For the 14th episode of AW CLASSROOM, AW intern Abe Centeno interviews Bronx artist and educator, Sofie Vasquez. In the interview, Sofie talks about her journey being an artist from The Bronx, how she developed her skills, and also her part time practice in photographing the NYC wrestling scene.  

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Sofie Vasquez (b. 1998) is an Ecuadorian documentary photographer born and raised in The Bronx, New York.  Her work has been featured in The New York Times and has been exhibited with the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Bronx Documentary Center, the Ecuadorian-American Cultural Center, The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center, the Shirley Fiterman Art Center, the DGT Alumni Association Gallery House, Photoville and En Foco Inc.   She is an alumni of the International Center of Photography's Community Fellows, and is a part of the first graduating class of the fellowship (2018-2020) She was a student at The City College of New York until the COVID-19 global pandemic forced her to pause her studies. She currently works at the Bronx Documentary Center as well as freelances as a traveling documentary photographer.  

Follow her work at: @bullsinthebrnx on IG   

*This episode is wonderfully sponsored by Flower Shop Collective. *  Flower Shop Collective is an art and fabrication studio that cultivates the ideas of emerging artists working towards more equitable futures. Their goal is to help artists of all skill levels execute their ideas, learn new techniques and have a safe space to do so, with a prioritization on immigrant artists, artists of color, and women-identifying artists. También les ofrecen todos estos servicios en Español.  For more information please head to flowershopcollective.com or @flowershopcollective on Instagram.

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For this special Vday drop, we are releasing a lovely interview with artist Aya Brown where we talk about her practice and how she paints and draws Black Women she loves. And we also discuss her love for Mary J. Blidge of course.  

Aya Brown (b. 1995) is a Black and Japanese artist who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Brown’s artistic practice is focused on documenting unseen people, with an emphasis on bringing visibility to queer Black and brown women. She’s always sought to channel love and care to her community through her work. During the start of the pandemic, she became known for her "Essential Worker" series which consist of portraits of Black and Brown women essential workers in NYC from nurses to postal workers.   

Follow her work at:  @ayabrown.tiff on IG  

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To support our podcast and the work we do, please donate to us at artsywindow.com and click the "donate" tab. Or join us on patreon!  Much love.

For the 12th episode of AW CLASSROOM, we interview Jamaican-Canadian artist Tau Lewis about her self-taught journey and how she intentionally creates doll-like sculptures to embody spirit and connect to her ancestors.  

 Tau Lewis (b. 1993, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) employs arduous methods such as hand sewing, carving, and assemblage to build intricate sculptural portraits and quilts. A self-taught artist, her practice is rooted in healing personal, collective, and historical traumas through labour. The materiality of Lewis’ work is often informed by her surrounding environment: she constructs out of found, gathered, and recycled materials from Toronto, New York, and outside of her family's home in Negril, Jamaica. The transformative act of repurposing these materials recalls practices of resourcefulness in diasporic contexts; upcycling is a recuperative act that reclaims both agency and memory. The portraits themselves reference both individuals in Lewis’ community and imagined ancestors.  Lewis will be included in 2021 exhibitions at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Grinnell College Museum of Art, Grinnell; Prospect 5, New Orleans; Haus der Kunst, Munich; and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.    

Follow her work at:  @taulewis on IG  

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This episode was edited by AW intern, Abe Centeno.   

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Today on AW CLASSROOM we center Carrie Mae Weems, "The Kitchen Table Series," 1990 and this work is important in the history of contemporary art, especially in the world of photography. Throughout the decades, Weems highlights and uplifts the narratives of black women in America.  

The notes for this episode were wonderfully put together by AW intern, Abe Centeno.  

AW CLASSROOM is a series of talks and art history classes highlighting the work of artists and creatives of color. Find out more at ARTSYWINDOW.COM.  

To support our podcast and the work we do, please donate to us at artsywindow.com and click the "donate" tab. You can also become a patreon to support our work: https://www.patreon.com/ARTSYWINDOW 

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For the 10th episode of AW CLASSROOM, we center David Hammons' work "Bliz-aard Ball Sale," Cooper Square, New York, 1983.  The notes for this episode were wonderfully put together by AW intern, Abe Centeno. To see the full notes, research, and images for this episode, become a patron at https://www.patreon.com/ARTSYWINDOW.

AW CLASSROOM is a series of talks and art history classes highlighting the work of artists and creatives of color. Find out more at ARTSYWINDOW.COM. 

 To support our podcast and the work we do, please donate to us at artsywindow.com and click the "donate" tab. You can also become a patreon to support our work: https://www.patreon.com/ARTSYWINDOW 

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Much love!

For the 9th episode of AW Classroom, founder of AW, Kiara Cristina Ventura, takes us through works by artist Dread Scott. Particularly, we dive into how he changed US Law and uses the flag as a medium to make a statement about the historical foundation of the US and the overall discrimination against the black community within the US.

AW CLASSROOM is a series of talks and art history classes highlighting the work of artists and creatives of color. Find out more at ARTSYWINDOW.COM.

