"Lines and Land in Conversation" an artist talk for the exhibition "Encoded marks, unwinding paths" a solo presentation of a recent body of work by Mary Valverde at The Latinx Project, NYU.
In this talk, the artists Jorge Rojas and Kalyn Fay Barnoski have been invited to share their art practices, which have intrinsic relationships with abstraction, material, and community. Exploring themes that define a nuanced canon for framing the aesthetics of abstraction with an Indigenous, diasporic, historical and American lense supporting the premise of "Encoded marks, unwinding paths" by Mary Valverde.
Panelists
Eva Mayhabal Davis (b. Toluca, Mexico) is a cultural advocate, working directly with artists and creatives in the production of exhibitions, texts, and events. She has curated exhibitions at BronxArtSpace, MECA International Art Fair, the Queens Museum, Smack Mellon, The Bronx Museum of Arts and is a co-director at Transmitter, a collaborative curatorial initiative. She is a founding member of El Salón, a creative and soulful potluck. Her writing has been featured in exhibition catalogs and publications such as the New York University Hemispheric Institute’s Cuadernos, Foundwork Dialogues and Nueva Luz: Photographic Journal.
Mary Valverde (born 1975, Queens, NY) is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York. She received her MFA at the University of Pennsylvania in 2012 as a School of Design's Dean's Diversity Fellow, and her BFA from the School of Visual Arts, NY in 1999. Valverde teaches at Hunter College. Her work, "Huaca", exhibited at BRIC for the Latinx Abstraction show was featured in the New York Times. Valverde has given lectures and exhibited work at BRIC, Smack Mellon, MoCA North Miami, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, The New Jersey State Museum, Art Center South Florida, El Museo del Barrio, The Queens Museum of Art, Jersey City Museum, Momenta Gallery, Saltworks Gallery, Corridor Gallery, Rush Arts Gallery, Diaspora Vibe Gallery, Aferro Gallery, among others. Since 2015 Valverde serves as a Commissioner (Sculptor seat) for the Public Design Commission of the City of New York, and often contributes as an advisor to the NYC Cultural Arts Affairs. Valverde is a 2021 CCSRE Arts Practitioner Fellow at Stanford University. She has been in residence at the Thomas Hunter Ceramic Artist in Residence in 2014, an MFA Lecturer at the ICA Philadelphia in 2011, at Artist Alliance Residency 2007, and at Aljira Center for Contemporary Art's Emerge Program in 2006. Valverde has curated exhibitions and published her writing through AC Institute, NY and the Korean Cultural Center of New York.
Kalyn Fay Barnoski (b. 1990, Cherokee Nation enrollee, Muscogee Creek descent) is an interdisciplinary artist, musician, curator, and educator from Oklahoma. Centering Indigenous and decolonial methodologies, their work focuses on self-location, community-building, collaboration, and empathy through the use of music, publication, storytelling, and contemporary craft. In every endeavor, they see their practice as a way to find the ways in which we all intersect and to build bridges of understanding between. Their practice is “for you, for me, for us, for we.”
Kalyn Fay Barnoski holds an M.F.A. from University of Arkansas (2021), an M.A. from The University of Tulsa (2016), and a B.F.A. from Rogers State University (2012). Kalyn has worked with Peabody Essex Museum, Philbrook Museum of Art, Gilcrease Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, The Momentary, Eiteljorg Museum, along with others, and performed, exhibited, and facilitated workshops both nationally and internationally.
Jorge Rojas is a multidisciplinary artist, performer, curator, and art museum educator from Morelos, Mexico. He studied Art at the University of Utah and at Bellas Artes in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Rojas uses performance, visual art, and social engagement to examine cultural, social, and mediated forms of communication and art production. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is included in multiple public collections. He has received numerous accolades, such as being named by Artists of Utah/15 Bytes as one of Utah’s Most Influential Artists in 2019, and being included in the 2020 Immigrant Artist Biennial out of NYC. From 2015 to 2021, Rojas served as director of learning and engagement at Utah Museum of Fine Arts where he oversaw education, community engagement, and public programming initiatives. Rojas’s combined practice as an artist, curator, and educator directly align with his passion for working with communities to work towards racial and cultural justice, and helping institutions become anti-racist organizations that are inclusive and equitable for all.
Event Recap
Watch the full recording below!