LUCKY TO BE HERE JUNE 15TH - AUGUST 18TH Dionis Ortiz Erica Bailey Leonardo Madriz Lizzy Alejandro Patrick Perry Sarah Ellen Rowe Vanezza Cruz Yeon Ji Yoo Curated by Rachel Sydlowski
CURATOR STATEMENT Archetypes of home are presented as otherworldly, nostalgic, and uncanny in this exhibition that considers the visual philology of architecture, furniture forms, family, shelter, mapping, and immigration. Artists examine the complexities of home, as explicit spaces and psychological or spiritual states. The title of this exhibition, Lucky to be Here, is borrowed from Leonardo Madriz’s video installation and the complex myths and notions of success in America. This collection of artists examines the broader question of ‘how are we here?’ How did we come to occupy this very space and time and how do we navigate the discursive set of circumstances that allow for our varied experiences to intersect on the most cosmic and banal level? Each artist explores branches of knowledge that deal with the
structure, historical development, and relationships of a visual language associated with our very existence and continuation. Elemental signifiers link one artist to the next, Bronx-based artist Lizzy Alejandro’s altered photography addresses fraught relationships of family and transgenerational trauma. The artist uses mixed media and her own body as subject matter, literally tearing through the photographic substrate and rebuilding the imagery to explore the complexities of her family history. Vanezza Cruz’s series of collages revise and reclaim power and agency over eurocentric aesthetic standards of beauty. These collages reference memories of routine salon visits with her mother. Freeing women from the open-access collection and vintage printed catalogs from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sarah Rowe’s video constructs an invented home and sacred spaces that are feminist in nature. In the animations, women practice metaphysical, sacred, and esoteric magic. She rewrites the outcomes of Judeo-Christian practices where women have agency and access to be spiritual and intellectual leaders. In his largescale installations, Dionis Ortiz recreates versions of his childhood apartment in Harlem. Through the warm familiarity of furniture forms, vinyl flooring, and homely elements his installation pays homage to family. The intricate tesselation of the vinyl floor related to the ritualistic act of replacing the tiles with his father. The fleeting nature of home, one that is carried within, is addressed by artists in entirely different materials and methods. Patrick Perry revisits the Canadian wilderness of his childhood through the transformation of metal into body sculpture. This resulting talisman is etched with maps of
Nova Scotia and The Bronx uniting both places together. In the performative act of using the device to measure the distance of land, the artist documents the process through photographs taken in The Bronx waterways, resembling the rural landscape of his childhood. A line from the poem Splendor in the Grass by William Wordsworth is etched into the metal that is worn against the body, while pearls are employed metaphorically, linking the coastlines and waterways of the North Atlantic. In his video and installations, Leonardo Madriz retraces his family history from Nicaragua to Louisiana. He grapples with the political landscape, family, and delivers a myriad of philosophical and relational experiences through an impactful and abstractly truthful medium. Architecture as an extension of memory is present in Yeon Ji Yoo’s sculptures. The ethereal qualities of the physical elements contrast with the enduring nature of memories. The artist addresses family history, myth, and dream states through cozy architectural vernacular and detritus. Erica Baily’s installation engages with concepts of shelter and the shared elemental existence of prehistory and futuristic dwellings. The collective consciousness of humanity is examined linking the cosmos against the smallness and earthliness of our shared existence on this planet. The articulation of home manifests itself in contrastive materials and processes; sculpture, video, photography, installation, printmaking, and collage. Artists in this exhibition are both Bronx insiders and outsiders, each with a different relationship to the city; a new or temporary home, place of origin, or an unexplored land. The varied approaches and experiences prove that home is never a stasis, but a fleeting ideal, one that exists in the cosmos, memories, or in the complexities of remaking an elemental yet inimitable feeling.
