Grimanesa Amorós

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04/19/23 • 24 min

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Ep.149 features Grimanesa Amorós. Throughout her career, Peruvian-born American artist Grimanesa Amorós has harnessed the medium of light to create immersive monumental sculptures that engage visitors in contemplation of their cultural heritage, community, and relationship to technology. In the art of Amorós, the past is meeting the future. Her childhood fascination with light began on the shores of her homeland in Lima. The tumultuous waters of the immense pacific ocean would create iridescent sculptural foam. Amorós sites watching bubbles deflate and inflate, as if breathing, for the formal decisions in her later work. Describing her work as a "constant romance with the unknown", Amorós first incorporated light into her practice following a fated trip to Iceland. While there, she saw the northern lights and realized the powerful ephemeral magic light held. She discusses light's ability to transcend social and geographic boundaries "we all connect to light." Drawing upon critical cultural legacies and landscapes, Amorós is inspired by the communities she creates within. Installing and programming each piece on-site, direct interaction with the surrounding architecture is key to creating her work. "Ultimately, the piece connects the viewers, space, and light sculpture, merging them into one." Jane Farver writes, "A joyful and generous spirit, Amorós views her art as a gift to others." Amorós has connected cultures and viewers through the medium of light in the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and a Latin America as a guest speaker at TED Global 2014 and as a part of the Art in Embassies Program of the US. Photo credit : Chiara-Cusssatt Artist https://www.grimanesaamoros.com/ Artist interviews https://www.grimanesaamoros.com/interviews/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/grimanesa-amorós-ab0a285/ Leila Heller Gallery http://www.leilahellergallery.com/exhibitions/grimanesa-amoros-scientia Curbed https://www.curbed.com/article/grimanesa-amors-tribeca-loft-tour.html Hyperallergic https://hyperallergic.com/688431/an-artist-brings-light-to-mumbai/ Ted Global https://www.grimanesaamoros.com/press/ted-global-oct-2014-2/ BBC https://www.bbc.com/storyworks/culture/noor-riyadh/grimanesa-amors Wellbeing Project https://wellbeing-project.org/grimanesa-amoros-journey-in-the-arts/ A Women’s Thing https://awomensthing.org/blog/grimanesa-amoros/ Arte & Lusso https://arte8lusso.net/art/grimanesa-amoros/ Arab News https://www.arabnews.com/node/2143986/lifestyle Arte Realizzata https://www.arterealizzata.com/interviews/a-fascinating-conversation-with-grimanesa-amoros Brooklyn Museum https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/about/feminist_art_base/grimanesa-amoros Art Summit https://www.art-summit.com/grimanesa-amoros/ Arc Magazine https://www.arc-magazine.com/grimanesa-amoros/ Arab News https://www.arabnews.com/node/2222456/saudi-arabia Bazaar https://ar.harpersbazaararabia.com/hbanews Artforum https://www.artforum.com/artguide/azkuna-zentroa-12869/scientia-207490 Art Nexus https://www.artnexus.com/en/news/62ed3a99b426d929471ca150/grimanesa-amoros-scientia Artists Studios https://artists-studios.com/grimanesa-amoros

