HINDSIGHT
Hindsight is truly 20/20. If we learned anything from the past year, it is -- to survive. Social injustices, a global pandemic, the wrath of mother nature and mental health issues have taken its toll on humanity. As creators, we interpret world views, we mold and shape what the world could be and what the past and present realities are. Marginal Art Projects invited artists to submit artwork reflecting on the year 2020, focused on themes of: social injustices, politics, Covid-19 Pandemic, natural disasters, mental health, and relationships during times of stress. We invite you to view our exhibition - please, click on the image to find out more about the artwork and about the artist, including websites and social media information.
"As cultural producers, we should be very aware of what the culture is doing." - Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Mixed media collage, 2020
On June 3, 2020, I marched in a peaceful protest in Jersey City, NJ following the killing of George Floyd. It was an awakening moment in 2020 where people came together to use their voices to call for systemic change and rise against racial bias and police brutality towards the African American community. I documented this inspiring movement by shooting a series of photographs and videos. This collage is made from a double exposure photograph taken with an instant camera on the streets of downtown Jersey City. Then I combined that imagery with a stenciled spray-painted piece of cardboard as a response to the uprising. I want to use my platform as an artist to voice my support for this cause and also have the artwork be a catalyst for change in the injustices of the world.
Artist Bio - Kasia Skorynkiewicz is a Polish-American multi-media visual artist. She received her bachelor’s degree from Seton Hall University and her Master's in Fine Arts from Montclair State University in New Jersey. For 8 years, she lived in Los Angeles, working on a variety of award-winning films and TV productions while working on her own short films. Her art practice builds on the forgotten past of discarded objects that have been thrown away and deemed worthless. The work questions the habits of our modern throwaway culture and examines what it means for an object to become worthless due to changing fashion, technological progress, and through the passage of time. She transforms the found objects to create new poetic residues that explore obsolescence, the ephemeral, and transience. Her work has been exhibited at the Montclair Art Museum in N.J., at Magnan Metz Gallery in New York City, among other places. Kasia Skorynkiewicz lives in Jersey City, NJ and is an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University.
Website: www.kasiaskorynkiewicz.com
Instagram: @beingandbecoming
Oil on Panel, 2020
Ali Miller is a New York City-based artist from Long Island, NY, working in painting, drawing, and sculpture. Miller constructs fantastical nonlinear-narratives, addressing themes of expectation, using extreme and surreal scenarios. Miller received her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Hoffberger School of Painting in 2012 and her BFA from Alfred University in 2008. She has attended residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Golden Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, and Chautauqua Institution. In 2012, Miller received the Best in Show Prize at the Bethesda Painting Awards. Miller's work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, and her work can be found in both public and private collections. She is currently represented by High Noon Gallery.
Website: www.alimillerstudios.com
Instagram: @alimillerstudios
Digital Painting, 2020
This piece explores the constant emotional struggle many have dealt with as a result of isolation during Covid-19. The image places the viewer in a scene from Thanksgiving 2020, but rather than feelings of warmth, safety and love as expected, the atmosphere is disjointed and appears to exist within many realities. Through the use of collage, I hoped to tap into the warm memories we often associate with looking at family photographs juxtaposed with representations of starkness, isolation, and disorder.
Covid-19 has been a time of great struggle and unimaginable pain for many, and the nostalgia I feel for time pre-pandemic is one that I believe many can relate to: a feeling of never quite being able to reach contentment as our world continues without a definite light at the end of the tunnel to when things will be "normal" as we once knew them to be.
Instagram: @msgarlickbread
Oil on canvas, 2020
The image of a grave yard is a reminder of death, which during the covid-19 pandemic takes on a new weight. This painting was also made while I was thinking about how circular windows are used for more structural integrity when preventing exposure to whatever exists on the other side of them. That protective window is also a reference to the pandemic and how we use material barriers to shield us from exposure to the virus.
Chris Rivas is a Los Angeles born artist who received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and his MFA from Montclair State University. His work revolves around an investigation of cultural diaspora, emotional reactivity, and hybridity. He uses various materials to investigate ambiguity and dualities while continuing to depict the intersectionality experienced in his everyday life.
