PROCESSA TALKS

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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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.  

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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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For this episode of AW CLASSROOM, we talk to art advisor Chela Mitchell about her journey and how young artists of color can navigate their art market. She also gives advice to young art collectors and sheds light how the art market functions.   

Chela Mitchell is an art advisor and founder based in New York who has extensive knowledge of the emerging contemporary art market. She has a deep appreciation of the industry, mainly supporting black and brown artists. She provides art advisory services to private, public, and new collectors needing assistance navigating the contemporary art market. Her clients include collectors and luxury brands looking for guidance diversifying their collections.   Chela is also the founder of Komuna House, a global arts club centered around collectors and artists of color.   

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@chelamitchellart 

chelamitchellart.com 

 komunahouse.com 

@komunahouse  

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AW CLASSROOM PODCAST: INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST XIME IZQUIERDO UGAZ  

For this episode, we talk to artist Xime Izquierdo Ugaz about their online archive, "se que fue así porque estuve allí," a commissioned project of El Museo's, ESTAMOS BIEN- LA TRIENAL 20/21. The digital archive expands on the artist’s ongoing series of photo portraits of their queer chosen family and features over forty images accompanied by text and audio testimonies. Along with talking about their journey, Ugaz also shares how they recently spoke out against the Brooklyn Museum highlighting how the institution mistreated many people of color on staff.  

Xime Izquierdo Ugaz is a multimedia artist, curator, educator, and language justice worker born in Lima, Perú. Their work primarily touches on the imprint of inter-generational trauma within their own family in relationship to place and migration.  They are the visual arts co-curator at Nat. Brut & co-founder of QTPOC virtual festival based in Perú, Cabritas Resistiendo en Cuarentena.  Their hand embroidery collection is Beso de Moza & a recent collab with Omololu Babatunde, ROGUE THEIF, is an upcycled denim brand honoring thieves. They are also a co-organizer of BODYHACK, a party and mutual aid fund for trans and nonbinary folks.  Their work has appeared in FEELINGS and their first chapbook is titled Estoy Tristeza (No, Dear Magazine & Small Anchor Press ,2018).  

Please see more info linking to Xime's sites here:  

sequefueasi exhibition link: www.sequefueasi.com 

portfolio web: www.ximexime.com  

Personal ig: instagram.com/huacatayy 

BODYHACK IG: instagram.com/_bodyhack_ 

Cabritas Resistiendo IG: instagram.com/cabritasresistiendo    

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AW CLASSROOM PODCAST: INTERVIEW WITH LARRY OSSEI MENSAH

For this episode, we are diving into Larry Ossei-Mensah’s curatorial journey and perspective on supporting artists early in their careers. Larry shares his eye for art and his advice for young artists.

Larry Ossei-Mensah uses contemporary art as a vehicle to redefine how we see ourselves and the world around us. The Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic has organized exhibitions and programs at commercial and nonprofit spaces around the globe from New York City to Rome featuring artists such as Firelei Baez, Allison Janae Hamilton, Brendan Fernades, Ebony G. Patterson, Glenn Kaino, and Stanley Whitney to name a few. Moreover, Ossei-Mensah has actively documented cultural happenings featuring the most dynamic visual artists working today such as Derrick Adams, Mickalene Thomas, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Federico Solmi, and Kehinde Wiley.

A native of The Bronx, Ossei-Mensah is also the co-founder of ARTNOIR, a 501(c)(3) and  global collective of culturalists who design multimodal experiences aimed to engage this generation’s dynamic and diverse creative class.  ARTNOIR  endeavors to celebrate the artistry and creativity by Black and Brown artists around the world via virtual and in person experiences.  Ossei-Mensah is a contributor to the first ever Ghanaian Pavilion for the 2019 Venice Biennial with an essay on the work of visual artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

Ossei-Mensah is the former Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at MOCAD in Detroit. He recently co-curated in 2019 with Dexter Wimberly the critically acclaimed exhibition at MOAD in San Francisco Coffee, Rhum, Sugar, Gold: A Postcolonial Paradox in Spring/Summer 2019.   Ossei-Mensah currently serves as guest curator at BAM's Rudin Family Gallery. He also will be co-curating with Omsk Social Club 7th Athens Biennale in Athens, Greece in Spring 2021. 

Ossei-Mensah has had recent profiles in such publications like the NY Times, Artsy, and Cultured Magazine, which recently named him one of seven curators to watch in 2019. Follow him on Instagram/Twitter at @youngglobal or www.larryosseimensah.com.

Image: Miranda Barnes for New York Times

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ARTSYWINDOW is pleased to present our first AW CLASSROOM Podcast episode featuring artist Eilen Itzel Mena where she talk to AW Founder, Kiara Cristina Ventura, about her upcoming solo exhibition in LA, how she navigates herself and her unique artistic practice that deeply involves spirituality.  

Check out her solo her solo exhibition:  Inner Eye: Alignment, Perfection, Completion August 8, 2020 to September 5, 2020   Informed by abstract expressionism, surrealism, and practices within the African Diaspora, Eilen Itzel Mena presents a new body of paintings along with a site specific installation rooted from a combination of her meditations, dreams, prayers, conscious, and sub-conscious. 

  Leimin Space : 443 Lei Min Way, Los Angeles Chinatown, California 90012 Gallery hours: Thursday - Saturday | 2-6 pm  https://www.leiminspace.com 

Instagram:@leiminspace @eilen.itzel.mena 

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