A CONVERSATION WITH MICHELLE ANGELA ORTIZ AND JOSÉ ORTIZ-PAGÁN
On March 15, 2022, jurors Michelle Angela Ortiz and José Ortiz-Pagán spoke with Woodmere Associate Curator Rachel Hruszkewycz and Director and CEO William Valerio about their selections for the Woodmere Annual: 80th Juried Exhibition. The jurors asked artists to submit works that reflect the theme of migration. WILLIAM VALERIO: Thank you, Michelle and José,
opportunities or lack thereof, we’re forced to move.
for organizing Woodmere’s 80th Juried Exhibition.
We’re forced to migrate.
It’s a great show that’s incredibly timely. Our hearts are breaking as we see the horrors unfolding in Ukraine, creating another wave of global-scale migration. It prompts us to question our values. The show you’ve organized for us is full of artists who are expressing the values they believe are needed to govern shared society on this planet. What’s happening in the show?
The selections in our exhibition address the Great Migration, the African American experience, modes of migration, the ways people seek refuge and safety, the search for a better opportunity, and even just reconnecting with a family that is here and there. There are artists who acknowledge their own ancestry and where they come from, which, I think, challenges the concept of what it means to
MICHELLE ANGELA ORTIZ: What is happening in
be American. I’m first-generation born in the United
Ukraine is a mirror of our own country’s treatment
States. My experience of being an American will be
of immigrants and people of color in particular
very different from my son’s experience.
since the founding of this nation. When we look at Ukraine and we see a child crossing borders to arrive in a safe place, we should also see Mexican, Central American, and Haitian children that have been doing the same for years. I think that the groups of people we decide to pay attention to tell how the press and the media present their stories.
JOSÉ ORTIZ-PAGÁN: I thought about what
migration means in political terms. What does being displaced mean in a world that just keeps growing and becoming more attached to Western society, to Western culture? About the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the same time, you look around and everyone is trying to do the same thing—imposing
The theme of migration is very present now
these ideas, imposing these cultures into other
because of what the news media is showing us
communities that have been developing themselves.
about Ukraine, but migration has been occurring in the United States for a long time. I thought about migration in a broader sense, not just about grandparents who migrated here from one country, but how, because of status, because of economic 4
WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
Michelle and I wanted to see migration from a very humane point of view. Even though there’s a lot of pain and violence, we wanted to give people the opportunity to look at it from another perspective
