This week, Artpace, a non-profit residency and exhibition space in San Antonio, announced the three residents selected for its spring 2019 program: Tucson-based artist Sama Alshaibi, London-based artist Roshini Kempadoo, and San Antonio-based artist Jennifer Ling Datchuk.
Ms. Alshaibi, who is a professor at the University of Arizona, creates artworks that explore themes of migration, citizenship, and power. Some of these projects have more overt messages, like And Other Interruptions, a photography series that examines border divides in Palestine and between the US and Mexico. Others are more symbolically poetic, like Together Apart, a video work that reflects Ms. Alshaibi’s personal history as a refugee. Ms. Alshaibi received her MFA from the University of Colorado, and has shown her work in New York, Europe, and Central America. She was also included in the 2013 Venice Biennale.
Ms. Kempadoo, a writer and photographer, deals with issues of the past, including “factual and fictional re-imaginings of contemporary experiences, histories and memories.” Many of her projects, like her series Ghosting and ECU: European Currency Unfolds, use the layering and combining of images to examine ideas of lesser-known histories and place. In the 1980s, she helped organize Autograph, the Association of Black Photographers. Ms. Kempadoo has shown her work internationally.
The Texan in Artpace’s spring 2019 round, Jennifer Ling Datchuk, creates ceramics, photographs, and other works that explore her personal history as a mixed-race woman. Many of her recent works, including Half, a porcelain and hair sculpture recently acquired by The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, employ techniques found in blue and white pottery to address gender roles, the domestic, and identity. Ms. Ling Datchuk graduated with her MFA from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, and currently serves as a professor in the ceramics department at the Southwest School of Art, San Antonio.
These three artists were chosen by Deborah Willis, a New York-based curator and artist who currently chairs the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Throughout her career, Dr. Willis has specialized in researching and writing about the history of African American photography. Her books on the topic have included Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present, Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present, and Black: A Celebration of a Culture. Dr. Willis has also received numerous awards for her work, including Guggenheim, Fletcher, and MacArthur fellowships, among others.
Artpace will welcome its spring 2019 residents with a potluck on January 31, from 6-8 PM. The three artists will work on site from January 23-March 25, with their shows on view from March 21-May 12.