KAYUMANGGI: Post Colonial Filipinx
Cover Image: The Murmur of Sounds by Alejandro Acierto Kayumanggi: Post Colonial Filipinx Š Slocumb Galleries and Participating artists, 2018 | All rights reserved Images and artist statements courtesy of the artists. | Gallery exhibition images taken by the Curator and Slocumb Galleries’ staff. All images and work are copyright property of the Artists. | Catalogue design by Amanda Kilhenny and Karlota Contreras-Koterbay. Printed by ETSU Biomed. ETSU is an AA?EEO employer. ETSU-CAS-101-18 50
KAYUMANGGI: Post Colonial Filipinx Alejandro Acierto Leticia Bajuyo Gigi Bio Richard Brown Kelvin Burzon Marinel Isla Contreras Jess EspaĂąola Gina Osterloh
Curated by Karlota I. Contreras-Koterbay
Diverse and Beautiful
It was a wonderful evening attending the ‘Kayumanggi: Post-Colonial Filipinx’ group exhibition and opening reception as a guest of honor. The curator, Karlota Contreras-Koterbay, has been a wonderful partner for student life and engagement at ETSU, bringing a spectrum of exhibitions and artists to the campus and the region for many years. I especially enjoyed conversation with the artists while delighting in wonderfully prepared and delicious foods of the Philippines. It was a special evening and exhibition, all hosted in the heart of Downtown Johnson City at the Tipton Gallery. Such initiatives are a visible reminder of ETSU’s mission dating to our founding in 1911, to improve the lives of the people of the Appalachian Highlands. Opportunities to host such exhibitions and artists fulfill this mission by promoting a visible diversity of people, thought and excellence in creativity. The exhibition highlighted the contributions of artists in an array of media. The commitment and the important role of the arts, and of ETSU as a cultural hub of the region, cannot be understated. The ‘Kayumanggi: Post-Colonial Filipinx’ exhibition was yet another reminder of the university’s collaborative and artistic vision come to life.
Jeff Howard, Ed.D. Associate Vice President for Student Affairs East Tennessee State university
KAYUMANGGI: POST COLONIAL FILIPINX Curatorial Statement
The ‘Kayumanggi: Post Colonial Filipinx,’ a group exhibition featuring Filipinx American artists, is curated as part of the Diverse & Beautiful: Black, Asian and Hispanic Tennessee project by the Slocumb Galleries in partnership eith the american Museum of Philippine Art (AMPA) initiative. The multimedia exhibition focuses on the politics of skin color and post colonial investigation of the nuanced, hybrid identity of Filipino Americans. Exploring the possibilities of art as agency, the artists featured employed sculptural installations, new media, manipulated images, and sound to visualize their varied perspectives. Kayumanggi: Post Colonial Filipinx is the third in a series of exhibitions that is part of a collaborative project between the ETSU Slocumb Galleries and the American Museum of Philippine Art, highlighting Filipinx, a gender neutral and empowered identifier for Filipina/o-Americans. The participating artists are Alejandro Acierto (TN), Leticia Bajuyo (TN/TX), Gigi Bio (NY), Richard Brown (TN), Kelvin Burzon (IN), Marinel Isla Contreras (PH), Gina Osterloh (OH) and first Filipino Emmy awardee animator Jess Española (CA). The ‘Diverse and Beautiful: Black, Asian and Hispanic Appalachia’ project is significant towards the efofrt for better understanding of the evolving identities, advancing cultural inclusion and stronger bonds in the diverse communities in the region. The arts’ potential as social agency provides platforms for discourse, community solidarity, cultural exchange and histrocial re-investigation, as well as challenge the cultural isolationism that Appalachia is historically stereotyped, as resistance against divisive political rhetoric. It is very relevant and invaluable to address issues of identity, collective values, social justice and inclusion in time of cultural strife and dominant white supremacists’ political agendas. Artists and cultural workers are given opportunities and responsibilities to serve as beacons of hope, and their work contributes to relevant critical discourse. The exhibition series and related activities feature empowered Filipinx artists, whose work address the discrepancy in the visibility of minority Asian American communities in the mainstream art, media and social consciousness in the US. The mixed media installations are interactive and intergenerational, as well as distinctively visual, tactile and engaging, allowing viewers to understand and celebrate diverse cultures. The related activities are crucial in advancing inclusive, creative, socially-engaged art and communities. The artists serve as role models and inspiration to the youth, seniors, disabled and commnities of color. The employment of the term ‘Filipinx’ versus the traditional Filipino/Filipina is intentional, in order to position the gender-nuanced, gender-inclusive as term of preference instead of the colonial influenced gender-specific terminology. The artists invited in the exhibition explore various media and technology in their work, providing contemporary voice to historically nuanced issues of post colonial identity, hybrid culture, and empowered self representation. Alejandro Acierto’s multimedia work reinvestigates the invisibility of the colonial
Filipino subjects under the American colonial rule, employs innovative visual strategies of manipulated historical photographs, newspaper clippings, indigenous fibers and other related objects such as wooden tobacco molds in his series In the Absence of Sight and his aesthetic investigation of the ‘breath’ as ‘becoming’ or ‘being.’ The issue of visibility, or the lack thereof, is also strongly evident in the ‘anti-portraits’ of photographer Gina Osterloh. The figures on monochromatic background are almost melded that it takes effort to recognize the images, a process similar to the colonial and migrant tendencies to ‘assimilate’ or blend in with the dominant groups. The works on display are cognizant of these issues and provide satirical critique in the visualization of belongingness and growing up as biracial individual in a foreign country. Obliquely, the photographic portraits of Gigi Bio, with their kaleidoscopic and colorful backgrounds, are overtly conscious of asserting the identities of her subjects. The effort to provide representation, and ‘selfimaging’ on his/her/them own terms is crucial in the assertion of the post colonial identity. In parallel, LGBTQ artist Kelvin Burzon’s prayer cards have images and texts that superficially alludes to Catholic icons but drastically differs in its content as it address specific prayers related to non conformist gender and sexuality. The Philippines, being predominantly Roman Catholic, tend to have very conservative views on the issues of binary gender and sexuality that Burzon examines. Despite growing up in America, the values system and the stigma within the Filipino-American comunities are still very repressive, an unfortunate situation that members of the LGBTQ communities have to navigate most of their lives. The religious undertones are again used as visual strategy to encourage cultural dialogue as addressed by sculptor Leticia Bajuyo’s work. Her series Daily Soaps are ‘experienced’ on the installation of a sink on a metal sctructure with wooden kneeler that reminds viewers/participants of a church’s facilities and baptismal bowls. Engraved on her soaps are ‘sins’ or weaknesses, and the viewers are encouraged to ‘wash off,’ as one cleanses onself of the ‘sins’ through ‘washing of the hands,’ an act associated with Pontius Pilate after he passed judgement of Jesus Christ to the cross. The soaps are also controversial cultural objects vis-a-vis the politics of skin color on post colonial societies. Growing up in the Philippines, one is inundated with ‘whitening soaps’ and skin products that encourage the ‘indios’ or ‘natives’ to have fairer skin that is associated with the higher social class of ‘meztizas,’ or those who have colonial lineage. Also notable are the bilingual version of the ‘sins’ on each side of the soaps, one in Tagalog, the other in English.
