WOTY 3.2: Scales 

Scales

Curated by Simon Benjamin

Participating Artists: Nate Bernard, Terrell Daniel, Brandon Edwards, Brian Felipe, Keonna Foreman, Kara Mills, Wayn O. Reid, Christopher Rivera, Audreamia Wardlow, Christopher Zapata.

Scales brings together the work of young people involved in youth-oriented programs focused on creating and sustaining a more just and inclusive society. The exhibition features the work of three artists from a talent development agency for young people of color called SOW (Scope of Work) and six artists from Recess Assembly - a program that offers an inroad to art as an alternative for incarcerating young people inside the justice system.

Through their artistic practice, these young artists highlight under-recognized subjects that impact their communities both directly and indirectly. Through intimate photographs, Wayn O. Reid, a first generation Jamaican-American works through questions of home, belonging and the erasure of histories through forced and voluntary migration. Audreamia Wardlow’s sugar sculptures consider the complexity and impact of mass produced consumer goods in urban communities. Christopher Zapata’s short films are an inquiry into his identity as an Afro-Latinx person. A collective of artists working together at Recess Assembly designed and screen printed a series of posters responding to the curatorial prompt – What does Justice look like to you?

It is today’s youth that hold the position of being the influencers of culture and change that ripple outward into wider communities. The definition of Justice is not a static one, and these artists are voices among the many of their generation working on tipping the scales of Justice towards a more equitable society.

More on the youth focused programs:

SOW is a talent development agency for young POC creatives between the ages of 17-24, established in response to the inequity in representation in creative industries in New York City. SOW honors young people by fostering opportunities through to become creators of culture, not just consumers of it. SOW confronts the cycles of exploitation, erasure of narratives, and marginalization of youth within the creative industry. @sow.nyc

Recess Assembly offers young people caught up in the justice system an inroad to art and connections to working artists and serves as an alternative to incarceration while empowering participants to take charge of their own life story and imagine a positive future. Participants that complete the program may have their cases sealed avoiding an adult record– which can be transformative to their lives. Participants may stay involved at Recess through paid opportunities at Peer Leaders and/or through an Artist Apprenticeship track. @recessart

Simon Benjamin is a Jamaican multidisciplinary artist invested in a research based art practice. He is based in New York City where he is currently pursuing an MFA at Hunter College. @brooklynbeachouse

WOTY 3.1: Polos Opuestos 

Polos Opuestos

Javier Castro

Groana Melendez

Curated by Arden Sherman, Director & Curator of Hunter East Harlem Gallery

The exhibition project, Word of the Year (WOTY), is now in its third iteration. For the first time, we have decided to include the word of the year from two sources: the United States-based Merriam Webster Dictionary, and our regular source, the Oxford English Dictionary. The 2018 words of the year are Toxic (Oxford) and Justice (Merriam).

For this exhibition, titled Polos Opuestos (English translation: Poles Apart), “opposition” is the driving conceptual framework, underlining the opposing ideas of the definition of the words of the year. Two video monitors have been installed on the WOTY wall, each one displaying video artwork. 

Representing Justice, Javier Castro’s video, The Golden Age, shows the artist interviewing Cuban children about what they want to be when they grow up. Cuba is Castro’s homeland and his gesture of asking the simple question about the children’s dreams, the artist symbolizes the need for justice and freedom in a country where a dictatorship is still in power. Justice is more pertinent to Cubans now than ever, where the political climate is rapidly progressing, but for children who imagine a better future, justice is core to their identities.

The second video work, Miscommunication, by Groana Melendez, addresses the word Toxic. In her work, Melendez, a first-generation Dominican-American, is observed attempting to force a marriage between a stack of magnets. The magnets furiously repel each other and the artist is in constant battle with the opposition. Melendez’s work explores her own complex identity within a family fractured by emigration and a reality disrupted by toxicity: borders, harsh immigration conditions, and geographical barriers between loved ones. 

Both pieces in WOTY: Polos Opuestos work in tandem to highlight the opposing nature of the words Justice and Toxic, while simultaneously inviting the viewer to make their own connections about current political landscapes, cultural localities, social circumstances, and the concerns of contemporary artists.  

Living Proof

In Shellyne Rodriguez' works, youth is part of a larger, intergenerational struggle for survival. As a means of showing youthful ingenuity in the face of systemic oppression, her works depict youth and utilize found objects, such as discarded, taped-together boxes carried by "Candy Boy" salesmen on the train. Rodriguez' engagement with young audiences is also evident in her assemblages, which integrate prints that were made during art-making workshops. The phrase, Hay hambre [there is hunger], visible in the assemblage, For Korynn Gaines, was created by the artist and the undocumented children who participated in one such session. In Rodriguez' words: "The phrase speaks to hunger grumbling in the belly, but also the drive to live and to thrive beyond the borders or the obstacles threatening to swallow them.”

Curated by Irini Zervas and Lauren Fowler