Website: https://chrisrivas.art/
Instagram: artistchrisrivas
Digital Photography, 2020
I made this piece by smearing mud and paint on the window of an abandoned building in New Orleans, photographing it, and then editing it digitally so that the smears looked like waves crashing over the reflection of the city in the window.
In Louisiana we’re facing a compounded and multifaceted climate disaster. As our primary industries contribute heavily to green house gas emissions, they also have ruined our state’s natural defenses against the gulf by cutting canals and installing pipelines through our coastal wetlands. As a result not only are the seas rising, but the land upon which our coastal communities sit is sinking.
Louisiana is experiencing the effects of the sea level rising and climate change, including more severe weather, at a rate far surpassing the rest of the country.
This is an inevitability that cannot be stopped, only prepared for. Our local, regional, and state leadership have done very little to ready the coastal communities, and harden them against severe weather and rising seas.
This piece is about fear, but not my own. It’s about instilling a fear, terror, and anxiety into the hearts of elected and appointed officials and policy makers. With a hope that they begin to speak and act as if the people they represent will be under water in their lifetime. Without their intervention this is an inevitable reality.
Sculpture, 2020
These series of masks are inspired by my thoughts around Covid-19. Due to the pandemic, we have had to wear physical masks to protect ourselves. However, the idea is that wearing masks is not foreign to us. We wear invisible masks everyday to protect ourselves from a certain environment, place or people. Every individual has a different mask made up by their own world and need for protection. Each mask I make is inspired by life stories of people and what they are trying to protect themself from.
My name is Alyssa Vignone and I am based out of NYC/NJ. I originally graduated with an art and psychology degree and took a turn into becoming a therapist. Seven years later, I have infused the two worlds. Right now, I am currently making masks which was inspired out of COVID-19. The idea is that wearing masks is not foreign to us. We wear invisible masks everyday to protect ourselves from a certain environment, or people. Every individual has a different mask made up by their own world and need for protection. This is what I am aiming to show in my mask collection.
Instagram: @lysvee_art
Photography, 2020
These two photographs represent duality, desperation, confusion, among many other changed ideas. Focusing mainly on my own identity and body, this work speaks about my queerness as well as my non-binary identity and body. Often, there is a lot of trauma, injustice, and hate towards the queer community. Compounded with a global pandemic, mental illness, and the harsh realities of everyday life, it can become a burden far too heavy to bear. I've found in my experience, I have a tendency to react to these things by blaming myself or feeling as though my body is cursed. Like my identity is cured. This work aims to examine those chaotic emotions and unpack them through motion and contrast.
Craig Peters is a queer, non-binary freelance and fine artist living in North New Jersey. Working primarily in photography, they draw on their own trauma and experiences, mentally, and physically, as inspiration for storytelling. Always fascinated by the idea of identity relating to yourself and others, Craig creates surreal works outlining these ideas.
Website: www.craigpeters.com
Instagram: @craigmeista
Enamel, India Ink, Acrylic, Charcoal, Oil, Graphite and Colored Pencil, on Canvas, 2020
To be completely honest, these monochromatic paintings started out of a necessity to preserve money once my paycheck got cut due to Covid restrictions. Shortly thereafter, these paintings became so much more than a personal reflection of my cut paycheck, they quickly became gestural marks highlighting my body’s movement through restricted space. In the act of making, these marks became more prominent by the attempted removal and smudging of their existence. In doing so, these automatic lines then became a visual source whose function is to organize, disrupt, and punctuate the borders that encapsulate them.
Sarah Dupré is an abstract artist who grew up in South Central Louisiana and moved to Illinois in 2015. She is an adjunct professor at McHenry County College and Elgin Community College where she teaches painting, drawing, and art appreciation. Dupré received her BFA from McNeese State University, Lake Charles, Louisiana (2015) and her MFA from Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois (2018). Using tar, oils, house paint, and charcoal to create her work, Sarah’s practice explores the relationship between drawing and painting. Dupré’s work was most recently exhibited in group shows at Joseph A. Cain Memorial Art Gallery, Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, Texas and Ashton Gallery, San Diego, California, and Cleaner Gallery + Projects, Chicago, Illinois.