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Celeste Rapone

Ep.148 features Celeste Rapone (b. 1985, New Jersey). She is known for her narrative paintings that blur the boundaries between figuration and abstraction. At the core of Rapone’s practice are formalist concerns such as surface, pattern, and color that shape the artist’s inventive figures and scenes. The protagonists of these paintings – often female – are shown in varying moments of repose and activity, their bodies unapologetically spilling towards the edges of the canvas. Emphasizing the act of observation in her work, Rapone layers autobiographical and art historical sources that transcend appropriation. Celeste Rapone received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2007 andher MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013 where she is an adjunct professor in painting and drawing. Rapone’s work has been exhibited widely across the U.S. and abroad at Josh Lilley Gallery, London; Marianne Boesky Gallery, NY; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago; Roberts Projects, Los Angeles; Julius Caesar, Chicago; The Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; Georgia Museum of Art; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Rapone was the 2018 recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Her most recent solo exhibition House Sounds is currently on view at Josh Lilley Gallery in London, and her work will be included in the Bemis Center’s upcoming exhibition Presence in the Pause: Interiority and its Radical Immanence, opening May 20, 2023. Rapone lives and works in Chicago, IL and is represented by Corbett vs. Dempsey (Chicago), Marianne Boesky Gallery (New York), and Josh Lilley Gallery (London). Photo credit Whitney Bradshaw Artist http://www.celesterapone.com/ Josh Lilley Gallery https://joshlilleygallery.com/exhibitions/house-sounds Bemis Center https://www.bemiscenter.org/ Marianne Boesky Gallery https://marianneboeskygallery.com/press/242-forbes-celeste-rapone-crosses-the-river-to/ Corbett vs Dempsey Gallery https://corbettvsdempsey.com/artists/celeste-rapone/ ICA Boston https://www.icaboston.org/art/celeste-rapone/pack-animals Boston Globe https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/05/12/arts/ica-place-me-breathes-new-life-into-an-old-art-form/ Frieze https://www.frieze.com/article/celeste-rapone-house-sounds-2023-review Artnet https://news.artnet.com/buyers-guide/7-questions-celeste-rapone-josh-lilley-2274616 ARTnews https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/breaking-art-industry-news-april-2021-week-3-1234590255/ Luxembourg Times https://www.luxtimes.lu/en/culture/artists-who-travel-through-time-602d71e0de135b9236bfa5bc Hyde Park Art Center https://www.hydeparkart.org/directory/celeste-rapone-2/

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Melissa Joseph

Ep.150 features Melissa Joseph (b. 1980, Saint Marys PA), a New York based artist and independent curator. Her work addresses themes of memory, family history, and the politics of how we occupy spaces. She intentionally alludes to the labors of women as well as her experiences as a second generation American and the unique juxtapositions of diasporic life. Her work has been shown at the Delaware Contemporary, Woodmere Art Museum, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Jeffrey Deitch Projects, MOCA Arlington, and List Gallery at Swarthmore College. She has been featured in Hyperallergic, Artnet, New American Paintings, Le Monde, CNN, and Architectural Digest and participated in residencies at Dieu Donné, Fountainhead, BRIC, the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts, and will be in residence at the Museum of Arts and Design and Greenwich House Pottery in 2023. Headshot is by Samantha Casolari Artist https://www.melissajoseph.net/ Swarthmore https://www.swarthmore.edu/list-gallery/conflicting-truths-works-melissa-joseph The Utah Review https://www.theutahreview.com/exhibitions-about-identity-body-positivity-best-of-utah-design-arts-a-tribute-to-a-beloved-grandmother-artistic-reflection-on-human-mortality-and-realism-highlight-summer-shows-at-utah-museum-of-c/ Bomb Magazine https://bombmagazine.org/articles/melissa-joseph-interviewed/ MAD Museum https://madmuseum.org/learn/melissa-joseph Hyperallergic https://hyperallergic.com/640357/melissa-joseph-nee-regular-normal/ Culture Magazine https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2023/02/17/artists-frieze-los-angeles-focus-2023 Architectural Digest https://www.architecturaldigest.in/magazine-story/artist-melissa-josephs-felt-art-responds-to-her-biracial-identity/ Fondazione Imago Mundi https://fondazioneimagomundi.org/en/webdoc/melissa-joseph-eng/ Arte Realizzata https://www.arterealizzata.com/interviews/a-refreshing-conversation-with-melissa-joseph Textile Art Center https://textileartscenter.com/feature/air-artist-highlight-melissa-joseph/ Le Monde https://www.lemonde.fr/m-styles/article/2022/12/24/melissa-joseph-tissage-et-metissage_6155572_4497319.html Maake Magazine https://www.maakemagazine.com/melissa-joseph