2017
State Goods: Art in the Era of Mass Incarceration
May 19th – June 16th
Opening Reception, May 19th, 6-8pm
Performance: June 2nd, 7-9pm; Symposium: June 3rd, 1-3pm
State Goods: Art in the Era of Mass Incarceration features works by currently and formerly incarcerated artists and explores how incarcerated people improvise to make works of art, while navigating the spatial restraints, material limitations, and punitive measures of prison life. Some of the works also provide a lens into the exploitation of prison labor by focusing on products made in U.S. prisons. Thus, the concept of “state goods” refers to the productive lives of incarcerated people through art and through the enforced conditions of the prison industrial complex.
These pieces range from drawings and painted portraits, to miniatures and sculpture, to abstract painting and mixed media installation. Featured artists include Russell Craig, Dean Gillispie, Five Mualimm-ak, Lisette Oblitas-Cruz, Jared Owens, Gilberto Rivera, Isaac Scott, and artists from the Black and Pink Network, The Confined Arts, Prison Renaissance, and J.D. McGuire’s college level art courses inside New Jersey State prisons. These works call for a greater visibility of the conditions of contemporary prisoners.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the Andrew Freedman Home and Professor Nicole Fleetwood of Rutgers University whose forthcoming book is a study of art in the era of mass incarceration. The event is made possible by a Whiting Foundation Public Engagement Fellowship.
All events are free and open to the public. No tickets required.
Co-curators: Nicole R. Fleetwood and Walter Puryear, in conjunction with The Confined Arts Program.
THE 2017 EN FOCO PHOTOGRAPHY FELLOWSHIP EXHIBITION
May 19th – June 17th
Opening Reception, May 19th, 6-8pm
with special performance by Alethea Pace, 6:30-7:30pm
En Foco is proud to announce the ten Fellowship winners of its 2017 Photography Fellowship Program who were selected from a pool of 108 applicants. The winners each receive an award of $1,000; participate in the 2017 Fellowship Group Exhibition (opening May 19th at the Andrew Freedman Home); are featured in En Foco’s Nueva Luz publication, in printed and online editions; and are provided professional development and networking opportunities. The Fellowship initiative affirms and demonstrates En Foco’s ongoing commitment to the financial support of artists of color.
En Foco’s 2017 Photography Fellowship winners are Cinthya Santos Briones, Santana Copeland, Lisa DuBois, Daesha Devon Harris, Rhea Karam, Daniel Martinez, Erika Morillo, Jonathan Santiago, Byron Smith, and Nichole Washington. The Fellowship winners selected are based exclusively on the excellence and quality of the work submitted. All work is reviewed by panelists who are all distinguished members of the arts community: Amy Chin, Special Advisor for Cultural Initiatives at Chinatown Partnership; Sabrina Cedeño, Membership Associate at Fractured Atlas; and Stephanie Baptist, independent curator, producer, and editor. This year’s Fellowship exhibition will be curated by Gabriel de Guzman, Curator of Visual Arts from Wave Hill. Stephanie Baptist will curate the special issue of Nueva Luz.
For additional information on the exhibition and Nueva Luz, visit En Foco.org.
PAST EXHIBITIONS
1Future Presents Not Yet Free
April 21st – April 30th
Opening Reception, April 21st, 6pm-12am
1Future Presents Not Yet Free is a series of media-driven educational events, thought-leader gatherings, concerts and art shows taking place from April 21st to 29th throughout downtown Manhattan and the Bronx following up similar cultural programs that were produced in Hiroshima, Japan and Johannesburg, South Africa in 2015 and 2016 exploring themes of social justice. The programs were extremely successful, reaching thousands of participating locally and over 170 million viewers via television and the web.
1Future Presents Not Yet Free has a four-point model to create awareness of the need for social justice: Learn, Create, Share and Act. Confirmed participants include Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi, critically acclaimed visual artists Renee Cox and Faith Ringgold, Gbenga Akinnagbe from HBO’s The Wire, and legendary Japanese rock star Motoharu Sano.
1Future is a non-profit, social justice organization that promotes awareness of global issues concerning the environment, family & community, human rights and innovation.
1Future’s creates social progress through art, music, education, media and technology.
