Against the Grain: The Stories We Tell Ourselves

AGAINST THE GRAIN THE STORIES WE TELL OURSELVES JANUARY 17 - FEBRUARY 21, 2024

CURATOR STATEMENT “We tell ourselves stories in order to live… We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the moral or social lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, we select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images.” - Joan Didion Drawing from Didion’s understanding of how information is processed and recalled through emotional narratives, Against the Grain: The Stories We Tell Ourselves is a group exhibition that brings together work from contemporary artists who challenge and explore the complicated nature of archives, in the contexts of both institutional and bodily memory. The exhibition encourages the viewer to recognize the impulse to “look for the sermon in the suicide” and become aware of the ways we connect the disparate dots of memories and cultural events to suit the narrative of The Stories We Tell Ourselves.

By way of bodily and architectural creations, Yan Cynthia Chen and Peter Hoffmeister explore the notion of the body and the building as archives. Chen’s utilization of organic materials such as herbs and citrus fruit evokes the fragility of life, referencing both genres of vanitas and memento-mori painting, dynamically expressed in three dimensions. Quality Control by Peter Hoffmeister is an ongoing project in which Hoffmeister creates site-specific arrangements of hollow ceramic bricks, sourced from clay local to areas previously occupied by brick-making factories. Through Hoffmeister’s delicate recreations, he complicates material assumptions of strength while

resurrecting the shapes of bricks handled by bricklayers of previous generations. Moreover, Epoch by Hoffmeister and Measures of Proximity by Chen utilize bones as symbols of loss and possibility.

The archival theme is further explored by the assemblage sculptures of Abigail DeVille, who reanimates the invisible histories of anonymously discarded objects rescued from the garbage of a New York City street. Likewise, Kathleen Granados uses commonplace materials such as personally used dishcloths, cutlery, and grooming tools to create ghostly sculptures that exist as emotional monuments of domestic spaces and inherited history.

By way of chronicling the minutiae of daily life in Sensitive Information, Emily Shanahan questions hierarchies of value, going against the grain of prioritizing recordings of the impressive over the banal. E. Lombardo appropriates popular film stills to dissect symbols of power in cinema and culture at large. Within both artists’ work, the dance of text and image highlights the influence of narrative in how we make sense of visual information, by way of movies, photographs, and historical documents.

The tension between family history and myth is humorously discussed through the videos of Topher Lineberry and Bryan Zanisnik, who use their relatives as subjects of campy films through repurposed home videos or interviews that mine family histories. Within the paintings and assemblages of Karewith Casas, the artist depicts images of family members sourced from photographs. These tender paintings provoke reflection on the frozen-in-time moments rendered while evoking contemplation on how those memories were formed and preserved. These feelings of ambivalence are materialized through abstractions the artist creates with a lively palette of colors, emblazoned by poetic lines of texts, ripped from the pages of the artist’s diary.

CURATOR BIO

Dana Notine is an independent curator and art historian based in Brooklyn, New York and Washington, D.C. She has curated shows for Hauser & Wirth, Established Gallery, and Art in Buildings as well as the 205 Hudson Art Gallery at Hunter College. She was the 2022 Visiting Curator and Writer for Ki Smith Gallery.

Notine completed her undergraduate studies in Art History at the Fashion Institute of Technology (SUNY) and her MA at Hunter College (CUNY), where she completed her thesis on the 1999 artwork Quiet: We Live in Public by Josh Harris. She has worked with organizations such as The Brooklyn Museum and Art 21 and contributed writing to Assemblage Journal and Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, in addition to the Brooklyn Rail. She is an art history instructor and the manager of events and partnerships for ArtsClub, Dupont Circle.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS Opening Reception Wednesday, January 17, 2024 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Public Program Tuesday, February 6, 2024 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Closing Reception Wednesday, February 21, 2024 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos 450 Grand Concourse at 149th St., Room C-190 Bronx, New York 10451 (718) 518-6728 longwood@bronxarts.org

Longwood Arts Project The Longwood Arts Project is the contemporary visual arts program of the Bronx Council on the Arts, with the mission to support artists and their work, especially emerging artists from underrepresented groups, such as people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and women. The Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos presents solo and group exhibitions of works of art produced in various media, through interdisciplinary practices that connect emerging artists, communities, and ideas within and beyond The Bronx.