The visually nuanced exhibition takes pride in including works that range from religious iconography, historical imagery and indigenous forms, to technology-based work. Marinel Isla Contreras’ mixed media sculptures provide a counterbalance to the colonial stereotype, by paying homage to the pre-colonial spiritual figure ‘babaylan’ or shaman, traditionally, women or gender nuanced figures in the community. Isla Contreras is a member of the Philippine-based sculptural collective Daambakal Sculptors, a group of self taught artists inspired by indigenous Filipino culture who employ repurposed materials as art media. On the other side of the spectrum are the Western animation illustrations by Emmy awardee Jess Española featuring popular culture’s The Simpsons and Futurama characters. The images are photo reproductions of the hand- drawn illustrations by Española who was recruited from the Philippines to the US during the 1980’s trend towards modern animation culture. Along the tradition of animation, film and game culture is the work by millennial graphic designer and biracial artist Richard Brown entitled ‘What Are You?.’ The video, dominated by pastel and higly saturated, artificial colors, is a questioning of the hybrid identity, a common dilemma experienced by mixed heritage children like Brown. The exhibition has parallel trajectory from last year’s exhibition entitled, ‘Manlalakbay (Voyager): Filipina/o Diaspora and the Hybrid Identity’ (2017) that featured artists who explored the complex issues of migration and its nuanced struggles, including West coast based Filipina artists Kim Arteche Acebo, Jennifer Wofford and the Mail Order Brides (M.O.B.) Collective, Stephanie Syjuco, and New York based Filipino artists Julio Jose ‘Jojo’ Austria, Jeho Bitancor, and Art Zamora, with TN-educated artist Johann Bitancor, and Titchie Carandang & Erwin Tiongson of The Philippines on the Potomac Project (Washington D.C.). Both exhibitions aimed to explore the evolving, hybrid identity of the contemporary Filipinx forged by (post) colonial history, migration and diaspora, as visualized by the collective mural of the three New York-based artists Jojo Austria, Art Zamora and Jeho Bitancor, that featured human figures carrying a migratory fish supported by a boat-like structure. Bitancor is a member of a younger genration of social realist in the Philippines, while Zamora is an influential Filipino organizer in the US art communities, and a founding member of AMPA. The first Filipinx exhibition in the series was a result of a serendipitous meeting during the annual Slocumb Galleries’ Curatorial Interns’ museum tour in Chicago in the Spring of 2016. The exhibition signage for Nandito Na Ako (I Am Here Now) was boldly displayed on one of the galleries of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), viewed from the Uber van on the way to visit SAIC Director of Exhibitions, Prof. Mary Jane Jacobs. The exhibit was co-curated by then, BFA seniors Lorén Ibach and Vi Viray Bautista. The curatorial concept was in response, as they stated “due to complex history of internal migration, external colonial and imperial power, the Filipino experience is convoluted, fragmented, and underrepresented.” As migrant Filipinx artists, the curators and their artist peers, they added that the Filipinx artists’ included works “dissected complexities inherent to their ethnicity to define something that constantly evolves through iconography, relationships to personal memory, and exploration of American imperialism, Filipino history, and traditions.” The featured artists were all SAIC alumni millenial Filipinx artists, namely, Cheryl Acuña, Vi Viray Bautista, Jerico Domingo, Tristan Espinoza, Anna Liza Evangelista, Lorén Ibach, Kyrstin Rodriguez, Craig Stamatelaky, and Tewosret Vaughn who paid homage to their motherland, across the ocean, the Philippines.
For three consecutive years, the East TN/SW VA Phil-Am Association and ETSU Phil-Am Student Society provided traditional and fusion Filipino cuisine, and wore Filipiniana attire. They also performed the traditional ‘Tinikling’ dance on bamboo during the public receptions. The Diverse & Beautiful: Asianix TN is part of the collaborations with the ETSU Department of Art &Design’s Slocumb Galleries with the FilAm organizations, and American Museum of Philippine Art (AMPA), in partnership with the Language & Culture Resource Center’s (LCRC), and funded by the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Arts Build Communities (ABC) Grant, the ETSU Student Activities Allocation Committee (SAAC) and the East Tennessee Foundation’s Art Fund. About the Curator: Karlota I. Contreras-Koterbay is an Appalachian-based Filipinx artist, curator and arts administrator. She is the gallery director and curator for the Slocumb Galleries at ETSU and its satellite venue Tipton Gallery in Downtown Johnson City. She has organized numerous exhibits both nationally and abroad, juried regional exhibitions and has lectured in the Philippines, Japan and the United States. ContrerasKoterbay graduated with honors from the University of the Philippines with a B.A. in Anthropology and an M.A. in Art History. She is a member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), American Association of Museums & Galleries (AAMG), Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC), Tennessee Art Museums, Tennesseans for the Arts and the International Association of Aesthetics (IAA). She is a panelist and grants recipient for the Tennessee Arts Commission, as well as grantee of the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy. Contreras-Koterbay received the ETSU Distinguished Staff Award in 2013 and the Jan Phillips Mentoring Award in 2015. She is founding Board Director and VP for Curatorial Programming for the establishment of the American Museum of Philippine Art (AMPA), an initiative to build an arts center celebrating Filipino American culture.
