Three Takes on collaborate / kəˈlabəˌrāt at Gallery Y
Vivian Bauer, Emma Akpan, and Shelby Hubbard share some of their faves
Nestled in the lobby of the YMCA Anthony Bowen is Gallery Y. Curated by Beth Ferraro, the space consistently hosts dynamic exhibitions. The current show collaborate / kəˈlabəˌrāt is no different. It features 48 artists with artworks made using collaborative processes, materials, and exchanges that reflect “how creativity flourishes through connection and openness.” The show description assures, “By supporting one another, we expand what’s possible — both within practices and our communities.”
Read our thoughts and then attend the Artist Talk happening this Saturday from 3-5 pm. [More info here.]
From Vivian Bauer:
I was first struck by their gaze. Fid Thompson looking up at a vine-covered shelter with a notebook in hand. Neha Misra नेहा मि श्रा, adorned with marigolds, making eye contact with the viewer, hovering above. The viewer is warmly embraced by each of their chosen landscapes while a distorted light peeks in. Fid Thompson and Neha Misra’s नेहा मि श्रा collaborative self-portraits, titled Nature of Us– Unfenced Urban Wilding and Nature of Us –Migratory Marigold Borderland Persists remind us that it is everyone’s right to find nature around us and to intentionally perform to connect deeper to the nature within us. I am from the DMV, yet I do not recognize any of these landscapes. Once you are in a place long enough, you need reminders to access the nature that heals and protects you. I wonder: How can I more often gaze up in awe of this locality? How can I include others who are often excluded in this experience? Is the nature of me more of a performer, an activist, a scientist, or a teacher?
Then, I was struck by the materials. The artist’s photographs are printed on large sweet pea gauze fabric. The cream fabric is translucent and elegant. Fabric can live other lives that paper photographs can’t. We can drape it over each other, cover our environments, or make anew into a flag to wave or a vessel to carry. As I reflect on the joyful gaze and transcendent materials within these self-portraits, I feel a sense of intrigue about the nature in my city and more awareness of how to celebrate it.
Connect with Vivian: Website | Instagram | Venmo: [@]Vivian-Bauer-1
By Emma Akpan
Salvador Rubio and Genesis Villarreal Azul con Blanco
When artists are able to capture a gaze that is both strong and soft, inviting and striking, they force a second and third look. Rubio’s realistic brushstrokes of Genesis’ simple threads of a white tank and drawstring joggers give her movement – she can very well get up from the seat and walk towards the viewer, but she chooses to remain in rest.
Marqus Clark and Maurice James The Price of Freedom
Black existence is surreal – our skin color, our movement, our living spaces and spaces of recreation can be shifted with a stroke of a new policy. For Marqus Clark and Maurice James, Black living is transformed into machinery. This machinery, with its human qualities is unbreakable against the clutched rifles and indifferent expressions of the military in fatigue, is an act of self-determination. From a distance, the figure, a digital rendering of a fist bleeding with metal, reminds me of an anatomical heart, gripping tightly onto our hold of our occupied city – we will keep it by any means.
Autumn Spears and Jermaine “jET” Carter Peace, Love and Hair Grease
A jar of Royal Crown Hair Dressing is haloed by Duafe, or the Ghanaian Adinkra symbol of beauty. The Duafe holds two symbols, one, the actual combs Black mothers and sisters used to trace parts for cornrows or coils into young heads to be pulled into individual sections wrapped in kaleidoscopic hair balls, and as a reminder of Duafe, or beauty, femininity, and cleanliness. The shades of white, green, black and orange mirror the colors of many flags of West Africa, its color combination symbolizing our connection to the continent. Any Black girl can remember the earthy, oily scent of the balm meant to hold our strands, and our heritage together.
Connect with Emma: Website | Instagram | Substack | Cashapp: $emmanism
By Shelby Hubbard
At first I thought it was a hot pad– that weathered, heat-scarred thing that protects our flesh from the burning pans, pots, and dishes pulled from ovens and stove tops. In their artist statement, Josh Kery and Karissa Scaffidi identify the work as a quilt block. It has the basic anatomy of a quilt or oven mitt, including batting, binding, and backing, but whether it’s a block, pad, or even a miniature quilt, all conceptions serve the work.
Nature’s Neighborhood (Variation 2) combines original digital drawings translated to screen-printed fabric. Scenes arranged in four squares depict an overturned plant pot occupied by a toad, a bird house, and a launched flying squirrel preparing to land in a tree cavity. In the center of the four squares is a diamond that holds the image of a modest suburban home. Rendered in burnt orange, the images contrast with the light greens they are printed on. The total work is outlined with a matching burnt orange binding and hangs from two loops connected by a twig.
The human home, shrunk in the center, reverses conception of place, where normally towering homes and humans dwarf the makeshift, installed, or natural homes that critters create all around us. When we are the ones surrounded, rather than the ones surrounding, the perspective shift invites us to reconsider our place as equally active participants in our ecosystem. According to the artist statement, the animals and plants within the work were plucked from native Maryland wildlife, and the artists were inspired by the Homegrown National Park initiative, which advocates for native plant cultivation.
As a small quilt, the work considers scale, comfort, and place. As thermal protection, the work asks who and what is safe from rising temperatures. It is then infused with environmental realities and possibilities – and the assurance that we have the agency and responsibility to care.
Connect with Shelby: Website | Instagram | Venmo: [@]byshelbyhubbard
Find your fave. Gallery Y is located in the lobby of the YMCA Anthony Bowen at 1325 W St NW, Washington, DC 20009. Open hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 7 am - 9 pm, Saturday and Sunday 7 am - 7 pm & by appointment.