June 22 - August 17, 2024
From Site131:
“Dallas’ ten-year-old SITE131 opens summer season on Saturday, June 22, 2024 with Foreign Affairs, showing through August 3, 2024. The packed-full exhibition curated by guest curator John Pomara, artist, and long-term University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) professor, features thirteen graduate students who are all immigrants.
The invited artists studying at UTD who hail from Brazil, China, Ecuador, Israel, Philippines, and Vietnam, with 7 from Iran, are mostly young 20-year-olds, with one 70-year-old graduate, proving it’s never too late to address one’s creative spirit! Each of the thirteen talents make art that addresses their personal strife and drive instigated by living in their native lands. Leaving their homes to study in a foreign world has clearly given these students much to consider in their process to communicate artistically. The following summaries tell us how the artists are expressing themselves creatively:
Iranian Hadi Asgharpour creates sculpture in motion that produces a personal connection for him to his native homeland.
Iranian Fatemeh Baigmoradi shows small family photographs she burns and/or that show faces covered by buckets to hide gender, race, and identity. It references a social practice to protect her family from being found and harmed.
Filipino Jennifer de Leon presents broken headshots and portraits that move. They reveal hidden emotions through the use of the digital, taking portraiture to a whole new level.
Israeli Rachel Finkelstein presents conceptual political statements on gender issues through video installations.
Iranian Zahra Jafarpour incorporates plates creating a portrait a day as her personal portrayal of being a woman.
Iranian Arash Ghahari Kermani suspends figures in steel and resin.
Vietnamese Zack Nguyen shows traumatic events in his life. He’s a teacher and a globalist artist navigating pop culture.
Brazilian artist Raquel Piantino makes mixed media photos incorporating cutout masks that address female identity in a poetic whimsical fashion.
Iranian Ashouri Shaghayegh’s wrapped sculpture reveals the hidden tormented anxiety the artist experiences.
Chinese Haoyi Song creates lyrical dreamlike poetry that mesmerizes one’s soul.
Iranian Maryam Takaloubighash makes mysterious figures with grass and quilted artworks.
Ecuadorian artist Brenda Vega builds stacks of headshots as a new kind of portraiture using forms of new media.
Iranian Vajihe Zamaniderkani assembles masses of small potted plants on the floor facing her artwork; they add another dimension to her paintings coupled with the social practice of sharing the plants with those around her.
The 13 creative students are recalling the mostly painful cultures from their native homelands and the contrast of now living and being schooled in the totally different experience of a more open and free America. In addition, they are all learning from each other.
With special thanks to guest curator John Pomara, SITE131 visitors will be engaged and intrigued. Foreign Affairs shows at SITE131 through August 3, 2024. Located in the Design District at 131 Payne Street, Dallas, Texas 75207, SITE131 is free and open Fridays from noon ~ 5pm and Saturdays from 1~ 3pm and by appointment. An ART CHAT will be scheduled with curator Pomara and the artists on a Saturday during the exhibition.
SITE131 continues in memory of founding partner Seth Davidow
Joan Davidow, co-founder/director + Stephanie DeLay,assistant/photographer”
Reception: June 22, 2024 | 1–3 pm
Conversation: July 20, 2024 | 2–3 pm
UTD Artists + John Pomara
131 Payne St.
Dallas, 75207 Texas
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