The American Museum of Philippine Art (AMPA) is an initiative to organize efforts to develop and construct an arts center devoted to the promotion, appreciation, and patronage of Philippine Art in the United States of America and around the world. By ‘Philippine Art,’ we lens the experiences, historical memory, and aesthetics of Filipinos from throughout the world, especially for those who have lived in the United States. ‘Art’ encompasses not only the visual arts, but includes other forms such as performance, culinary, literary cinema, design, fashion, literature, and traditional cultural practices, among others. it is envisioned to be museological institution that will address the visibility of the Filipinos’ cultural presence in the US. Mission: AMPA shall develop a curatorial program that features works of artists of Filipino descent; those who have migrated to the United States and to other countries; and artists who are or were based in the Philippines. These works shall then be exhibited, presented on concerts, performances, literary readings, and exposed to various audiences in the United States for the purpose of promoting their aesthetic, historical, social, and economic value in the United States, as well as their contribution to the enrichment of American art and culture. Objectives: • Develop greater love and understanding for Philippine Art among American and global audiences, both in the United States and in other countries; • Promote Philippine Art in the United States as a means of enriching the multicultural and artistic identity of Americans; • Organize programs, exhibitions, concerts, performances, joint activities, promotional strategies, and other projects that will benefit Philippine Art and Culture in the United States; and • Provide a home and venue for Filipino-Americans who can rediscover and enhance their cultural identity.
(excerpt from the writings of the late founding AMPAFI Secretary General, Dr. Reuben Ramas CaĂąete)
The American Museum of Philippine Art Foundation, Inc. (AMPAFI) was established in July 2016 by individuals who share the same goals and interests—to promote greater understanding of Philippine art, to harness the creativity of Filipino artists in the Philippines and overseas, and to build a strong relationship with Filipino-American artists in the United States and other countries. There are more than three million Americans of Filipino descent living in the United States. Filipino-Americans are one of the fastest growing ethnic minorities in the US, second only to the Latino American population. Growing pockets of Filipino-American visual artists reside throughout the US, and have achieved renown as international artists, such as Manuel Ocampo and Paul Pfeiffer. There is a deep history of Filipino artists who have lived and worked in the United States. Among the most famous of these was Guillermo Tolentino, who lived in Washington DC and New York from 1918-1921, and Alfonso de Ossorio, who lived in New York from the late 1940s until his death in the 1980s. A number of well-known Filipino artists migrated and set up their studios in the US, including Manuel Rodriguez Sr., Nelfa Querubin, Rodolfo Samonte, Jeho Bitancor, and many others. Throughout this period, not a single art historical or art museological institution has been established to study, organize and curate the phenomena of Philippine art in the United States. The Filipino-American community has not been unified under a single cultural institution, and AMPAFI hopes to fill that need, especially as other ethnic groups in America can now point proudly to museums of their own, around which their communities have cohered. The contributions of Philippine art to American society should be documented and promoted to make Philippine art one of the engines of artistic growth in the United States. This will benefit not only Filipino artists in the Philippines, but also those in the United States, and those living in other countries. In this age of globalization, art is now considered a global commodity, exhibited and collected in various international venues, and Philippine art can and should play a more significant role in this enterprise. AMPAFI aims to put together under a single exhibition or curatorial program works of artists from the Philippines, of migrant artists from the Philippines who are now in the United States as well as in other countries and territories, and of American-born artists of Filipino descent. These works will then be exhibited to promote the aesthetic, historical, social, and economic value in the United States. AMPAFI has been incorporated according to the laws and statutes of the State of California, with offices at Los Angeles, California. AMPAFI is governed by a Board of Directors numbering no less than nine, the majority of whom are US citizens. Rafael R. Benitez, Filipino art benefactor, and founder of Erehwon Art Center in Quezon City, serves as AMPAFI Chairman of the Board.
Tipton Gallery
Reece Museum
www.alejandroacierto.com
Alejandro Acierto, Nashville, TN Alejandro T. Acierto’s work emerges from the breath, the voice, and the processes that enable them as ways to contemplate themes of belonging and affinity. In considering alternative forms of agency rooted in institutional critique, decolonizing methodologies, and queer of color positionings, this work is embedded with sonic affectations of the body that enable a vast deployment of material and conceptual actualizations. Primarily working from a conceptual space of audition, the hearing of these corporeal phenomena as well as materials that gesture to or enable such a hearing offer the ability to link the body to the ways it has been mediated via technology and other modes of representation. Working between two arms of research that highlight systems of mediation, this work looks to the historical foundations of the Archive as a colonial system of organization, difference, and Otherness as well as the techno/ethno-future that speculates new formulations of being that are ontologically deviant from normative constructions of historically marginalized bodies. In navigating how the body and its mediations are represented, signified, and articulated through history and how they might enable different futures, Acierto’s work begins to reveal the constructions of difference that have been built and codified into the network of social, political, and personal spaces we inhabit. Though his work draws on audible phenomena and theoretical concepts to activate these materials in different ways, the visible and material thus emerge as tools that are able to sustain what have been the ephemeral affects of belonging and affiliation towards a future of inclusion. Alejandro T. Acierto has exhibited at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Issue Project Room, MCA Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Salisbury University, SOMArts and presented performance works at Rapid Pulse, the Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival, Center for Performance Research, and Center for New Music and Technology. Noted for his “insatiable” performance by the New York Times, Acierto has performed extensively throughout the US and abroad and can be heard on Carrier, Albany, New Focus, Parlour Tapes+, and Avant Media Records and has issued a solo record on Prom Night Records. He is a 3Arts awardee and a recipient of the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis at the Darmstadt Festival for New Music with Ensemble Dal Niente with whom he is a founding member. He has held residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Banff Centre, High Concept Laboratories, Chicago Artists’ Coalition and was an FT/FN/FG Consortium Fellow and a Center Program Artist at the Hyde Park Art Center. He received his undergraduate degree from DePaul University, an MM from Manhattan School of Music, an MFA in New Media Arts from University Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and was Artistin-Residence for Critical Race Studies at Michigan State University for 2017-18. He is currently a Mellon Assistant Professor of Digital Art and New Media at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.
