April 6 - May 4, 2024
From Mass Gallery:
“Mass Gallery is proud to announce Into the Thick of IT, a group of five transdisciplinary artists that explore the movement of queer bodies across ecological and psychological borders, offering a raw portrayal of immersion in the environment, boundary-crossing, and confronting life’s complexities within our ecological reality. Into the Thick of IT will showcase works from artists including:
⭐ Irene Junes’s sculptural work is inspired by the visual similarities between geologic and human bodies, exploring themes of aging, growth, and mourning. June invites the audience to engage in a personal narrative of diasporic reconciliation and healing.
⭐ Tehan Ketema’s photographic installation amplifies the experiences of the African diaspora and challenges the hegemonic Western gaze. Her research points to the subterfuge of a capitalist free market, and how it reveals itself as nothing more than an extension of imperial, colonial power that rests on the shaky feet of unsustainable resource extraction, and political destabilization.
⭐ Antonio Lechuga’s large-scale lattice reconstructions of cobijas (blankets) reveal the turbulent intricacies and contradictions of Mexican-American history in Texas.
⭐ Ingrid Leyva’s photographic series “Mexican Shoppers” documents portraits of shoppers crossing the Juarez-El Paso border carrying goods, offering reflections on the intersection of commerce, migration, and family.
⭐ Raven Moffett’s three-channel video explores the breath and voice of more-than-human kin, encouraging viewers to transcend anthropocentrism and relate to other inhabitants of the land as equals within broader systems of biology and ecology.
Accompanying the exhibition, there will be public programming events, including a teen paper-mache workshop led by Xingaderas, an artist from El Paso, Texas; and a film night hosted in collaboration with Bodega Film Festival and Melanie Wu, a curator based in New York City. The dates for both events will be announced in the coming week.
Opening reception drinkies sponsored by Marfa Spirit Co. based in Marfa, Texas.”
705 Gunter Street
Austin, 78702 TX
(512) 470-9453
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