To support our podcast and the work we do, please donate to us at artsywindow.com and click the "donate" tab. Much love!

We recently made a patreon to support our work: https://www.patreon.com/ARTSYWINDOW

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For the 8th episode of AW Classroom, we talk to young art historian and curator Antoine Girard.   Arts professional and a cultural strategist, Antoine Girard is passionate about the arts and social change. Professional and scholarly interests include black visual culture, and inclusive engagement strategies. He earned his B.A. in Art History from Howard University. He began his work in the museum field working with The Broad and CAAM and most recently The Underground Museum.  His work in the museum field has garnered support from institutions such as The American Alliance of Museums, and the Western Arts Foundation, where he was recognized as an Emerging Leader of Color. Antoine lives as an independent museum professional and curator, and thought leader based in Southern California. His upcoming curatorial work will be seen at Jeffrey Deitch Projects in Los Angeles.   

To keep up with his work, follow him on IG: @ _ajgirard 

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To support our podcast and the work we do, please donate to us at artsywindow.com and click the "donate" tab. Much love!

Digital Space as Safe Space Panel Talk - Hosted by Latinx Project at NYU.   For this episode of AW CLASSROOM we feature the recording of the official Cyber Healing virtual panel talk led by founder of AW and curator Kiara Cristina Ventura joined by featured artists Florencia Escudero, Moréna Espiritual, Chloe Piñero, Gina Goico, and Catherine Feliz. The conversation centers around the featured works in the exhibition, how the digital world has informed their work, and served as a safe space to explore.  

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CYBER HEALING, curated by Kiara Cristina Ventura of ARTSYWINDOW, is an exhibition that explores how Latinx and Afro-Latinx artists are healing via feminine energy and digital space. As many of us during the COVID-19 pandemic are deepening our relationships with the digital world, this exhibition raises our contemporary connectivity with the online and social media world to the surface and dissects how we have collectively curated and sourced from online spaces to create discourse, educate, empower, and serve us. Therefore, the digital world of healing has come into fruition within the last decades to be used a tool and has quickly bloomed during 2020 with more creatives seeking to aid one another and themselves.   

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CYBER HEALING, Sept 4 - Dec 1 2020 - features works by Fannie Sosa, Florencia Escudero, Moréna Espiritual, Chloe Piñero, Gina Goico, and Catherine Feliz. Ranging from video to mixed media to sculpture, the exhibition raises themes speaking to visibility, feminism, queerness, reclamation of the body, decolonization, spirituality, and ultimately how these themes educate and serve healing processes. This exhibition is presented by the Latinx Project at NYU.

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Mel Luna and AW Founder, Kiara Cristina Ventura, sat down in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at Larissa De Jesús Negrón ‘s solo exhibition "Moving On" 2020 to talk about artistic process, abstraction of identity, and her unique journey.   Melanie Luna (IG: @ohmeluna ) is a young Dominican conceptual artist who is working with the figure in a unique way —stripping the figure of their skin thus stripping them of certain parts of their identity. She is constantly thinking of meshing the worlds between science and fiction with her playful scenes that bring the viewer to imagine what is at play.

Follow her work at:  @ohmeluna on IG

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To support our podcast and the work we do, please donate to us at artsywindow.com and click the "donate" tab. Much love!

For the episode #5 of AW CLASSROOM, we virtually sit with curator and founder of the Mare Residency, Tiffany Auttrianna Ward, who focuses her work on artists of the African Diaspora and those of marginalized communities.  

To support our podcast and the work we do, please donate to us at artsywindow.com and click the "donate" tab. Much love!

Read here to learn more about our guest:

 Tiffany Auttrianna Ward is an independent curator and cultural producer based between Baltimore and New York. In 2019 she founded Mare Residency, a roving residency with a focus on supporting and connecting artists of African descent between the U.S., Latin America, and the Caribbean. In its inaugural year Ward partnered with SunSpot sTudios to host Baltimore-born artist Jerrell Gibbs and Dominican-American artist Raelis Vasquez in a two-week residency created to highlight and connect artists to the city of Baltimore. Recent awards include the Intercultural Development Grant, MICA/MFA Graduate Merit Scholarship, Leslie King Hammond Graduate Fellowship, and the MICA Graduate Research Development Grant. At MICA, she served as a Graduate Studies Curatorial Fellow and the student representative in the Vice Provost Search Committee. During the past ten years, Ward has centered the stories of the African Diaspora through her academic and professional pursuits, which have taken her to Brazil, Puerto Rico, and throughout the continental United States. From 2015-2018, she ran a bilingual Portuguese and English online journal, Cores Brilhantes—a contemporary online space for Afro-Brazilian art. Since founding the journal, she has also been a contributing writer for AFROPUNK and Sugarcane Magazine as well as assisted artists from across the diaspora with public relations and marketing support. She is a 2020 MFA Curatorial Practice graduate of Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). She received her BA in History from Manhattanville College in 2011 with a focus on African Diasporic Studies.   

Follow her work at:  @auttrianna and @mareresidency on IG  

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