CURATOR BIO Based in New York City, Rachel Sydlowski is a visual artist and educator. Recent exhibitions include Facebook Open Arts, Wassaic Project, Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, Chashama Space to Connect: Fordham Windows Project, Wave Hill Sunroom Project Space, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York Public Library, and Lehman College Art Gallery. Curatorial projects include Intersecting Editions at The Castle Gallery, History of the Present at OSilas Gallery and Infinite Archive, NYPL at the 115th Street Harry Belafonte Library.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS Opening Reception Tuesday, June 15th, 2021 | 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM A virtual opening reception and conversation with curator Rachel Sydlowski and featured artists. Public Program - Visual Journaling: Archetypes of Home Wednesday, June 30th, 2021 | 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM An online workshop presented by artist Sarah Ellen Rowe where participants are invited to investigate how they experience the idea of home. Exhibition Closing Wednesday, August 18th, 2021 Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos 450 Grand Concourse at 149th St., Room C-190 Bronx, New York 10451 (718) 518-6728 longwood@bronxarts.org The Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos is currently closed to the public until further notice due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Longwood Arts Project The Longwood Arts Project is the contemporary visual arts program of the Bronx Council on the Arts, with the mission to support artists and their work, especially emerging artists from underrepresented groups, such as people of color, the LGBT* community, and women. The Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos presents solo and group exhibitions of works of art produced in various media, through interdisciplinary practices that connect emerging artists, communities, and ideas within and beyond The Bronx.
The Bronx Council on the Arts Founded by visionary community leaders in 1962, The Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA) is a pioneer in advancing cultural equity in The Bronx. From our early beginnings as a presenter of affordable arts programming in select Bronx neighborhoods, we have grown into a cultural hub that serves the entire creative ecosystem of the borough. Our programs serve artists, the public, and the field at large by building connections, providing resources, and advocating for equitable practices. Then as now, we focus on supporting the work of underrepresented groups – especially artists of color, women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Through this lens we offer affordable programs for seniors and youth, and provide direct services to over 1,500 artists and 250 community-based arts groups each year. www.bronxarts.org The Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture An integral part of Hostos Community College/CUNY since 1982, the Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture, which includes two state-of-the-art theaters of 900 and 360 seats each, a black box experimental theater, and a museum-grade art gallery, is a resource for students and faculty in addition to serving the cultural needs of South Bronx residents and neighboring communities. Recognized nationally as a leader in Latin and African-based programming, the Hostos Center creates performing and visual arts forums in which the diverse cultural heritages of its audiences are celebrated and cultivated. In meeting that objective, the Center is dedicated to the development of emerging artists and the creation of new work. www.hostoscenter.org
LONGWOOD ART GALLERY @ HOSTOS YOUTH ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM Longwood’s Youth Engagement Program, launched in 2018, is designed to engage Bronx youth with the rich visual arts scene that surrounds them. By providing gallery experiences they can relate to – and interactions with artists who reside in the same neighborhoods, share similar cultural identities, and even nations of origin – young people gain formative experiences of cultural engagement that last a lifetime. Activities are free, age-appropriate, and created by professional teaching artists to foster critical thinking, interviewing and public speaking skills. If your organization, school, or group works with youth and would like to discuss scheduling a workshop or to arrange a visit, connect with us ! Contact longwood@bronxarts.org to schedule a workshop for your group. Workshops are best suited for participants ages 14-25. Online workshops are coming soon!
Illustration by Ruben Ramirez
DIONIS ORTIZ Dionis Ortiz is an interdisciplinary artist, community art producer and Educator born and raised in Harlem. In 2020, he was Artist in Residence at Children’s Museum of Manhattan. In 2019 he received the Rema Hort Artist Community Engagement Grant and the President’s Award from Hunter College. He earned his MFA at Hunter College in 2018, participated in The Laundromat Project’s, Create Change Fellowship program and was the Artist in Residence at Materials for The Arts. In 2001 graduated with a B.F.A from Purchase College. In 2013, he participated in The Bronx Museum of the Arts, AIM program.
ERICA BAILEY Erica Bailey is a Bronx-based installation and video artist. Originally from a smalltown, working-class family in Ohio, she moved to New York in 2012 after accepting a position with The City College of New York managing the sculpture facilities. Exhibitions include: In the Space of a Breath, Roswell Museum and Art Center, NM; So Close, Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space, Manhattan; Its memory, the memory of its ribs, its knees, its shoulders, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn; and Bronx Calling: The Third AIM Biennial, Bronx Museum of the Arts. Participation in residencies include: Roswell Artist in Residence Program, BronxArtSpace Summer Residency, and the LES Studio Program, a program of Artists Alliance, Inc.
