I’m From
Opening Reception: September 8th, 6-8pm
On View: September 7-25th 2022
…I am from those moments / snapped before I budded / leaf-fall from the family tree…
For many readers, the George Ella Lyon poem, Where I’m From, triggers the response, “Hmm…where am I from?”
The “I’m From” exhibition displays the work of a group of 40 artists who self-identify as members of a wide range of cultural/racial/gender groups. All of the artists in this exhibition have asked themselves “Where Am I From?” and responded with art that speaks to their individual backgrounds and identity.
Some recurring themes emerged within the work, as well as linked artists’ work together.
I’m From… a Culture
I’m From… a Family
I’m From… a Land
A tile ceramic wall piece, Hybrid, by Monique Allain balances Culture-Family-Home by addressing her French/Mexican heritage through an abstract ceramic tiled piece; the artist comments, “Hybridizations between American native people and European colonizers were marked by tensions, accidents, fissures, breaks, and mutations. Different natures, habits and values totally unknown to each other were confronted.”
Seth Dunbar tilts the I’m From balance towards Family-Home; in Dad’s Chair, he looks at an inherited item–said chair. Father to son, artist to artist, and now Seth’s studio chair, it will always be known as “dad’s chair.”
Carmela George’s I’m From piece embraces the notion of Home in Far Rockaways Bungalows, as a memory of a place that once was.
I’m From aims to show the intersection of life events which affirm identity and allow places, people, and things to become home.
Background of Curator: Joshua Rosenblatt is an artist and curator who has lived in Queens, New York for over twenty-five years. His projects put a close lens on the notion of community, with a particular focus on voluntary and proximal relationships between people and their environs; and self examination through object studies that share a broader message. He is currently the Director of Exhibition and Collection Preparation at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
About LIC-A: Long Island City Artists, Inc. is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) arts advocacy organization with a mission to increase the development and visibility of professional and emerging artists in Queens, New York.