The Bronx Council on the Arts Founded by visionary community leaders in 1962, The Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA) is a pioneer in advancing cultural equity in The Bronx. From our early beginnings as a presenter of affordable arts programming in select Bronx neighborhoods, we have grown into a cultural hub that serves the entire creative ecosystem of the borough. Our programs serve artists, the public, and the field at large by building connections, providing resources, and advocating for equitable practices. Then as of now, we focus on supporting the work of underrepresented groups – especially artists of color, women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Through this lens, we offer affordable programs for seniors and youth and provide direct services to over 1,500 artists and 250 community-based arts groups each year. www.bronxarts.org

The Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture Named “the powerful locus for Latino art” by the New York Times, the Hostos Center serves the cultural needs of South Bronx residents and neighboring communities. As a leader in Latinx and African-based programming, the Center creates performing and visual arts forums in which the diverse cultural heritages of its audiences are celebrated and nurtured. The Hostos Center consists of two state-of-the art theaters of 900 and 367 seats each, an experimental Black Box theater and a museum-grade art gallery. Hostos Center events are sponsored by the Hostos Community College Foundation with funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Office of NYC Councilmember Rafael Salamanca, Jr. www.hostoscenter.org

LONGWOOD ART GALLERY @ HOSTOS YOUTH ARTS ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM Longwood’s Youth Engagement Program, launched in 2018, is designed to engage Bronx youth with the rich visual arts scene that surrounds them. By providing gallery experiences they can relate to – and interactions with artists who reside in the same neighborhoods, share similar cultural identities, and even nations of origin – young people gain formative experiences of cultural engagement that last a lifetime.

Activities are free, age-appropriate, and created by professional teaching artists to foster critical thinking, interviewing and public speaking skills. If your organization, school, or group works with youth and would like to discuss scheduling a workshop or to arrange a visit, email us at longwood@bronxarts.org or call (718) 518-6728.

Illustration by Ruben Ramirez

YOUTH JOURNALIST ENTRY COMING SOON

YOUTH JOURNALIST ENTRY COMING SOON

KAREWITH CASAS Karewith Casas is a first generation Chicano artist from Northern California currently living and working in NYC. Karewith received his BA from the Art Studio Program at the University of California, Davis (2020) and was awarded the Freemon Gadberry Award in Art. He is currently an MFA candidate at Hunter College.

Addressing the contemplative nature of human existence is an undergirding ethos of his work.

Karewith Casas, Bulletproof Tierra del Sol (cuervos on the line), 2023, oil on found tarp, 20 x 15.5 inches

YAN CYNTHIA CHEN Yan Cynthia Chen (b. China) is an artist and educator based in New York City. She investigates materials traditionally used to package, protect, or imprint like paper pulp, clay, and plaster to create uncanny abstract sculptures that reference the human body. Her sculptures are recognizable yet unidentifiable forms: an eyeball, socket joint, an organ, or fruit, to engage viewers’ prelingual perception and draw threads between systems within our body, in nature and culture.

Chen holds a BFA in Sculpture from The Rhode Island School of Design. She was a fellow in the Bronx Museum AIM program and participated in the Yale Norfolk Summer Residency. Chen had a solo exhibition at Olympia and participated in group exhibitions including the AIM Biennial at the Bronx Museum, Assembly Room, and Westbeth Gallery. She is projected to receive her MFA from CUNY Hunter College in January 2024.

Yan Cynthia Chen, Measures of Proximity, 2021, glazed stoneware, paper, aqua resin, 72 x 36 x 8 inches

ABIGAIL DEVILLE Born in 1981, native New Yorker Abigail DeVille has a deep personal relationship with the city and a long-established interest in the marginalized histories of marginalized communities of color within it.

DeVille’s most recent solo exhibition was Abigail DeVille: Bronx Heavens at the Bronx Museum of the Arts (2023) and Light of Freedom, organized

by Madison Square Park Conservancy (2020-21), which traveled to the Momentary at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR (2021) and the Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (2021-22).

Other commissions and solo museum shows include The American Future, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland (201819); Lift Every Voice and Sing (amerikanskie gorki) at Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2017-2018); Empire State Works in Progress (2017) at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; No Space Hidden (Shelter) at Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2017-2018), and Only When It’s Dark Enough Can You See The Stars at The Contemporary, Baltimore (2016).

Abigail DeVille, Optic Nerve, 2023, wood framed mirror, chicken wire, galvanized wire, mirror shards, photographs from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of Harlem in the 1940s50s, 54 x 41 x 14 inches

KATHLEEN GRANADOS Kathleen Granados is an artist and educator based in New York City. Granados uses her family archives and everyday materials to create works that span sculpture, installation, and sound. From cultural institutions to historic house museums, Granados has been exhibiting and creating installations in a wide range of spaces since 2009.

