Everything Is Connected

On this episode we're joined by Storm Ascher, founder and owner of superposition gallery which opened  in 2018 The gallery represents emerging and mid-career artists from around the globe with an emphasis on creating community. Taking on the life of the nomadic artist and resident, curatorial projects come to fruition through iterations of borrowed space in Los Angeles, New York, and Miami. Next week, storm and superposition are kicking off summer in the hamptons! – In honor of its four year anniversary, Superposition Gallery presents RESILIENCE, curated by Storm Ascher, at Eastville Museum (Eastville Community Historical Society) in Sag Harbor opening July 4, 2022, and running through September 30, 2022.

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On this episode we're joined by Jake Troyli 

Jake Troyli investigates the construction of otherness and the commodification of the Black/Brown body, confronting and exploring labor capitalism and sweat equity as a demonstration of value. He makes energetic paintings, often featuring a self-portrait or avatar of himself embedded in engaging scenes, with a markedly classicist approach. Utilizing techniques formalized during the High Renaissance, underpainting and toning are central to the conception of each work, beginning with a burnt sienna foundation to establish values. In a timely evolution of his practice, Troyli expands the functionality and influence of his figures, imbuing them with new agency and establishing absurd narratives to consider the timeless conversations surrounding the preconceived notions of identity and value structures. Through the presence of prop-like iconography and compositions reminiscent of community theater sets, Troyli positions his figures as performing commodities constantly on display.
@jake_troyli

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On this episode we're joined by Jenee Daria Strand, the Curatorial Assistant for the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. Jenée-Daria aims to expand her knowledge of art history, and integrate her interests in performance practices, to examine Black subjectivity within the museum setting. She holds a BFA from Florida State University, and is pursuing an MA at New York University (NYU).

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On this episode we're joined by Genesis Tramaine, is an expressionist devotional painter who creates abstract portraits of men and women who transcend gender, race, and social structures. Genesis Tramaine’s striking, near-abstract portraits of Black subjects take inspiration from biblical hymns and the scrawling figuration of 1980s New York graffiti art. The Brooklyn-born artist has exhibited at galleries in New York, Paris, Brussels, London, and Shanghai. In 2020, she was an artist in residence at the Rubell Museum in Miami.  

Tramaine paints with a confrontational and provocative use of color and through an urban-inspired, mixed-media approach. The artist describes her practice as focused on the shape and definition of the American Black Face, explaining that her subject’s exaggerated features capture the spirited emotions of the untapped, underrepresented soul of Black people through a mixture of acrylic and oil-based paintings. 

Born in Brooklyn, NY, Tramaine earned her M.S from Pace University and B.S from Utica College of Syracuse University. Tramaine has exhibited nationally and internationally, including an inaugural solo exhibition with Almine Rech in London in February 2020, ‘Parables of Nana’, as well as exhibitions at Richard Beavers Gallery, Brooklyn, NYC; The Tree House, Governors Island, NYC; The Salt Space, Chelsea, NYC; The Raging Spoon Gallery, Toronto, Canada; AOF Gallery, NYC; and more. Her work resides in prominent museum collections including the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Miami and the Contemporary Art Foundation, Tokyo. 

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On this episode we're joined by Clotilde Jimenez - born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1990 he is a visual artist currently  based in Mexico City. Jimenez has developed an artistic practice that spans multimedia collage resulting in a thought provoking cannon of motifs including: tropical fruits, pink painted fingernails, lingerie, and boxing gear. Emotions triggered from vivid dreams and memories take form, as the artist sketches daily. I caught up with Jimenez during the global lock down to learn more about his work and practice. 

Close readings of Jiménez’s work change initial evocations of whimsical frolic, and carefree simplicity, to varying interpretations that are dependent on the viewer’s point of view, regarding gender performance, sexuality, social justice, and racial equality. Nonetheless, Jiménez utilizes quotidian, relatable childhood experiences that present the question, “What is so queer about queerness?” 

His work is featured in noted collections including; The Ford Foundation, Orlando Museum of Art, Hessel Museum of Art, and the Beth Rubin DeWoody collection.

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On this episode we're joined by Muna Malik - the multidisciplinary artist whose work spans photography, painting, and sculpture, to include a wide array of mediums that seek to create cultural awareness and understanding. Her work has also been featured in ArtForum and i-D Magazine. 

Malik also explores the complexities and entanglements between individuals and communities. The two core interrelated strands to her practice are using abstraction to explore the variations and nuances of identity, and the second is creating platforms for community connection through interactive installations, sculpture, and photography.

While this episode - recorded in 2020 touches on her work with For Freedoms and it’s national campaigns throughout the US, Malik also participated in the Fountainhead Artist residency program in Miami. The month-long residency hosts artists from across the globe. Operating annually the Residency hosts 30-40 artists per year. 

Malik, born in Yemen, is a first-generation, Black Yemeni immigrant, whose road to the arts came by way of her innate passion to help others. 

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On this episode, we're joined by Jerrell Gibbs. His vibrant paintings retrace family memories examining the origin of his own life by representing intimate and instantly joyous moments. Affirming the multilayered experience of the African American diaspora Gibbs plunges the viewer into an immersive experience through the realm of his childhood.

Growing up in Baltimore influenced his perspective on socio-economics, body politics, race, economic disparities, and their influence on one another. Through his figurative portraits, Gibbs invigorates banal representations of black identity by depicting empathy, inviting the possibility for a spiritual connection. The works are adapted from small Polaroids into life-size paintings. Gibbs works from an archive of hundreds of family photos taken throughout the '70s and ’80s from family photo albums

The Baltimore native graduated with an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD in 2020. His work is in the permanent collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, CC Foundation, X Museum, Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles Museum of Art. Gibbs is represented by Mariane Ibrahim Gallery.

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On this episode, we’re joined by Nico Wheadon. She is an independent art advisor, curator, educator, and writer who adopts interdisciplinarity as a strategy for building a more responsive cultural ecosystem. An advocate for BIPOC and womxn artists in all endeavors, she uses her myriad platforms to expand the canon of contemporary art, whilst cultivating a community of professional practice and collective care. Through her consultancy, NICO WHEADON PROJECTS, she delivers cultural strategy and curatorial guidance to artists, cultural institutions, entrepreneurs, foundations, and government agencies. Nico is an adjunct professor at Barnard College, Brown University, and Hartford Art School, teaching at the intersections of art history, creative and cultural entrepreneurship, and museum studies. 

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On this episode of Light Work presents: Everything is Connected, we are joined by Patrick Alston and Larry Ossei-Mensah.  Alston has a solo show on  at Ross and Kramer Gallery in Chelsea until May 14th 2021. We sat down to talk about how this new body of work came about, some of the themes that he's exploring in his most recent paintings, the relationship he's developed with Larry over the years,  and building relationships based on respect trust and vulnerability as key markers for success. 

Patrick Alston energetically creates works that, along with the interplay of titles, trigger thought-provoking and reflective topics including but not limited to socio-politics, identity, language, and the psychology of color. Alston’s re-contextualized subjects, rich palettes,
and complex compositions are dramatized exhilarating energies, expressed through mature gestural mark-making (some of which are reminiscent of the traditional graffiti culture of New York) that help to project an unwritten aesthetic which makes up the urban landscape.

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Welcome back for another season of Light Work presents: Everything Is Connected where we share inspiring stories with some of today’s hottest artists and art professionals in the field. From newly emerging talents to established artists in the field, we never shy away from important divisive topics. Join us for season two with more conversation on life, culture, and of course art! Listen to the trailer to see which artists will be on Season two!