www.leticiabajuyo.com
Leticia Bajuyo, Corpus Christi, TX “In my artwork, I utilize recognizable and seemingly neutral commonplace objects that invite audiences to name, compare, and participate in theatrical re-arbitrations of value. Within this critique of capitalism, I consider how what is desired, manufactured, advertised, bought, and collected continually communicates social ideals, and what is or is not kept, maintained, or selected communicates collective and individual views on growth, aging, race, and class. My interest in perception and cultural capital began with my autobiography: growing up multi-racial (Filipino/ Chinese/French/Dutch) in a small town on the border of Illinois and Kentucky fostered in me a sense of partial displacement, which heightened my interest in perception and the arbitration of value. These considerations found focus in undergraduate courses such as Anthropology of Art, Philosophy of Democracy, Theology of the Environment, and the Irish Immigrant Experience. These early influences were foundational in my conceptual development and have helped to yield artworks made from stretched slinky toys, and rose-scented soap, and bath rugs that are combined with poetry about relativity. Through these artworks, I create moments of tension that make visible the thin lines of perception between desire and rejection. These comparisons of perception address a drive to create a version of nature and of society with which we are comfortable — one that appears sugarcoated and sweetly scented.”
Leticia R. Bajuyo received her M.F.A. in 2001 from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and her B.F.A. in 1998 from the University of Notre Dame. Prior to joining the faculty of Texas A&M Corpus Christi, she served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Sculpture at the University of Notre Dame and as a Professor of Art at Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana. Bajuyo is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Performance Network and Visual Arts Network (NPNVAN) based in New Orleans, Louisiana and a Mid-South Sculpture Alliance Board Member. Her sculptures and installations have been exhibited nationally and internationally, including museum acquisitions of Amplitude, suspended in the three-story atrium of the South Bend Museum of Art, Indiana, and Shipshape, at the From Waste to Art Museum in Baku, Azerbaijan. Recent solo exhibitions and sitespecific installations include Exurban in Houston, Texas; Edge Friction at K Space Contemporary in Corpus Christi, Texas; and Event Horizon at ATHICA in Athens, Georgia.
www.gigibio.com
Gigi Bio, New York, NY “I am inspired by the life rhythms & constant flow of everything around me. Everyday, I am surrounded by mass cultures, bustling streets, speeding traffic, old buildings being torn down & transformed into modern skyscrapers all juxtaposed in an energetic wave of souls. I observe subtle moments of beauty in transition, building layers of a fragmented reality evolving over time. My view of the world is a product of the past colliding with the present, a fractured moment in time breaking into the now. In search of balance between madness & calmness, I evolve harsh city streets & sharp edge buildings into industrial grace. I aim to expose the emotional side of human beings in the city streets, pushing the final image into abstraction & reconstructing a new utopia. My artwork is greatly inspired by the world, but hidden between the layers is a narrative of dynamic life.”
Gigi Bio was born in Oakland, California & currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is a renaissance woman, multidisciplinary artist & culture bearer with a great passion for art, design, architecture & photography. She received her BFA in Fashion from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, and AA in Fine Art from Florida State College in Jacksonville, Florida. Her artwork has been exhibited in Street or Studio - The History of Urban Photography at Tate Modern in London, UK; Click - The Changing Faces of Brooklyn at Brooklyn Museum in NYC; Frida Mania Women’s Day Festival 2014, Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, CA and I am The Dream My Ancestors Dreamed Would Free Them: A Conversation About Decolonization and Re-membering Ancestors through the Arts at Queens Museum. Her artwork was published in books Newbrow 50 Contemporary Artists, Street or Studio A Photobook, Click!, Slice Magazine, Hycide Magazine, LAKAS Zine & FIL/AM Artist Directory 2018 Edition. She was part of the original cast of Raised Pinay, a play based on the real life narratives of Filipino-American Women at the Philippine Consulate and NYU in New York, NY. Today, she continues to evolve into new mediums of creation & expanding into textiles, beadwork and weaving inspired by her indigenous Philippine roots.
Richard Brown, Johnson City, TN “I’m interested in most everything. Microscopic. Too big for a sheet of paper. Pigments. Black & white. Still. Or set in motion. Whether the medium is paint, pencil or pixels, I’m thorough and analytical. I keep things simplistic and enjoy solving design problems. My influences include surrealists Hieronymus Bosch and Salvador Dali, graffiti artists Sofles, Rasko and Augor and the 1970s and 1980s worldwide punk rock movement. With a comedic mindset, I employ these elements to produce bright and dark colors in my graphics, sculptures and paintings pushing themes of love, friendship and satire.”
