| Artists: Blanka Amezkua, Ricardo Cabret, Ana de la Cueva, Demian DinéYazhi´, Ginger Dunnill, Iván Gaete, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Dylan McLaughlin, Glendalys Medina, Ronny Quevedo, Mary A. Valverde, and Marela Zacarias. Smack Mellon is pleased to present I come to this place, a group exhibition that explores abstraction in art as a chain of histories that align, unpack, communicate, and translate connections. Twelve artists present their sensibilities through installations, multi-media work, paintings, and sound. Inherently, each artist nods at the Indigenous knowledge that is explored with an acute sense of line, rhythm, and place. Each work conscientiously considers foundational materials that uphold values of storytelling, nature, and spirituality. In this exhibition, the gallery becomes a portal as each work presents an awareness of identity and displacement, synthesized with historical narratives, socio-politics, and environmental circumstances. As such the title of the exhibition is an introduction. It is a phrase that artist Cannupa Hanska Luger employs as a greeting, as a statement, and as a placement. We are all invited to acknowledge how and where we have come to be, collectively capturing a moment so that we are no longer strangers and our presence today and yesterday are intertwined with tomorrow; we share this greeting to pursue a greater future together. Taking inspiration from avant-garde modernists, Uruguayan artist Joaquin Torres-Garcia, who drew emphasis from “the spirit of synthesis,” which he defined as the synchronization of the ancestral and the modern, threading interconnected sources, “this spirit allows the work to be seen in its totality as a single order, a unity.” (The Arcadian Modern, 1930). Contemporary artists have been tasked with the construction of a deep visual language that weaves fragmented histories and present stories. Future generations will look back on our visual vocabulary and see the links from further past to their present as embodied in form, composition, and materials translated as rituals and customs with human, spiritual, and natural origins. These works reveal the persistence of ever present familial and spiritual ties to see and experience forms that interconnect in everyday life. We acknowledge the traditional, ancestral unceded territory of the Canarsie and Lenni Lenape peoples, among many other peoples, on which we are learning, creating and organizing today. Eva Mayhabal Davis has organized exhibitions at BronxArtSpace, En Foco, Expressiones Cultural Center, MECA International Art Fair, and Ray Gallery. Davis was Gallery and Studio Program Manager at Smack Mellon from 2016 to 2019. In 2020, she will be the Curator-in-Residence at Brooklyn’s Kunstraum LLC. She has spoken on her curatorial work at AC Institute, Artists Space, Queens Museum, The 8th Floor, NYC Crit Club, and Queensborough Community College. Her writing has been featured in Hemispheric Institute’s Cuadernos, Nueva Luz: Photographic Journal, CultureWork Magazine and the Guggenheim Museum Blog. She was a Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation Curatorial Fellow at the Bronx Museum of the Arts and an alum of the No Longer Empty: Curatorial Lab. In 2018, she participated in the Art & Law Program Fellowship, and in 2019 she was a Leadership Advocacy Fellow for the National Association for Latinos in Art and Culture and a NYFA Leadership Boot Camp participant. Davis was born in Mexico, raised in the United States, and studied art history at the University of Washington. Now based in New York, she works with artists and creatives in the production of exhibitions, texts, and events. As a cultural liaison her focus is on supporting equity and social justice values in arts and culture. PUBLIC PROGRAMS Saturday, June 15th, Opening Reception, 6–9PM With music set by DJ Adrian is Hungry, playing a selection of cumbia, salsa, boogaloo, a blended appreciation of rhythms rooted in drum beats, ocean waves, Amazonian rain, movement, and psychedelica. Sunday June 16th, In conversation with Fundación Amoxtli, 3–5:30PM Moderated by Freddy Martinez and Eva Mayhabal Davis, invited guest writers will speak about their experiences working with established publishing institutions and how people of color are instigating change in publishing. Fundación Amoxtli is a future literary incubator that will support the work of underrepresented writers, translators, and those devoted to the craft of fiction through its writing residency program, workshops, and publications. Donations at this event will go to support Fundación Amoxtli. Friday, June 21st, El Salón, 6–8:30PM Come out to hear from the exhibition artists Ricardo Cabret, Marela Zacarias, Ana de la Cueva, and Ronny Quevedo in conversation with the curator Eva Mayhabal Davis. Thursday, July 4th Gallery closed. Saturday, July 6th, Papel Picado Workshop, 3–5:30PM Artist Blanka Amezkua will lead a workshop to make your own papel picado, a traditional paper cutting technique from Mexico. Please register at . Saturday, July 13th, Performance, 3–5:30PM A sound performance and conversation with artists Ginger Dunnill and Demian DinéYazhi´. Sunday, July 21st, Exhibition Tour, 3–5:30PM Guest curator Eva Mayhabal Davis and Diana Ayala-Carrillo, arts writer and photographer, will lead a tour along with exhibition artists, Mary A. Valverde, Iván Gaete, Glendalys Medina, and Blanka Amezkua. Saturday, July 27th, Indigenous Womxn’s Collective NYC, 12–5:30PM Join in throughout the day as the Indigenous Womxn’s Collective host a series of events and forums. |
This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York City Council Member Stephen Levin, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and with generous support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Robert Lehman Foundation, Iorio Charitable Foundation, Select Equity Group Foundation, many individuals and Smack Mellon’s Members.
Smack Mellon’s programs are also made possible with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and with generous support from The Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund of The New York Community Trust, The Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, Jerome Foundation, The Greenwich Collection Ltd, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation Inc., Brooklyn Arts Council, and Exploring The Arts.
The curator would like to thank all of the supporters that brought this project together, the participating artists and speakers, as well as family and friends. Gracias! The exhibition identity was designed by División de Diseño.
Space for Smack Mellon’s programs is generously provided by the Walentas family and Two Trees Management.
