MASS, the nonprofit, collective-run Austin gallery which offers its space as its Hot Box residency each summer, is doing it a little differently this year due to the closures imposed by COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. The two new residents, Danielle Demetria East and Julianna Johnston, will do the residency from their home studios.
Last year’s residents were Austin-based artist residents are Andie Flores and Cynthia Muñoz, working as the artist team Payasa, and Zoe Berg, which we wrote about here. This year’s residents will share works on MASS’ Instagram as well as the gallery’s website.
Danielle Demetria East
About the artists, via MASS:
“West Texas-based installation artist, Danielle Demetria East has been honing her skills as a found-object sculptor and mixed-media assemblage artist for the past few years. Originally from La Grange, Texas, East was born in 1997 and lived the majority of her life around her family (in particularly her grandmother) and in the rural areas of Fayette County, Texas. East’s work explores the similarities between the Black woman and practitioners of magic, using installation, sculpture, performance, and poetry to examine metaphors of femalehood and themes of pain, persecution, power, and healing.”
“Julianna Johnston is an interdisciplinary artist originally from Baltimore, MD. Her practice interweaves movement workshops, and live performances, with experimental documentaries, and video installations. Using play and absurdity, she attempts to shift viewers into active system analysts. Encouraging participants to question, reconsider, and re-imagine the systems that are outside, within, and between themselves.”
For more on MASS, Hotbox, and this year’s Hotbox residency, please go here.