Richard Brown holds a B.A. in graphic design from East Tennessee State University. After acquiring a B.S. in molecular biology and travelling extensively, he realized his passion has always been design. He creates 2D graphics and illustrations, stop motion video and murals. Brown is a millennial raised in a biracial household. His family are active members of the East TN / Southwest VA Philippine American Association.
www.kelvinburzon.com
Kelvin Burzon, Bloomingdale, IN Mea Culpa Prayer Cards 2016 “Mea Culpa branches from a larger body of work, titled Noli Me Tangere, which examines an internal conflict of homosexuality and Catholicism. The photographs address, but don’t aim to solve, the contentions between religion and homosexuality and the artist’s identity as a Queer FilipinoAmerican. Utilizing appropriated religious imagery and language the work, is recontextualized by the insertion of LGBTQ+ community members as Catholic deities. Mea Culpa scrutinizes the idea of the Catholic guilt. It employs the feelings of shame, embarrassment, disgrace, self-condemnation and sorrow. It represents guilt and fear’s possession over our thoughts and relationships with others.”
Kelvin Burzon is a Filipino-American artist whose work explores intersections of sexuality, race, gender and religion. His most recent work investigates religion’s role in culture and familial relationships and highlights religion’s traditions, imagery, theatricality, and psychological vestige. He graduated from Wabash College and received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Indiana University’s School of Art + Design. His work has been exhibited abroad and all over the country and is a part of several permanent collections including The Kinsey Institute and the Center for Photography at Woodstock. He’s presented his work at several conventions including the Society of Photographic Education’s regional and national conferences. Burzon continues to push his work with inspirations from the past, recontextualized narratives and imagery of religion, paired with the never-ending stimulation and inspiration from the LGBTQ+ community.
Marinel Isla Contreras, Manila, Ph ‘Freedom is indebted with great responsibility. Envisioned equality among nations and cultures in terms of identity, status, age and citizenship is an illusion. As a visual artist, I express these aspirations to uphold human dignity and perspective across gender and social status. Bagaylan, a gender-nuanced Babaylan, is a guru, spiritual adviser and herbalist among the preHispanic and Indigenous Peoples. They serve the community as spiritual guides and help cure physiological illness of the members. They see to it that the community is protected from harmful entities whether it is in physical or spiritual realms. Teenage Warrior is a young lesbian who protects and defends. She epitomizes an ideal individual whose courage and boldness radiate and emanate from within. Since childhood, visual arts is a part of my identity. As a young girl, I walked the railroad tracks going back and forth to a Catholic private school. These tracks are where the first medium of our sculptures are found, the ‘travieza,’ hardwood railroad ties. Exposure to what my parents do since I was a little girl inspired me. My father mentored us informally and having been exposed to it since his art studio was in our yard, I learned the skills and techniques while watching him teach community folks.” Marinel Isla Contreras is an educator with literature degree from the University of Santo Thomas, and graduate education certificate from the University of the Philippines Diliman. Her parents Rey Paz and Tala Isla, co-founders of the Daambakal Sculptors Collective, conduct urban and rural community workshops for folks who have no access to formal academic art training. She learned the basic woodworking skills by making wooden bowls and simple animal sculptures. After graduating from college, the Contreras Sculptures gallery was established and has since become one of the longest-running gallery rows in the country, Isla Contreras served as manager in 1994 until 1996 when she returned back to the university to get her graduate degree in Education. She came back in the arts in 2004 as Gallery Dircetor for Contreras Sculptures and has since organized community art workshops and exhibited in various regions. In 2005, she spearheaded the Contreras art community training in Quezon province, in a town called Banglos after the whole town was devastated by a heavy typhoon. It became a pilot program for the succeeding community art trainings and workshops that employed partnerships and grants to sustain the operation. The success of these programs was showcased on March 2015, with ‘Landas: Mula Tondo Hanggang Palawan,’ a culminating exhibition of twelve communities she helped train with the elder mentor Contreras. The exhibit was co-curated with former Art Associationof the Philippines President, and art critic, Prof. Reuben Ramas Cañete, also a founding Director of the American Museum of Philippine Art (AMPA).
http://filipinonline.blogspot.com/2008/09/filipino-animator-jess-espanola-wins.html
Jess Española, Los Angeles, CA Jesus “Jess” Española (born December 23) is a Filipino animator. He previously served as a character layout artist, animatic layout artist and assistant director on ‘The Simpsons’ and has worked as a character layout artist on ‘Futurama’ and ‘King of the Hill.’ Española was the first Filipino to win an Emmy, which he won for working on ‘Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind.’ At the time, he wasn’t an American citizen. Americans of Filipino descent had won Emmys in the past, but never a full Filipino. He graduated with a fine arts degree from the University of the Philippines, and was the first ever Filipino to receive an Emmy award. Although some long-time Filipino residents in Los Angeles are ambivalent on the distinction heaped on him, saying someone else — a Filipino-American engineer — set the milestone in the early ‘80s, a claim that remains unsubstantiated as of this writing. Meanwhile, Jess is riding on a crest of mainstream accolade, a feat that validates the common knowledge that Filipino animators are among the best in Hollywood. Española is also a founding member of the American Museum of Philippine Art (AMPA) intitiative. In recent years, Española has suffered hand injury from work, and has since been invited to return back to the Philippines to teach and mentor new and emerging animators. (excerpt from ‘Filipino Animator Wins an Emmy’ written by David Casuco) Multi-awarded animator Jess Espanola put the Philippines in view during the 60th annual Creative Arts Emmy Awards last week, bagging one Emmy trophy for his work as Assistant Director for the ‘The Simpsons’ ‘Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind,’ which was named ‘Outstanding Animated Program for less than one hour.’ Jess, who graduated with a fine arts degree from the University of the Philippines, is the first ever Filipino to receive an Emmy award. Meanwhile, Jess is riding on a crest of mainstream accolade, a feat that validates the common knowledge that Filipino animators are among the best in Hollywood. “That’s correct, a lot of Filipino artists are in the cutting edge of the animation industry. I guess I am lucky that I worked with ‘The Simpsons,’ said Jess. Actually, this is the second time that Jess got involved in an animation project that won an Emmy. He was also an assistant director for “Futurama,” an animated show that won the Emmy in 2002. “It was a surreal experience for me. The excitement was just so overwhelming at that moment.”