Synopsis of an Urban Memoir
March 26th – April 14th
Opening Reception, March 25th, 4-7pm
Brazil’s “National Day of Graffiti” on March 27 was established in 1987 after the death of the artist Alex Vallauri (1949-1987), one of the pioneers of contemporary urban art in the country. Synopsis of an Urban Memoir is a group exhibition in tribute to this iconic date that aims to foster urban art as an artistic and social movement.
Synopsis of an Urban Memoir presents the works of nineteen Brazilian artists: Alto*Contraste, Branco, Bugre, Camila Crivelenti, Ciro Schu, Combone, Criola, Fefa Românova, Goms, Henrique Belotti, Ju Violeta, Júlio Vieira, Mag Magrela, Mateus Bailon, Panmela Castro, Pecci, Siss, Tikka and Vermelho. Each of these artists, through their own style, represents different voices within their communities. Nevertheless, they all embrace the importance of bringing color and inspiration to public spaces. In this sense, art becomes accessible to all and strengthens the relationship between the city’s inhabitants and their environment.
We invite everyone to join us in this cultural event to celebrate Brazil’s “National Day of Graffiti” with an art exhibition and outdoor painting.
Produced by AnnexB, Duetto Arts and Urban Walls Brazil, Synopsis of an Urban Memoir is a partnership with The Andrew Freedman Home and CUFA – Central Única das Favelas.
CUFA was founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1996 by Celso Athayde a documentarist, a four times best-seller writer and a social activist. The organization is recognized and awarded worldwide inspiring and influencing public policies, media and attracting private investments to fulfill its mission of exchange social technologies and provide intercultural dialogue among the poor, specially through education, sports and inter-cultural programs. Part of the proceeds from this exhibition will benefit CUFA programs and projects in the USA.
The Next Generation of Bronx Photographers
February 24th – March 24th Extended through April 5th!
Opening Reception, March 1st, 6-8pm; Closing Reception, April 5th, 6-9pm
En Foco, one of New York metropolitan area’s leading arts organizations and supporters of photographers of color, proudly announces its upcoming exhibition, The Next Generation of Bronx Photographers at the Andrew Freedman Home in the Executive Ballroom. The exhibition highlights five Bronx-based photographers beginning Friday, February 24th, 2017.
The artists are Melanie Gonzalez, Renell Medrano, Abigail Montes, Osjua Newton, and Gloria Zapata. The exhibition is curated by Marisol Diaz and is on view through Friday, March 24, 2017.
2016
Bronx Latin American Biennial: I am one of those people that…
November 20th – December 20th
Opening Reception, November 20th, 6-9pm FREE
Bronx Latin American Art Biennial: I am one of those people that… curated by Alexis Mendoza & Luis Stephenberg features work that’s referring to personal aspects of the creation process. The curators are interested in the way artists think and what are the specifics behind the creating process. “We encourage the artists to be very vocal about their work. Our intention is to have the opportunity to explore some of today’s local, national and international social issues such as: migration, women’s rights, political conflicts, different types of discrimination, and issues that reflect on the autonomy of the opinion. We want to show self-representation of the artist’s way of thinking.”
The associate curator of this segment of the Bronx Latin American Art Biennial is Miguel Lescano with featured artists: Alexander Richard Carbonell, Bairo Martínez Parra, Francisco Alvarado-Juárez, Garvín Sierra, Geandy Pavón, Iliana Emilia García, Juan Si González, Miguel Trelles, Nelson Álvarez,Paco Cao, Raúl Morrilla, Renán Darío Arango, Rigo Peralta, POÉTICAS VISUALES DE LIMA (VISUALS POETICS OF LIMA) Francisco Guerra-García, Erika Rodríguez, José Güich, Miguel Lescano, Elie Angles, Carolina Bazo, José Luis Palomino, Nicolás Tarnawiecki, Elio Martuccelli , Paul Tealdo, Xir Montalbán, Rafael Moreno , Yerko Slatar , Álvaro Chang-Say, Juan Pacheco, Kike Congrains.
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Nothing Lasts Forever | Natalie Collette Wood
August 23-August 31, 2016 Extended thru November
The Andrew Freedman Home is pleased to present Nothing Lasts Forever, Natalie Collette Wood’s first solo exhibition at the Andrew Freedman Home. A reception will be held at the gallery on Sunday, August 28, 2016, from 4-6 PM.
