SAWCC’s 14th Annual Visual Arts Exhibition
Saturday, September 17–Monday, October 3, 2011
Opening Reception: September 17, 5–7pm
@ Cuchifritos Gallery
120 Essex Street, Essex Street Market, (South End of the Market, nearest Delancey Street)
New York, NY 10002
Curated by Maymanah Farhat
Featuring Jaishri Abichandani, Nida Abidi, Fariba Alam, Vaidehi Kinkhabwala, Priya Nadkarni, Sadia Salim, Amruta Shah, Tuba Zaki, Hayat Gul, and Vandana Jain
As Open/Close will be on display in Cuchifritos, a nonprofit art space that is located in the Essex Street Market, this forthcoming exhibition seeks to engage, highlight, and explore the complex undercurrents that define the social terrain of a popular New York City shopping district. With a layout that is reminiscent of an old world bazaar, the Essex Street Market is meant to create a small commercial hub for a diverse community of longtime residents, immigrants, and recent urban transplants. Organized with a strict set of guidelines that outlines the need for each vendor to present an aesthetically pleasing display, the Essex Street Market is in many ways like a gallery, or even an art fair, in which curators are expected to arrange their designated spaces as they vie for the interest of viewers. Essentially, the act of curating is visible throughout the market, as the fostering of visual culture results from meticulous displays of products.
At the center of the show’s curatorial premise are the connections that can be made between the selected works and the daily happenings of the market. A special emphasis has been placed on the layout, objects and overall experience of such an environment—from the visuals of household supplies that are displayed in an orderly fashion to the iconography of religious imagery that adorn a Catholic gift shop, and everything in between. Issues of identity, gender, class, race, globalization, and consumerism is crucial to the exhibition and is addressed through the many creative, theoretical, and sociopolitical investigations of the artists. By encountering, examining, and considering Open/Close, viewers are encouraged to establish links between the exhibited works and their surroundings so that they might reexamine how art and visual culture often overlap.
This event is made possible with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Images by SAWCCite Marcy Chevali
SAWCC VAÂ Committee includes: Jaishri Abichandani, Marcy Chevali, & Josheen Oberoi For further information please feel free to contact us info@sawcc.orgÂ