www.ginaosterloh.com
Gina Osterloh, Columbus, OH “For several years, my practice has focused on photographing the most minimal delineation of identity and space. In this investigation, the perception of space, both physical and psychological, begins with the body, a way of seeing that is based upon a person’s scale, outline, and pre-verbal patterns/responses. My interest in creating these set constructions, began with a frustration with portraiture’s innate ability to capture summarize, and fix its subjects. within portraiture I wanted to insert a body that was at first mis-recognized, that compressed and folded both itself and photographic space. With this said, each set construction, or room, is an extension of the body. Each construction is a stand-in or prop, for ways of seeing, a study of the most pared down elements of perception and with the body, identity – delineation and difference. With my A-I-R work of September 2011, I removed the body altogether and investigated the three most basic ways of mark making, of delineating space: dots, connecting the dots (line) and connecting the lines (web). The web shape was unexpected, but as soon as it was visible, made sense at a totalizing yet minimal way to define space, to locate identity.” Gina Osterloh’s photography, film, and performance based art work depict mark-making and her own body traversing, tracing, and puncturing photographic space in a quest to interrogate the boundaries of a body and expand notions of identity. Osterloh’s printed photographs depict large scale photo tableaux environments as well as drawing on photo backdrop paper, that expand our understanding of portraiture and what photography can be. Symbolic themes and formal elements such as the void, orifice, and the grid, in addition to a heightened awareness of color and repetitive pattern, appear throughout Osterloh’s oeuvre. She cites her experience of growing up mixed-race in Ohio as a set of formative experiences that led her to photography and larger questions of how a viewer perceives difference. Solo exhibitions include ZONES at Silverlens Gallery; Gina Osterloh at Higher Pictures; Slice, Strike, Make an X, Prick! at François Ghebaly Gallery; Group Dynamic at LA Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), and Anonymous Front at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Group exhibitions include Multiply, Identify, Her at the International Center of Photography in NY, Ours is a City of Writers at the Barnsdall LA Municipal Art Gallery; Energy Charge: Connecting to Ana Mendieta at ASU Museum, Demolition Women curated by Commonwealth & Council at Chapman University and Fragments of the Unknowable Whole Urban Arts Space OSU. Her work has been reviewed in The New Yorker, Art in America, The Brooklyn Rail, Contemporary Art Daily, Hyphen Magazine, Art Asia Pacific, Asian Art News, Art Papers, Artforum Critics Pick, Art Practical, and KCET Artbound Los Angeles. Awards include a Fulbright in the Philippines, a Woodstock Center of Photography residency, and a Create Cultivate Grant with the LA County Arts Commission and LACE. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at Ohio State University.
Alejandro Acierto: Performance, Public Lecture, Music & Art Mentorship
Reception & Exhibition visits
Demo by Jess EspaĂąola & Mentorships by Alejandro Acierto and Gina Osterloh
Dia de los Muertos @ Tipton Gallery
McKinney Center @ Jonesborough
Morristown Latinx Community
Department of Art & Design
Slocumb Galleries
The ETSU Department of Art & Design provides comprehensive training in the visual arts and art history. Students develop problem solving skills, a strong work ethic, and an ability to communicate verbally and visually through their time with us. Alumni from our program are thriving in various careers in the arts. The faculty includes internationally exhibited artists, published authors, and a Guggenheim fellow. Within the College of Arts & Sciences, it is affiliated with the Mary B. Martin School of the Arts at ETSU, which sponsors an eclectic calendar of visiting artists, curators, art historians, and exhibitions on the ETSU campus each semester.
The ETSU Slocumb Galleries and Tipton Gallery under the Department of Art & Design promote the understanding, production, and appreciation of visual arts in support of the academic experience and the cultural development of surrounding communities. Named after Prof. Elizabeth Slocumb, an art teacher at ETSU (then, East TN Normal School in 1911) and first Chair of the Department of Art & Design. The galleries’ mission is to develop creative excellence, foster interdisciplinary collaborations, promote inclusivity and encourage critical thinking by providing access and platform for innovative ideas and diverse exhibitions.
The facilities are comprehensive, with materials and spaces for Graphic Design, Fibers, Painting, Printmaking, Ceramics, Drawing, Jewelry & Metals, Sculpture, Analog and Digital Photography, and Extended Media. We have two exhibition spaces, the Slocumb Galleries and a satellite gallery in downtown Johnson City, Tipton Gallery, that host exhibitions by students, visiting artists, and faculty.
The year-long calendar features Visiting Artists’ Exhibitions and Lecture series, curated/juried exhibitions, and MFA / BFA / BA student exhibitions. The Tipton Gallery, initially served as student exhibition space, organizes monthly art activities in coordination with Downtown JC First Fridays and Festivals. The exhibitions, art educational programming and community enggagement activities promote formally/artistically diverse, cuturally/socially relevant and thought provoking images that encourage critical discourse. The annual Positive/Negative National Juried Art Exhibition feature emerging, and nationally renowned US contemporary artists who employ diverse media and innovative techniques that contribute to the evolving definition and trends in American art. Accomplished artists and renowned curators from prestigious institutions serve as Jurors, as it contributes to the academic and regional communities’ exposure and appreciation of current practices in contemporary art.
