4.12.24
At Room 3557
Organized and curated by Blessing Greer Mathurin
Janeth Aparcio
Nelli Astvatsatrian
Diego Borgsdorf Fuenzalida
Jester Bulnes
Zekkereya El-magharbel
Leeban Farah
Marcel Monroy
Jabari Wimbley
Salim Green
Dakota Higgins
Mushkinaz, 2024. Graphite on paper, found objects. We Are Eternal Like Our Mountains, 2024. Ceramic. Orthodox Cross 1, 2024. Ceramic. Caucasian Figure, 2023. Cyanotype on fabric. Shepherdess, 2024. Naturally dyed textile, ceramic, found object, synthetic hair.
The intention of this exhibition is to bring focus to the visual and cultural narratives that shape artists’ visual identities. Histories continuously breathe through the creative act, distorting the relationship of the present, past, and future. Artworks mark a convergence of these realities, existing not merely as physical presences but as living embodiments of elements of cultures. The artist, as a facilitator within the cultural archive, emphasizes their role in enriching and perpetuating the vitality of legacy in both themselves and their work, becoming references and proponents of living cultures as they manipulate light conversely. -Blessing Greer Mathurin
Mother's Boots, 2023. Ceramic.
Exerpt from Office Magazine article "Seeking Out the Light"
Could you share the medium(s) you typically work with and why? What materials do you find most inspiring, and how does it inform your creative process?
I am a drawing and figure drawing teacher and my background is in 2D figurative work, which is what you will see in the show. For the past few years, I have taken from numerous mediums, including drawing, to create installation-based pieces as well. I fell in love with quilts in particular not only because their function in history meshes with my conceptual framework but also because their hybrid form allows for the convergence of many materials and techniques: through printmaking, airbrush, photo transfer, ceramic pieces and found object assemblage, I assemble quilts that materialize trans-generational narratives. The figure, often an imagined female ancestor, is still present in my pieces, even if it is only implied by the objects surrounding it. My work honors stories of displaced Armenian mothers and daughters, whom I adorn with objects that may have followed them to their graves. In the face of displacement still today, the quilts act as handmade textile documents that can be passed down through generations.
How do your external surroundings, archives, and consumed media influence your art practice?
I moved to the States from Yerevan at a young age and grew up in Glendale– being Armenian was always a big part of my identity. I was raised with Armenian folk music, poetry, food, and soviet television alongside American culture, characterized by a fascination with 70s rock and coming-of-age movies set in the Midwest. And then there are the weird dolls, miniatures, old objects, sunsets, things I incorporate in my art and always liked growing up that can’t be easily attributed to either. Maybe the obsession with nostalgic things and imagery has something to do with missing out on a past in both cultures as a part of a newer, hybrid culture– maybe not. All to say that sometimes a cultural element is more legible in my work than other times, and I love that the hybridity of the multi-medium quilt allows the expression of a unique, composite, and complicated experience.