Jia Chao, Magdalena Dukiewicz, Huiqi He, Zheheng Hong, Liam O’Brien, Liang Shaoji, Jingyu Shi, Amalia Ulman, Richard T. Walker and Graham Wilson
To schedule an appointment to view the exhibition, please contact Lux Yuting Bai at ybai3@sva.edu.
"Cocoon" inquires how one "becomes what one is" by examining the concepts of authenticity and absurdity in an existential framework. Whether through the public use of reason, the engagement with nature or the creation of oneself as a work of art, contemporary human beings struggle for transcendental possibilities of being to escape the abyss of meaninglessness. Full press release can be viewed here.

"Bric-à-Brac"
Curated by Jacqueline Kok
Chen I-Chun & Luo He-Lin, Kerry Downey, Eastwood, Józef Gałązka, Yazan Khalili, Antonia Low, Jillian Mayer, Stephanie Owens, Aya Rodriguez-Izumi, Caroline Sinders & Mani Nilchiani and Justin Sterling.
To schedule an appointment to view the exhibition, please contact Jacqueline Kok at jkok@sva.edu.
"Bric-à-Brac" explores the rich and diverse implications of human behavior within shifting geo-political structures. Inspired by Guy Debord’s concept of the dérive, this international group show unpacks social interactions largely formed today by algorithmic culture as we navigate contemporary life in the digital age. Full press release can be viewed here.

"The Future of Labor"
Curated by Noelia Lecue Francia
Artists: Danilo Correale, Andrés Jaque, Christopher Kulendran Thomas & Annika Kuhlmann and Hito Steyerl
To schedule an appointment to view the exhibition, please contact Noelia Lecue Francia at nlecue@sva.edu.
"The Future of Labor" considers the contemporary state of work under the influences of digitalization and artificial intelligence, and toward the condition of what has widely been called immaterial labor. "Innovation" has become the watchword of postindustrialism as it has inscribed the modernist idea that to "make it new," to equate novelty and progress, is the only formulation of human value. Novelty implies movement, and with the dawn of globalization, workers have become citizens of globally capitalized mobility, moving from countryside to city, from one city to another, from country to country across continents. In one imaginary of labor, workers no longer need to afford a house, a car and other material goods because ownership is no longer the goal—all can be rented, from closet to the Cloud and back again. Today, we might imagine a workforce entirely driven through and for digital means. What is the science of transience, what is its ethics in the world of work, and what will it bring in the shaping of our lives as they becoming increasingly immaterial? Full press release can be viewed here.

"RE:ACTION"
Curated by Amanda Lee
Artists: Knut Asdam, Richard Barnes, Andrea DeFelice, Brooke Holloway, Elisabeth Molin and Shuhei Yamada 
To schedule an appointment to view the exhibition, please contact Amanda Lee at alee50@sva.edu.
"RE:ACTION" was inspired by American artist Trevor Paglen's inquiries into the production of space. The show re-examines the human condition and the ways in which complex actions across a vast field of natural and technological phenomena have altered societies across the globe, creating a never-ending feedback loop of lies, manipulations and violence. The selected artworks in "RE:ACTION" offer a compensatory prospect of long-diminished virtues, such as belief in beliefs and an ethical ethos, which help to shore up our strength amid the difficulties of our times. The works on view propose an alternative mindfulness, alert to the "products of space" around us that have created the tumult of negativity that burdens so many social concerns in contemporary life. Full press release can be viewed here.