LEONARDO MADRIZ Leo Madriz (b.1987, Lafayette, LA) is an interdisciplinary artist and musician based in Brooklyn, New York. He holds an MFA from CUNY Hunter College (NY, 2021) and a BFA from Louisiana State University (2010). Recent group shows in New York include Heaven, 205 Hudson Street Gallery (2021); Orphans of Painting II, Ethan Cohen KuBe (2019); and Waiting for the Garden of Eden, White Box (2019).
LIZZY ALEJANDRO Lizzy Alejandro is a visual artist from the Bronx. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Digital Media from Lehman College in 2019. Her work explores themes of identity and challenges notions of the status quo. Alejandro’s work has been exhibited at Fordham University, Taller Boricua Gallery, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx Art Space, Andrew Freedman Home, Lincoln Hospital, the Galleries at Krasdale Foods, the Bronx Latin American Art Biennial, and most recently at Empty Set Gallery. She has been included in publications such as The Bronx Artist Documentary Project and in the Nueva Luz Photographic Journal 2016, Volume 20, “Living Latina: The Bronx Women’s Photo Collective.” Lizzy Alejandro is a member of the BX200.
PATRICK PERRY Multi-disciplinary artist Patrick Perry endeavors to connect the spaces between dichotomies; beautiful/ugly; ordinary/ extraordinary; art/craft. Creating artworks and installations, his art pivots between the subtlety of the interstice. He received a Diploma in Fine Craft in the Jewelry/Metal Arts Studio at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design in 1997 and was a Sculpture/Installation major at the Ontario College of Art in 1998. In 1999 he received his Bachelor of Fine Art from The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and a Bachelor of Education from the University of New Brunswick in 2000. In 2006 he graduated from Maine College of Art with a Master in Fine Arts and in 2019 he completed a Master of Arts in Photography at Lehman College. He has worked as an Exhibition Designer, Exhibition Coordinator, and Art College Instructor. Currently he teaches Jewelry, Sculpture, 3D Design and Darkroom Photography at Eastchester High School in Westchester, New York. He recently mounted a solo show at Empty Set in the Bronx and has participated in numerous other solo and group exhibitions in Canada and the United States. He currently lives in the Bronx, New York.
SARAH ELLEN ROWE Born in Hartford, CT, Sarah Ellen Rowe is an artist based in New York City. Recent exhibitions include Wassaic Project, Empty Set Project Space, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, and the New York Public Library. Rowe is a member of the collective,Infinite Archive and has participated in The Bronx Museum of Art’s AIM Fellowship, The Art & Law Program, and was a Create Change Fellow with The Laundromat Project. Curatorial projects include Intersecting Editions at The Castle Gallery, History of the Present at OSilas Gallery and Third Nature at Empty Set Project Space. Rowe holds an MFA from Lehman College, 2013 and a BA from the College of the Holy Cross, 1998.
VANEZZA CRUZ Born and raised in The Bronx to Dominican parents, Vanezza’s upbringing was always rich in color, pattern and imagination. A mixed media artist, graphic designer and with an early education in fine arts and music, she graduated Cum Laude from FIT with a BFA in Graphic Design. After working as a graphic designer in the fashion industry, she pursued her MFA in Printmaking at Lehman College. Working as an Art Education Administrator, a freelancer and a muralist, she continues to explore her passions of drawing, binding books, taking pictures, creating collages, and other creative odds and ends. Her work explores ideas of body image and beauty, cultural identity and representations of women. Vanezza’s preferred methods of work range from printmaking, painting, illustration, collages and graphic design.
YEON JI YOO Born 1978. American. A native of South Korea, Yeon Ji Yoo immigrated to the United States with her family in 1982, most of her knowledge of her mother country and the rural farmland she was born on are locked in memories from her childhood. As a result, her work today is indelibly marked by her remembrances and the childlike awe which shaped them. Living most of her life thereafter in New York City, Yoo maintained her connections to her early upbringing, finding parallels to those strong ties in new ones she would develop through her formative years. With imagery grounded in the visions from her youth, Yoo would develop a body of work tied together, by the delicate (yet dependable) and robust (yet fickle) bonds that make and break us at our cores. After earning her B.F.A. at the Cooper Union, Yoo became an arts educator. In 2005, Yoo earned her M.F.A. in New Forms at the Pratt Institute. She augmented her knowledge base by earning her M.S. in Environmental Science at the College of Staten Island in 2007 and continues her personal and artistic pursuit of growth, overgrowth, death, and life. Yoo currently resides and works in Brooklyn.