The Department of Art & Design is accredited by NASAD, The National Association of Schools of Art and Design and is a member of CAA, the College Art Association; SECAC, Southeastern College Art Conference; ISC, the International Sculpture Center, and is a consortium member of SACI, Studio Art Centers International, based in Florence, Italy. Annual study abroad opportunities are available to all ETSU students; the Ceramics program offers an annual workshop in Spannochia, Italy. Degrees offered: Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Studio Art Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) in Studio Art Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) in Graphic Design Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Art History Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Studio Art Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Studio Art with minor in Education* Minors in Studio Art and Art History
Programming are supported by ETSU Department of Art & Design, the Honors College and ETSU Office of the President, in partnership with various academic units and funding support from the Student Activities Allocation Committee (SAAC) Funds, Student Government Association (SGA) B.U.C. Funds, MBMSOTA, Friends of Slocumb Galleries, the Arts Fund from East TN Foundation and Tennessee Arts Commission.
etsu.edu/cas/art
etsu.edu/cas/art/galleries
Tennessee Arts Commission (TAC)
Arts Fund at East Tennessee Foundation
The Tennessee Arts Commission was created in 1967 by the Tennessee General Assembly with the special mandate to stimulate and encourage the presentation of the visual, literary, music and performing arts and to encourage public interest in the cultural heritage of Tennessee.
The Arts Fund for East Tennessee, a field-of-interest fund of East Tennessee Foundation (ETF), serves as a source of funds to support excellence in the arts, expand access to the arts, and connect artists with each other. We are proud to partner with ETSU to support a series of exhibits that celebrate Black, Asian, and Hispanic Appalachian diversity. EFT is a 501(c)(3) public charity and community foundation created by and for the people of East Tennessee, where many donors join together to make the region they love a better place, today and for future generations.
The mission of the Tennessee Arts Commission is to cultivate the arts for the benefit of all Tennesseans and their communities. Through a variety of investments, the Commission encourages excellence in artistic expression through the state’s artists, arts organizations and arts activities. That commitment has expanded through the years to increase access and opportunities for all citizens to participate in the arts. The Tennessee Arts Commission builds better communities by: - Investing in Tennessee’s nonprofit arts industry to enhance cultural life - Serving citizens, artists and arts and cultural organizations - Supporting arts education to increase student outcomes - Undertaking initiatives that address public needs through the arts Each year, the Commission helps fund the arts activities of more than 700 organizations and artists in Tennessee. Over the past five years, more than 6,450 grants totaling more than $30 million have been invested in communities across Tennessee. Of the $5.5 million granted by the Commission in FY2018, $5.4 million came from specialty license plate fees earmarked to benefit the arts. The Commission receives state appropriation and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Arts education is a major focus, both to support a complete and balanced education for Tennessee’s children and youth and to grow the arts audiences of the future. Arts education grants and programs enhance academic achievement and contribute to student growth and lifelong learning. tnartscommission.org/art-grants/
easttennesseefoundation.org
ETSU Student Activities Committee (SAAC)
Allocation
Student organizations and university departments which provide significant benefits to the entire student body are eligible to apply for funding to support student activities and services. h t t p s : / / w w w. e t s u . e d u / s t u d e n t s / c u r r e n t s t u d e n t s / studentactivityfunding.php
Arts Build Communities (ABC) Grant The Arts Build Communities (ABC) grant program from the Tennessee Arts Commission is designed to provide support for arts projects that broaden access to arts experiences, address communitty quality of life issues through the arts experiences, offer arts programs that are designed to help affect positive change in community social issues, develop arts programming that strengthens social networks through community engagement, and undertake cultural arst initiatives that enhance a community’s identity and/or economic development. The ABC Grant for Washington County is managed by the First Tennessee Development District. tnartscommission.org/art-grants/
McKinney Center in Jonesborough
Reece Museum
The McKinney Center is located in the historic Booker T. Washington School that was originally completed in 1939 as part of the WPA program and opened its doors in 1940 for the purpose of instructing African-American children, first grade through eighth grade. The school operated until integration in 1965 and then sat dormant until 2010 when the Town of Jonesborough decided to restore the building.
For more than 50 years the Reece Museum has told the many stories of Appalachia. Housing over 20,000 artifacts, the Reece collection captures the region’s past as well as its contemporary art and culture.
The McKinney Center also houses the Mary B. Martin Program for the Arts. The arts program is designed to inspire area residents through appreciation for and participation in the various forms of art and expression. The comprehensive arts program offers a variety of educational opportunities for learning such as drawing, painting, mosaics, theatre, dance, and music. With an excellent fine arts faculty, students receive world-class instruction. https://www.jonesboroughtn.org/index.php/component/ k2/147
Multicultural Center and Office of Multicultural Affairs The ETSU Multicultural Center positively affects lives by creating an environment that supports and sustains the affirmation, celebration, and understanding of human differences and similarities. The Office of Multicultural Affairs is responsible for creating and fostering a campus-wide climate of respect for each individual and advocating for a culturally diverse and non-discriminatory campus community. The Office of Multicultural Affairs embraces all students regardless of ethnicity, gender, color, religion, national origin, disability, or sexual orientation. Students receive many services through the office including counseling, academic advisement, numerous educational programs and social opportunities. etsu.edu/equity/multicultural