Website: www.sarahduprearts.com
Instagram: @sarahedupre
Stoneware and Porcelain Ceramic, 2020
Working with clay is a great practice in collaboration with things outside my control, patience, and trusting the process. This creative outlet has been an anchor to joy during a time in which I have experienced dramatic shifts in my relationships with others and with myself. Making these pieces with my hands has opened up space in my mind to process deep personal and collective grief introduced by the COVID-19 global pandemic. My understanding of myself, my connection to others, and my role in the world are transitioning. Ups/downs, ends/beginnings, and growing pains are an inevitable part of the journey. But much like the ceramics process, there is some magic in the transformation.
Tanya Zal grew up in upstate New York, and earned a BFA at The College of St Rose in Albany, NY. She has spent the last decade working at non profit arts organizations and building a creative ceramic practice in Austin, TX. She also offers compassionate companionship as a full spectrum doula, providing support to those in variety of life experiences. Her work and play is driven by a curiosity of what makes us feel held, and the things that we hold close. Her ceramics are celebratory, surreal, and a colorful exploration of personal iconography.
Website: www.tanyazal.com
Instagram: @heartofgoo
Gouache on Paper, 2020
Push Lock (Self Portrait) examines the unique experiences of quarentining during Covid-19 pandemic in my childhood home and finding both a sense of familiarity and entrapment in seemingly mundane objects. Two pieces from a five part series, these self portraits reflect my exploration of present growth while constantly being surrounded by souvenir and the cognitive dissonance of past persona.
Samantha Van Heest (b. 1998) is an artist currently residing in Northern Virginia. She has exhibited her work in the Mid-Atlantic region and in Aix-en Provence, France. She was featured in New American Paintings South #148 and has worked as a studio intern for the painter, Amy Sherald. She is the recipient of the Alfred Levitt Memorial Scholarship in Art, the Emil R. Schnellock Award for Excellence in Painting, and the Roasalie Chauncey Memorial Scholarship.
Website: www.samanthavanheest.com
Instagram: @samanthavanheest
Gouache on paper, 2020
“It is an artist’s duty to reflect the times” - Nina Simone
I’ve had COVID-19 twice, once a year ago before anyone knew what it was and then again this past December. Not being able to spend time in my studio in East Orange because of quarantine left me frustrated and disconnected. There were two bright spots. One was working on a Black Lives Matter mural project through Liquitex and Manufacturers Village (where my studio is) and the other was creating paper sculptures for the first time. The mural project, which is on going, has left me feeling much more connected to my artist community and to the larger East Orange community. The paper sculptures were created during quarantine and a direct result from not being in the studio and having to find a new way to work.
Christine Romanell’s colorful wall sculptures and installations explore non-repeating patterns informed by cosmology and physics, while rooting itself in applied design similar to Islamic patterning. Her use of rotational symmetry to generate dimensional forms allude to movement and create an event horizon, a space where the infinite tessellations of universal physics can intersect with patterns, collapsing the divide between the theoretical and the real.
Romanell lives and works in New Jersey where she’s on the board of Manufacturers Village Artists space in East Orange. She is the founder and editor of NotWhatItIs art blog. Her work has been discussed in Hyperallergic, MIT Technology Review, Art and Cake, ArtFuse, ArtSpiel and WoArt. Her sculptures have been included in ArtPrize and she is a recipient of an NEA grant for her work through Chashama in NYC. She has lectured at Pratt University and taught at the College of St Elizabeth. Her BFA is from the School of Visual Arts (NYC) and her MFA is from Montclair State University (Montclair NJ.)
Website: www.christineromanell.com
Instagram: csromanell
Gouache on paper, 2020
Keyed Entry (Self Portrait) examines the unique experiences of quarentining during Covid-19 pandemic in my childhood home and finding both a sense of familiarity and entrapment in seemingly mundane objects. Two pieces from a five part series, these self portraits reflect my exploration of present growth while constantly being surrounded by souvenir and the cognitive dissonance of past persona.
Samantha Van Heest (b. 1998) is an artist currently residing in Northern Virginia. She has exhibited her work in the Mid-Atlantic region and in Aix-en Provence, France. She was featured in New American Paintings South #148 and has worked as a studio intern for the painter, Amy Sherald. She is the recipient of the Alfred Levitt Memorial Scholarship in Art, the Emil R. Schnellock Award for Excellence in Painting, and the Roasalie Chauncey Memorial Scholarship.
Website: www.samanthavanheest.com
Instagram: @samanthavanheest