LUCKY TO BE HERE
All works courtesy of the artists unless otherwise noted.
Lizzy Alejandro, Rooted. 2021. Photo transfer on digital print, craft paper, collage. 11x14 in.
Lizzy Alejandro, The weight they passed on to me. 2021. Photo transfer on digital print, craft paper, collage. 13x15 in.
Erica Bailey, Outstare the Stars. 2019. Extruded polystyrene, joint compound, styrene plastic, cast plastic, glass, paint, paper, wire, wood, coffee grounds, cellophane, LED lights, video on monitors. Dimensions variable.
Vanezza Cruz, Epitafios psicológico de autorretrato/edición #1. 2021. Handmade collage sourced from various printed materials on painted railroad paper. 11x18 in.
Vanezza Cruz, Vanidades:Epitafios psicológico de autorretrato/edición #5. 2021. Handmade collage sourced from various printed materials and metallic doilies on painted railroad paper. 9.5x14 in.
Vanezza Cruz, Vanidades:Epitafios psicológico de autorretrato/edición #9. 2021. Handmade collage sourced from various printed materials, adhesive vinyl and paper doilies on painted railroad paper. 13x10 in.
Vanezza Cruz, Vanidades:Epitafios psicológico de autorretrato/edición #10. 2021. Handmade collage sourced from various printed materials, paper doilies and acrylic marker on painted railroad paper. 9.5x11.5 in.
Leonardo Madriz, Portals (video). 2019. Wood, window blinds, CRTV, couch, false wall, single channel projection, 2-channel video and projection with audio. 06:25
Dionis Ortiz, Rupture. 2017. Painting, drawing, monotypes, sculpture and video. 10x7x10ft.
Patrick Perry, Splendor in the Grass. 2021. Copper, pearls. 6.5x1x0.25 in.
Sarah Rowe, Women’s Order of Alchemy and Mysticism (still from video). 2020. single-channel digital video, color, sound. 05:23
Yeon Ji Yoo, Dry Cleaning Blues. 2020. Cardboard, wire, photocopy, wood, gesso, glue, ink, dirt, linoleum print. 13.5x3x3 in.
Yeon Ji Yoo, Ghosts Live Here. 2018. Cardboard, Plastic toy, dried plants, wood, gesso, ink, glue, dirt, moss, photocopies. 27x13x9 in.
Yeon Ji Yoo, Maryland Funeral. 2020. Cardboard, dried plants, gesso, glue, ink, linoleum print, photocopy, wire, dirt. 11.5x3x2 in.
Yeon Ji Yoo, Saturday Morning Cartoons in 1986. 2018. cardboard, chicken wire, wood, plastic plants, toy, gesso, ink, glue, dirt. 26x16x2.5 in.
Yeon Ji Yoo, The Blind Uncle Dreams. 2020. Cardboard, wire, gesso, glue, ink, linoleum print, photocopy, dirt. 14x5x2.5 in.
Yeon Ji Yoo, The Blind Uncle. 2020. Cardboard, wire, gesso, glue, ink, wire, linoleum print. 8.5x3x2 in.
The Bronx Council on the Arts is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Arts Midwest and the National Endowment for the Arts; The Coalition of Theaters of Color and City Council members Andrew Cohen and Vanessa Gibson. Also supported in part by the Booth Ferris Foundation, Ovation, the New Yankee Stadium Community Benefits Fund, Con Edison, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the Hispanic Federation, the City of New York, and the Department of Youth and Community Development. Special thanks to Hostos Community College and the Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture for their support. Bronx Council on the Arts 2700 E Tremont Ave Bronx, New York 10461 www. bronxarts.org @BronxArtsOrg
Cover Image Credit: Erica Bailey, Outstare the Stars. 2019. Extruded polystyrene, joint compound, styrene plastic, cast plastic, glass, paint, paper, wire, wood, coffee grounds, cellophane, LED lights, video on monitors. Dimensions variable.