As one of the first museums in Tennessee to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Reece continues to meet AAM’s high standards of excellence. Currently, the Reece is one of only eighteen museums in Tennessee to receive this accreditation. https://www.etsu.edu/cas/cass/reece/about.php
Language & Culture Resource Center Our vision is to bridge boundaries between the native English-speaking communities in East Tennessee and the non-native English speaking communities, such as the Latinx community. Our mission is to increase the awareness and understanding of diversity by involving the university faculty and students in hands-on, communitybased learning experiences and to bring together people from every age and background to share cultural strengths and humanity through research and outreach programs as they work toward the acculturation of the local non-native speakers of English communities. The LCRC publishes El Nuevo Tennessean, a bilingual newspaper in Spanish and English, and provides a bilingual Resource Guide for Washington, Unicoi, Carter, and Greene counties. The LCRC also provides translation and interpretation services as well as English as a Second Language classes in the community. The LCRC sponsors an annual Hispanic Student Day at ETSU for high school Latinx heritage students for a oneday introduction to college life. The goal is to encourage all attendees to complete high school and teach them about the options available for them to pursue higher education. https://www.etsu.edu/cas/lcrc/about/mission.php
Kayumanggi Reception: October 5, First Friday, 6 to 8 p.m., Tipton Gallery October 3 to 26, 2018, Tipton Gallery & Reece Museum Guests of Honor: Commissioner Jenny Brock, Mayor of Johnson City Dr. Jeff Howard, ETSU Associate Vice President for Student Affairs & Dean of Students Performance & Lecture by Alejandro Acierto October 3, 2018, School of Continuing Studies, Tipton Gallery Music & Art Students’ Mentorship, October 3, Mathes Hall and Ball Hall Demo by Emmy awardee animator for The Simpsons Jess Española October 5, Digital Media Center, ETSU Students’ Art Critique & Mentorship by Gina Osterloh October 11, Ball Hall, ETSU Language & Culture Resource Center’s Dia de los Muertos Ofrenda In Memoriam of Dr. Ardis Nelson by Chicanix artist Rosalie Lopez October 26, 2018, Tipton Gallery Papel Picado Wokshop by Rosalie Lopez October 27, McCinney Center for the Arts, Jonesborough, TN Dia de los Muertos Community Engagement during Fiesta de San Hudas Thaddeus October 27, Morristown, Tennessee ID+Entities: Filipinx Curated by Shai Perry October 7 to December 5, 2019, KCKCC Gallery Reception & Panel: October 10, 2019
Special Appreciation and Gratitude to: Maraming Salamat po to our Kayumanggi Filipinx Artists, ETSU Department of Art & Design Faculty & Staff under the leadership of our Chair, Prof. Mira Gerard, our Guests of Honor Dr. Jeff Howard and Mayor Jenny Brock, the Tipton Gallery benefactors Arch. Jeremy Ross, Ms. Tisha Harrison, URA, and ETSU President Dr. Brian Noland, our diversity initiative co-curators Ms. Karen Sullivan and Dr. Felipe Fiuza, with the Multicultural Center’s Ms. Carshonda Harris, Dr. Sonja Jackson, Tedra Bennett, Nate Tadesse and Ms. Laura Terry, grant benefactors Mr. Mark Stevans at the First Tennessee Development District, East Tennessee Foundation’s Vice President Jan Elston and Ms. Ellen Markman, TAC Grant Directors Shannon Ford, Krishna Adams, Kim Johnson, and Hal Partlow, with Diane Williams and Executive Director Anne Pope, ETSU grant support Ms. Pamela Ritter, Dr. Jane Jones, Dr. William Duncan, Leisa Wisemann, Cynthia Hardin, Lori Dunn, Lynn Myers, Honors College’s Dr. Judy Slagle, our ETSU Diverse & Beautiful faculty partners Dr. Jill LeRoy-Frazier, Prof. Marty Fitzgerald, Prof. Greg Marlow, Dr. Bill Duncan, and Dr. Lisa Perry, Art & Design’s Gallery Committee members Prof. Tema Stauffer, Prof. Christian Rieben and Prof. Vanessa Mayoraz, Reece Museum’s Director Randy Sanders and Exhibit Coordinator Spenser Brenner, Student Activities Allocation Committee (SAAC) members, Slocumb Galleries Student Society & SG Curatorial Interns/Fellows’ Amber Howard, Kathryn Alexis Jennings, Raven Cordy, Cheyenne Good, Ashley Gregg, Kayla Addison, Alice Salyer, Amanda Killheny, Kristoper Delorme, Lauren Barlow, Jacquez Johnson, Hoyt Cowell, Chasity Watson, and Lyn Govette, Art & Design Staff Amber Farley, Kevin Reaves and Katie Sheffield, ETSU Identity’s Jennifer Clements, Jen Barber, Lorraine Vestal, Paula Sluder and Biomed’s Fred Conley, Accounts Payable, Postal Services, University Relations’ Joe Smith and Jennifer Hill, McKinney Center’s Theresa Hammons, Rosalie Lopez, and HASCA with Latinx Morristown Community, the East TN-SW VA Philippine-American community represented by President Ron Clark and First Lady Dr. Vivian Clark, Ninang Mally Cruz, Ninang Cecille O’Hare, Lita Brown, Dina Gonzalez Skaggs, Lani Reed, Aurora Hensley, Cristy & Lawrence Mitra, Phil-Am officers & members with Dr. Ruth Facun-Granadozo and chef Edwel Granadozo, AMPAFI Chairman Raffy Benitez, President Bobby Halili, VPs Art Zamora, Rafael Maniago, Dennis Martinez, Rose Muñoz, Ninette Tenza-Umali, Sal Floriano, Ric Almonte, Dr. Joey Regullano, Prof. Butch & June Dalisay, Lino Caringal Jr., Daniel Bassig, Diana Onate & AMPA committee members, my inspirations, Rey, Tala & Manel Isla-Contreras, the Koterbay family, and my beloved Scott and Anton, lastly, we dedicate the Filipinx exhibition series to AMPA Founding Director Dr. Reuben Ramas Cañete+.
DIVERSE & BEAUTIFUL COLLABORATIVE ASIANX TENNESSEE ETSU Tipton & Slocumb Galleries, Department of Art & Design, East Tennessee Foundation’s (ETF) Arts Fund, ETSU Student Activities Allocation Committee (SAAC), Tennessee Arts Commission’s Arts Build Communities (ABC) Grant, Language & Culture Resource Center (LCRC), the Reece Museum, Digital Media Program, Music Department, ETSU Multicultural Center, Office of Multicultural Affairs, School of Continuing Studies & Academic Outreach, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Slocumb Galleries Student Society, Hispanic American Student Community Alliance (HASCA), Jonesborough’s McKinney Center, Morristown Latino Community, Kansas City Kansas Community College (KCKCC) Gallery NE TN & SW VA Philippine American Association, and American Museum of Phillipine Art (AMPA)