Nothing Lasts Forever presents a series of large-scale paintings depicting fanciful dreamscapes inspired by Natalie Collette Wood’s current home in The Bronx and her childhood growing up in Las Vegas. Two places that are deeply sentimental to the artist create a springboard to examine the decadence of the past and the sobering aspects of today’s economy and landscape. Wood’s work creates haunting spaces by pairing interior structures with chaotic landscapes to create disorientating and fragmented environments that reflect the skewed way in which memory and history function.
The work takes departure from the Andrew Freedman Home located on the Grand Concourse and extends to the surrounding environments. Andrew Freedman’s will included a bequest to build the Home as a residence for wealthy people who had lost their fortunes. It first opened in 1924. The interior and exterior of the building become the backdrop for surreal and mystifying spaces that the artist creates first through handmade collages and then alters digitally. Secret melting gardens and nearby historical structures such as the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage and the Lorelei Fountain transform into psychologically charged spaces that don’t quite make sense and then become disorientating and disjointed to the viewer. By creating and then deconstructing existing realties, Wood creates new worlds that are falling apart through their own façade and in a state of constant change. Nothing Lasts Forever explores how urban and natural spaces interact and cohabitate together while celebrating the psychological and ever changing dimensions of memory and physical space.
Natalie Collette Wood is a current artist-in-residence at the Andrew Freedman Home. She has exhibited her work in a number of solo and group shows, most recently, Swallowed by Nature at the Montefiore Medical Center Gallery in the Garden. She received her MFA from Herbert H. Lehman University, and her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Solo exhibitions include Futuristic Fossil: Natalie Collette Wood at the Chashama Window Gallery, NY, NY (2015), The Green Yard Project at Montefiore Hospital, Bronx, NY (2015), and Seductive Disaster, Berlin (2009). Wood has been included in exhibitions such as The AIM Biennial: Bronx Calling at The Bronx Museum of Art and Ornamenting Crime at Zürcher Gallery, NY, NY.
For more information, contact Natalie Collette Wood at 646-359-5605, or Arts at Andrew Freedman Home at afharts@gmail.com.
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Apache Line: III Annual AFH AIR Exhibition – On view thru Apr 9th
Artist Talk & Exhibition Walkthrough, April 9th @ 5pm; Closing Reception, 6-9pm FREE
Apache Line featuring work that draws from the tradition of gang initiation during the 60’s and 70’s, to explore the economic hazing process of gentrification and how it impacts neighborhoods: geographically, socially, financially, & demographically. Artists include Melissa Calderón, Xavier Figueroa, Gasa, Josue Guarionex, Lisa Kahane, Aaron “SpazeCraft” Lazansky-Olivas, Jose “Dr. Drum” Ortiz, Andre Trenier, Natalie Wood, and Meguru Yamaguchi.
Walter Puryear, Curator of The Apache Line & Director of the Andrew Freedman Home in his curatorial statement states,
“The exhibition draws from the tradition of gang initiation during the 70’s to explore the economic hazing process of gentrification and how it impacts neighborhoods: geographically, socially, and financially. The similarity of structure between The Apache Line and The Red-Line (economic hazing) is the process of being tested to prove worth, value, and loyalty. The exhibition explores how people and neighborhoods must walk an economic Apache Line to maintain its cultural integrity or be redefined by the larger gangs of corporate entities or municipalities. The featured artists repurpose established real-estate practices (mapping, zoning, property development, and architecture) to discuss the convoluted perspectives on the quest for value; whether humanist or capitalist. Privilege and perception is inextricably bound to this quest and ultimately ends with the viewer having to decide her or his place within this dynamic as well as culpability.”
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UNDESIGN THE REDLINE – On view thru Apr 9th
Organized by designing The WE , Undesign the RedLine is a pop-up exhibition that exposes the history of Redlining, its lingering effect, and collective actions communities can take to build a new social and economic ecosystem that breaks its destructive bounds. 1st Floor Hallways
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BRONX VOYEURS is a video projection exhibition featuring the work of Bronx artists addressing themes relevant to our borough, drawing viewers into the unobtrusive aspects of New York City subculture. 13 artists will project their work from the 2nd and 3rd floor windows of AFH, presenting a collage of images and lights to be viewed from the Lawn and Grand Concourse.
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