How were you approached to be part of (re)FOCUS?
I was contacted by the gallery director at Moore College, Gabrielle Lavin Suzenski, in February 2023. She shared that there was going to be a 50th anniversary exhibition in 2024 celebrating underrepresented women and gender-nonconforming artists in Philadelphia. Gabrielle explained that the original show from 1974, called FOCUS, uplifted women artists, and that this 50th anniversary celebration was designed to elevate necessary discussions on representation, marginalization, social justice, violence, equality, and empowerment. As I learned more about the exhibition, and the work of the amazing artists from the original 1974 project, I was excited to participate.
What does it mean to you to be showing your work in the exhibition?
As a gender non-conforming, disabled artist of color, it means a great deal to me to be invited to show my work, especially as a part of (re)FOCUS. Many of the women from the original exhibition are my sheroes in the arts, like Diane Burko, Joyce Kozloff, Faith Ringgold, and Barbara Zucker. To have my work spotlighted along with theirs is an absolute honor. It’s also important for me to show my work because my largest object on display is an 11′ x 12′ quilt that acts as a projection screen for images of fellow disabled artists living in Philadelphia. It is truly an honor to be uplifted and to also be given the space to uplift others, too.
How did your time and studies at Bryn Mawr influence you as an artist?
Prior to making the visual and performance art that I currently make, I was very interested in becoming a documentary filmmaker. My time at Bryn Mawr as an Anthropology major was very influential in my interest in documentary as an art form. While I was an undergraduate student at BMC, I created a project called “Lxs AfrxLatinxs,” which was a documentary photography series accompanied by a feature length film highlighting LGBTQ+ Latin Americans of African descent. I was invited to have my first solo exhibition with that project at Swarthmore College and invited to Mexico to screen the film all before I graduated from Bryn Mawr in 2015. My current practice still contains elements of documentary, though it is more autoethnographic than my earlier work. I definitely can thank former professors like Dr. Beth Uzwiak (anthropology) and Dr. Mary Osirim (sociology) for the positive impact they had on my desire to be a documentarian and my understanding of the importance of documentary media as a tool for the social empowerment of marginalized populations.
(re)FOCUS: Then and Now is on display at The Galleries at Moore through March 16, 2024. The Galleries at Moore are located at 1916 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103. LEARN MORE.