FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Selections by Larry Ossei-Mensah
January 27 – February 24, 2018
Anthony Giannini, Leslie Jimenez, Irini Miga, Ronny Quevedo
Elizabeth Dee is pleased to present the second edition of Selections, a series of exhibitions designed to bring visibility to the dynamism of emerging artists based in Harlem and The Bronx. Curator Larry Ossei-Mensah will return to organize the exhibition, which will open on Saturday, January 27, with a public reception for the artists, from 5-8PM. This exhibition will launch concurrently with Mercado, a solo show by Lucia Hierro.
The second edition of Selections features the works of four visionary talents: Anthony Giannini, Leslie Jimenez, Irini Miga, and Ronny Quevedo. The artists featured in Selections all have a common interest in reshaping temporal boundaries by leveraging their unique and diverse cultural voices to generate a robust discourse. By way of their varied artistic practices - from stitched drawings to site-specific interventions - these artists promote genuine inquiry into a variety of concerns related to representation, identity construction, materiality and the interpretations of self. Selections is anchored in Ossei-Mensah’s interest in artists whose practice directly responds to the dramatically shifting social, cultural and political landscape.
Selections 2017 alumni which launched the project last year include: Lucia Hierro (making her solo debut), Derek Fordjour, Emily Henretta and Kenny Rivero.
Selections 2018 will feature:
Anthony Giannini (b. 1984 in Boulder, Colorado) uses a complex improvisational process involving still life, image manipulation software, screen printing, and stenciling. Oscillating between physical and digital modes of production, Giannini draws from a treasure trove of imagery that explores and deconstructs the personal, the mundane, and the sacred. Anthony lives and works between The Bronx and Detroit.
Leslie Jimenez (b. 1984 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) explores subjects such as internalized racism and the complexity of formulated identities, the power of choice. She aims to question narratives of established notions of beauty, girlhood and motherhood beyond the social standards around the condition of womanhood. Jimenez’s Uptown, Humble Heroes series, presented for the first time at the gallery, invites the view to consider how everyday life moments in the New York City captured via the lens of parents, workers and ordinary citizens serves as acts of humility.
Irini Miga (b. 1981 in Larissa, Greece) investigates the language of objects that surround our everyday reality. Fascinated by the ways that individuals navigate and perceive their environments, Miga responds with nuanced anti-monumentality. Her signature constellations are traces that ask for close examination. Miga uses time as a material that questions linearity asking her work and the viewer to interact, and engage the larger surroundings.
Ronny Quevedo (b. 1981 in Guayaquil, Ecuador) examines the vernacular and aesthetic forms generated by displacement, migration, and resilience. Inspired by his own family history of migration from Ecuador, Quevedo transcribes the graphics of locality, community, and remembered environments. Lines and markings from fields of play are just a few of the forms that conceptually find their way into Quevedo’s transcriptions. Many results are possible, from allowing the work to simultaneously pay homage to the narratives of historically marginalized peoples, and a platform for dialogue and community engagement on continued practices of marginalization.
Selections 2018 Guest Curator:
Larry Ossei-Mensah is a Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic who uses contemporary art and culture as a vehicle to redefine how we see ourselves and the world around us. He has organized exhibitions and collaborations with artists at commercial and nonprofit spaces, including: Firelei Báez, Ruby Amanze, Hugo McCloud, Brendan Fernandes, Allison Janae Hamilton and Peter Williams. He has advocated for and written on some of the most dynamic visual artists working today: such as Derrick Adams, Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley, Lorna Simpson and street artist JR. Ossei-Mensah recently was the 2017 Critic-in Residence at ART OMI and currently serves as a mentor in the New Museum’s incubator program NEW INC.
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