support structures Opening Reception: A Virtual Walkthrough and Conversation with Sara Reisman, danilo machado, Jeff Kasper and the Artists of Art Beyond Sight’s 2019-2020 Art & Disability Residency Cohort
Thursday, December 3, 2020
6:00 to 7:30pm EST
This event was held on Zoom
Alex Dolores Salerno, Chiron, 2020. Photography courtesy of Francisco (Echo) Eraso. [Image Description: A photograph of a light skinned person who is naked to the waist is cropped from their neck to their belly button. They stand against a beige couch in front of a white wall. Their right hand is positioned with their index and middle finger extended. This is a sign of blessing and also known as the "hand of benediction." In their left hand is a textured piece of wood which appears similar to an anatomical heart with a large valve and also references a religious symbol, “the sacred heart.“ The wood bears a deep scar which is mimicked in the faint scars across the person’s chest and in the way the fabric is nailed to the frame of the couch.]
The Rubin Foundation and Art Beyond Sight were pleased to present the opening of support structures, a virtual exhibition featuring the 2019-2020 cohort of Art Beyond Sight’s Art and Disability Residency (ADR). Through the lens of Disability Justice, these works explore the expansiveness of support as the foundation for nourishing our lives and sustaining our communities. The program began with a walkthrough of the work featured in the exhibition, accompanied by brief artist talks. This was followed by a discussion with curator danilo machado and guest artist, educator, and ADR alum Jeff Kasper, and concluded with a Q&A from the audience. Participating ADR artists included Lizzy De Vita (@lizzy_de_vita), Michael DiFeo (@michaeldifeo), Zoey Hart (@littlestnoodle), Terry Huber (@blueandmellow), Alex Dolores Salerno (@alex_dolores_), michelle miles (@michellenmiles), e.e. miller (@_eemiller), and Sandra Wazaz (@___one__long_______).
Access Information: This event included live ASL interpretation and captioning.
Click here to view the exhibition.
The below recording of this event has ASL interpretation.
The below recording of this event has ASL interpretation and captioning.
Click here to read the event transcript
Bios
Lizzy De Vita is an artist, writer and educator who lives and works in Brooklyn. www.lizzydevita.us
Michael DiFeo is an interdisciplinary artist living in Jersey City. His work incorporates photography, animation, sound, and video. DiFeo has exhibited at SXSW, Photoville NYC, Pingyao International Photography festival in China, and Photo Auckland in New Zealand, and at The State Hermitage Museum St. Petersburg, Russia. He has also exhibited in several Bruce High Quality exhibitions, participated in the Jersey City Artist Studio tour, as well as the Billboard Art Project in a number of US cities. DiFeo received his undergrad degree at NJCU and received his MFA in the Photography and Related Media program at Parsons School of Design in ‘17. He now works as a commercial photographer and as a professor of Media Arts at New Jersey City University.
Alex Dolores Salerno is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Informed by themes of care, interdependency, and queer-crip temporality, they work to critique standards of productivity, normative embodiment and the commodification of our rest time. Salerno received their M.F.A. in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design and their B.S. in Studio Art from Skidmore College. They have exhibited at the Ford Foundation Gallery, Franklin Street Works, Westbeth Gallery, Gibney Dance, The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum, among others. They have been an artist in residence at Trestle Art Space (2019) and are currently participating in Art Beyond Sight’s Art & Disability Residency Program (2019-2020).
Zoey Hart is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural educator based in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Inspired by the misadventures of invisible disability and modern medicine, Hart’s work reframes the experience of chronic illness across cultures and environmental contexts. Combining traditional drawing and soft-sculpture techniques with alternative printmaking and social practice design, Hart creates images, sculptures and multimedia-installations that question our cultural perceptions of imperfection and wellbeing.
Terry Huber comes from a small town in rural Indiana called Batesville. He has a strong interest in many forms of spiritual practices, such as Christianity, Buddhism, Lakota, Nature has always been at the heart of his work. Growing up in rural Indiana taught him how to connect with a deeper sense of purpose at the heart of creation and life itself.
michelle miles is a multi-media artist whose work is informed and conceptually underpinned by her experience as a disabled woman. She recently held a year-long position in accessibility at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is now studying design and innovation in digital accessibility. miles’ work has screened at festivals including the Sundance Film Festival and the LA Film Festival, and was recognized at the Kennedy Center in July 2020 for the 30th anniversary of the ADA.
ee miller is a painter, walker and an astrologer.
Sandra Wazaz currently lives in Brooklyn with their cat Bean.
Art Beyond Sight (ABS) empowers disabled people to be active, creative, and powerful participants and contributors in the arts and society at large. As a catalyst for equitable change, ABS fosters collaboration and exploration of innovative, effective, and impactful solutions to realize full inclusion. artbeyondsight.wordpress.com
ABS’s Art and Disability Residency strives to give artists and arts professionals choice and intentionality about what role, if any, disability plays in their work and its place in the critical conversation of contemporary art. This exhibition was supported with funds from the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation through its art and social justice initiative.
support structures logo: Samantha Benvissuto
