PRESENTED BY INTERNATIONAL PRINT CENTER NEW YORK
PRESENTED BY INTERNATIONAL PRINT CENTER NEW YORK
ONLINE EXHIBITIONS
INTERNATIONAL PRINT CENTER NEW YORK
"LIVING IN AMERICA"
An Exhibition in Four Acts
ENSEMBLE:
Mildred Beltré, Vanessa German, Mark Thomas Gibson,
Elektra KB, Yashua Klos, Narsiso Martinez, Azikiwe Mohammed, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Africanus Okokon, Karen J. Revis, Swoon, William Villalongo, and Dáreece J. Walker
CURATOR:
Assembly Room, a curatorial platform founded in 2018 by curators Natasha Becker, Paola Gallio, and Yulia Topchiy to empower female-identifying curators living and working in New York City, and beyond.
PRESENTED BY INTERNATIONAL PRINT CENTER NEW YORK
Living in America: An Exhibition in Four Acts is also presented in-person at IPCNY's exhibition space in Chelsea, New York.
VIEW
"ACT II: LOVE"
ONLINE PROGRAM
Mildred Beltré, Azikiwe Mohammed, and Dáreece J. Walker in conversation with Assembly Room
10/20, 7pm on Zoom
"PROLOGUE"
ASSEMBLY ROOM:
Baldwin’s popularity today is understandable: it really does seem like he was writing in 2020 rather than more than 50 years ago. We are living in one of the most profound times in America: a global health pandemic, the deaths of hundreds of thousands, massive social isolation and unemployment this year collided with the brutal and senseless murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, sparking impassioned protests for the protection of Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQAI+ Americans and Americans of color.
“...for this is your home, my friend. Do not be driven from it. Great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become.”
"ACT I: OUTRAGE"
ASSEMBLY ROOM:
Racism is still alive and well in America; people have been excluded by a system that is violent. We could so easily succumb to anger, pain, and despair but Baldwin, who burned with rage in his day, showed us what it means to use our imagination to see our own experiences and this country in a different light. Today, artists are leading the way.
Karen J. Revis
Power (Green), Power (Halo), Power (Indigo Stripe), and Power (Pink), 2017. Paper lithograph monoprints. 20 × 14 ¾ inches each.
Courtesy and © the artist.
These works are available. Inquire.
REVISionary Prints by Karen J. Revis is a series the artist started as a conversation about her own experience growing up in a Black community and existing in the current political climate. Revis asks whether America was ever greater than now, using references to the history of African Americans and women in her work. “For African Americans and women there’s never been a better time than right now, even though we still have so far to go. I am a Black woman born in the 1960s experiencing a new found joy and pride seeing myself, my family, and my community increasingly present in pop culture in a well-rounded, truthful way. Through my work, I am celebrating and telling the story of my childhood, my heroes, and the leaders of my community who fought so hard to make this growth possible. I am using existing images in the media as raw material to make work that tells my story,” says Revis.
Karen J. Revis
Bulletproof, 2020. Paper lithograph monoprint. 22 × 30 inches.
Small Riot, 2020. Paper lithograph monoprint mounted on paper. 22 × 18 inches.
Don’t Shoot, 2020. Linocut monoprint. 18 × 24 inches.
Courtesy and © the artist.
These works are available. Inquire.
Elektra KB
Protest sign VII (Counterproductive), 2020. Mixed media textiles and beads. 32 × 64 inches.
Protest Sign VI (You are not alone), 2020. Mixed media textiles. 62 × 69 inches.
Courtesy and © the artist.
These works are available. Inquire.
Elektra KB's works on fabric respond to the global COVID-19 pandemic and are an extension of her Protest Signs, a series of situational objects or props re-contextualized to function in between political theory, art, and activism. In this work the artist pays homage to the prisoners affected by COVID-19 and left behind by governments and healthcare systems worldwide. "You are not alone" is a protest chant sung at demonstrations taking place outside of jails, prisons, and detention facilities in solidarity with the incarcerated every New Year's Eve around the world. Counterproductive resonates with the many reactions of capitalist societies during this global pandemic: the work comments on how the excesses of productivity can turn counterproductive. The figure standing at the center of the composition is a protector from the Theocratic Republic of Gaia, Elektra KB's mythical land of freedom.
Mark Thomas Gibson
Turn it Over, 2020. Ink on canvas. 66 × 89 inches.
Courtesy and © the artist
March On!, 2019. Sugar-lift etching, drypoint, and lithograph. 17 × 21 ½ inches. Edition: 10. Printed and published by Flying Horse Editions, University of Central Florida, Orlando.
Courtesy the artist. © Flying Horse Editions.
March On! is available. Inquire.
Mark Thomas Gibson’s work is in dialogue with social and political themes. Rooted in drawing, his graphic style migrates between painting and printmaking. Gibson deploys the power of metaphor to create artwork that feels like a single frame but is part of a larger story. One such vignette is March On! It combines lithography, etching, and drypoint and connects a larger history of Black protest with the urgency of current ongoing protests. In Turn it Over Gibson employs the symbolism of an hourglass and an American flag to comment on our political moment, suggesting that the time to create real change is now.