“Migrations and Meaning(s) in Art,” is an exhibition curated by scholar and artist Deborah Willis, PhD and presented by Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Featuring a diverse range of local, national and international visual artists, the exhibition explores debates on the topic of migration from historical references such as slavery and emancipation; the Great Migration; and virtual communities from the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Artists and collectives included in the exhibition are:
Leslie King Hammond, PhD
Leslie King-Hammond an American artist, curator and art historian who is the Founding Director of the Center for Race and Culture at MICA, where she is also Graduate Dean Emeritus. Hammond’s Barbadian Spirits—Altar for my Grandmother is an homage to women who migrated from the Caribbean and beyond.
Albert Chong
Alber Chong is a Jamaican-born artist working within the structure of cultural memory and photography, Albert Chong uses passports, family photographs, cowrie shells, beads, hair and text to preserve and give voice to Afro-Chinese Caribbean migration. Chong uses passports, family photographs, cowrie shells, beads, hair, and text to preserve and give voice to Afro-Chinese Caribbean migration.
Renée Cox
Renée Cox is a Jamaican-born African-American artist known for her provocative photographs and videos that address racism and sexism in society. Stories of women warriors are central to the narrative of migration, and Cox’s re-enactment of the figure, Queen Nanny of the Maroons, in this exhibition is realized through her performance of the iconic Jamaica maroon figure.
Carrie Mae Weems
Carrie Mae Weems has investigated family relationships, cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems and the consequences of power for over thirty years. During this time, Weems has developed a complex body of art employing photographs, text, fabric, audio, digital images, installation and video. Weems’ When and Where I Enter— Mussolini’s Rome, 2006, is a large-scale photograph from Weems’ Roaming series. Its title is based on 19th century black woman educator, Anna Julia Cooper’s memoir,
Danny Wilcox Frasier
Documentary photographer and filmmaker Danny Wilcox Frazier focuses his work on marginalized communities both in and outside of the United States. Frazier has photographed people struggling to survive the economic shift that has devastated rural communities throughout America, including in his home state of Iowa. Frazier has a strong sense of conviction about home and place. Iowa is central to his story and conserving a community that chooses not to migrate. What happens when farm communities stay on the land for generations and decide not to move to cities or larger urban settings?
Tsedaye Makonnen
Tsedaye Makonnen is a multidisciplinary artist who exhibits internationally. Her primary focus is on countries within the Americas and African continent. She explores her hyphenated identity as a daughter of Ethiopian immigrants and a black American woman through her studio and research-based practice. Makonnen’s work consists of photography, sculpture and installation focusing on experiences of forced migrations globally.
Nate Larson
Nate Larson is a contemporary artist working with photographic media, artist books and digital video. Larson is currently serving as Chair of the Photography Department at MICA. Larson’s study is inspired by the surviving records of an historic town in the state of Virginia. His images trace the town’s historical buildings and documents the simplicity of the town, the tensions focusing on preserving the memory of the 18th century town and the planned commercial development of the village of Waterford.
Ana Teresa Fernandez
Ana Teresa Fernandez is a Mexican performance artist and painter. Fernandez’s work explores the politics of intersectionality and the ways it shapes personal identity, culture, and social rhetoric. Fernandez resists borders. She actively crosses borders by creating work that challenges the complexity of migration. Her work is performance based and shows the importance of the plight of migrants encountering border walls.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum is a figurative artist and designer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Sunstrum’s Polyhedra, is an animation that deals with ideas of simultaneity and symmetry that are grounded in ancient mythology, geometry, and science fiction. Her work embodies a multiplicity that is common among people who often live between worlds, cultures, and histories.
Hank Willis Thomas
Hank Willis Thomas is a conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to perspective, identity, commodity, media and popular culture. Thomas’s Rich Black Specimen addresses self-emancipation and runaway advertisements during American slavery. Thomas mines a plethora of drawings distilled from the runaway ads in public archives of black men and women dress in loose fitting clothing and carrying sacks as if in flight.
The full list of participants includes: Sama Alshaibi, Zalika Azim, Taylor Renee Bissey, Terry Boddie, Layo Bright, Albert Chong, Michèle Pearson Clarke, Renee Cox, Jennifer Datchuk, Sonia Louise Davis, Regina DeLuise, Nekisha Durrett, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Ana Teresa Fernandez, Ivan Forde, Danny Wilcox Frazier, Daniel Castro Garcia, Lonnie Graham, Leslie King Hammond, Abbigail Hong, Jessica Ingram, Sarah Khan, Nate Larson, Nashormeh Lindo, Tsedaye Makonnen, Qiana Mestrich, Deyane Moses, Susan Harbage Page, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, Hank Willis Thomas, HồngÂn Trương, Colette Veasey-Cullors, Carrie Mae Weems, Vicky Zambrano and ForFreedoms.