"Femmexplicit Digitalia"
Curated by Jasa McKenzie
Artists: Lindsay Dye, Faith Holland, MATH magazine, Tabita Rezaire, Molly Soda and Megan Elaine Wirick
To schedule an appointment to view the exhibition, please contact Jasa McKenzie at jbrockel@sva.edu.
"Femmexplicit Digitalia" surveys and celebrates ways in which explicit female sexuality and corporeality are becoming a symbol of power in society today. New technological mechanisms for social gains have been developed and aid in the spreading and perception of explicit femininity—mainly, the internet and social media. These digital platforms offer ways to combat the histories of repression, invisibility and injustice that have saddled women's bodies for centuries. Self-authorship intentionally steers the conversation away from objectification and toward empowerment. The infinite distribution of these platforms has allowed the artists of "Femmexplicit" to illuminate the power of women's sexual agency for an ever-expanding global audience. Full press release can be viewed here.

"Same Light, New Exposure"
Curated by Birdie Piccininni
Artists: Endia Beal, Claire Beckett, Zach Blas, Amanda Elam, Hannah Harley and Rae Clark Hendel
To schedule an appointment to view the exhibition, please contact Birdie Piccininni at epiccininni@sva.edu.
Daily life is inundated with images. "Same Light, New Exposure" will provide a concentrated look at a handful of contemporary photographers who use various styles and techniques to unfold a collaborative process between artist and subject, subject and photographic object in a relation that attempts to recuperate a sense of sincerity, authenticity and truthfulness in our era of fake news, hoax photos and selfies run amok in social and news media. Fantasy, identity, social reform and craftsmanship are all at play in these works, as is the question of how we each picture and capture the "other" in contemporary societies, with the lens as metaphor and metaphor as lens. Full press release can be viewed here.

"Isla imaginaria"
Curated by Natalia Viera Salgado
Artists: Lionel Cruet, Sofía Gallisá, Christopher Gregory, Karlo Andrei Ibarra, Natalia Lasalle-Morillo, Erika P. Rodríguez and Edra Soto 
To schedule an appointment to view the exhibition, please contact Natalia Viera Salgado at nviera@sva.edu.
"Isla imaginaria" explores notions of citizenship, territory and the question of progress on the island of Puerto Rico. The colonial structure that has isolated this island within the Caribbean has exposed the socio-political disaster of its relationship with the United States. Natural disasters have also exposed the unstable, unequal realities and the lack of self-determination that Puerto Ricans face. This exhibition addresses today's urgent issues of displacement, erased histories and forced migrations, while exposing the failure of the colonial structure imposed by the U.S. government. Full press release can be viewed here.

"Sanctuary" 
Curated by Piper Ross Ferriter
Artists: Mary Walling Blackburn, Antoine Catala, Kyoko Hamaguchi, Beryl Korot & Steve Reich, Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, Charlemagne Palestine, Izhar Patkin and Alymamah Rashed
To schedule an appointment to view the exhibition, please contact Piper Ross Ferriter at pferriter@sva.edu.
"Santuary" is an installation of works that suggests a 21st-century reading of Leo Tolstoy’s What Is Art?. Exhibiting artists' work exemplifies what Tolstoy's thesis might look like through a contemporary lens; their artistic practices illustrate a shared conviction in art as an expressive form of understanding with the capacity to engage empathy and establish common ground. Full press release can be viewed here.

"Are We in Sync?"
Curated by John Elammar, Jesse Firestone, Xinyi Ren, María Alejandra Sáenz, Michele Thursz and Andrea Valencia
Artists: William Aparicio, American Artist, Monika Bravo, Magdalena Dukiewicz, Material Girls, Edwin Isford, Willy Le Maitre, Pedro Mesa, Bridget Moser, Lisa Oppenheim, Phoebe Osborne+Kristine Eudey, Ale de la Puente, Juan Pablo de la Vega and Zhang He Ming
To schedule and appointment to view the exhibition, please email macp@sva.edu.
"Are We in Sync?" brings together more than a dozen artists from six countries whose work explores alternative constructs and perceptions of time. The exhibition offers alternate modes of thinking about duration, pace, synchronicity, social affect and sensory stimulation to emphasize how these alternatives challenge the dominant economic and technological forces that attempt to reduce time to a universal structure. Full press release can be viewed here.