Granados holds an MFA from Hunter College, and a BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she has been as a part-time instructor. She also serves as a visiting artist for the BFA Fine Arts program at the School of Visual Arts. Her recent exhibitions include Object Fluency: Ronald Gonzales and Kathleen Granados, at The Cluster Gallery, and Uptown Triennial 2023 at Wallach Gallery, Columbia University.

Kathleen Granados, Seeping, 2022, dishtowel, drain strainer, window screen, Granados’s grandmother’s nightgown, modeling paste, thread, fabric, glue, 10.5 x 5.25 inches

PETER HOFFMEISTER Peter Hoffmeister (b. 1985, Long Island, New York) uses a variety of materials to create installations, sculptures, and prints that address systems of power in the United States.

Often using historical events, places, and documents as a lens through which to understand the present, his work engages prevailing narratives to understand how they have been shaped and to contemplate how they might be changed. Many of his projects are site-responsive, where the history and architecture of a location guide the evolution of the work.

Hoffmeister received a BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and an MFA from Hunter College where he has also taught since 2018. Solo projects include Quality Control, NADA House (P.A.D.), Governors Island, NY; GroundRevision, The Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, New York, NY; Bill(board), 14 x48, New York, NY; and Unpacked, The Morris-Jumel Mansion, New York, NY. Recent residencies and fellowships include the Wave Hill Winter Workspace Program, Bronx, NY; Visible Records, Charlottesville, VA; Lighthouse Works, Fishers Island, NY; and the Bronx Museum’s AIM Fellowship.

Peter Hoffmeister, Quality Control (Gravity Check), 2023, ceramic (clay sourced from the Eastern U.S.) and mason line, various dimensions

TOPHER LINEBERRY Topher Lineberry is a multidisciplinary artist whose work mediates research, experience, ethics, and desire.

Lineberry has shown work at galleries and museums across the U.S. and internationally and presented academic research at colleges, universities, and archives.

Lineberry was born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina while having spent considerable parts of their life in the Blue Ridge Mountains. They received a BFA from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of the Fine Arts, Boston. They recently earned an MFA at Hunter College in New York City.

In 2022, Lineberry published an article for the peer-reviewed Journal of Black Mountain College Studies; received the Tufts/SMFA Alum Traveling Fellowship; finalist for the 2023 Marjorie Strider Foundation Grant; and was most recently a Lecturer in the Department of Art at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. Lineberry’s work is soon to be published through Amherst College Press in the upcoming volume, Unserious Ecocriticism: Humor, Wit, Play, and Environmental Destruction in North American Contemporary Art & Visual Culture.

Topher Lineberry, Sleep of Desire Produces Mascots, 2019-2020, single-channel video, 12:45 seconds

E. LOMBARDO Lombardo (they/she) is a Queer American Bronxbased artist. Their studio practice examines art historical, sociopolitical, and pop cultural images to recognize and reveal entrenched patterns of human behavior. Their work examines how the narratives we consume and internalize inform our understanding of identity.

Lombardo earned their MFA from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts in Boston, MA. They received a 2021 Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO) award and were a 2021 Bronx AIM Fellow.

Their work is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Academy Art Museum in Maryland, The Mead Museum at Amherst College, Boston Public Library, and Wheaton College.

E. Lombardo, On the Verge, 2021, acrylic on panel, 30 x 30 inches

EMILY SHANAHAN Emily Shanahan works in video and mixed media. She received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and completed the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program.

Her work has been exhibited in Norway, Germany, Singapore, Canada, and the United States.

She has been an Artist in Residence at the Terra Foundation for American Art in Giverny, France, the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NYC, and the Vermont Studio Center. Her recent artist book Work Life Harmony, published by Sming Sming Books, is held in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Library Collection and the Walker Art Center Library.

Emily Shanahan, Sensitive Information, 2020, single-channel video, 10:15 seconds

BRYAN ZANISNIK Bryan Zanisnik was born in Union, New Jersey, and currently lives between the Catskills and New York City.

He received an MFA from Hunter College and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

Zanisnik has recently exhibited and performed in New York at MoMA PS1, Sculpture Center, and the Brooklyn Museum; in Philadelphia at the Institute of Contemporary Art and the Fabric Workshop and Museum; in Miami at the De La Cruz Collection; in Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Photography; in Los Angeles at LAXART; and internationally at the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, the Kunsthalle Exnergasse in Vienna, and the FuturaCentre for Contemporary Art in Prague.

Zanisnik’s work has been widely featured in the New York Times, National Public Radio, Art in America, Artforum, ARTnews, Modern Painters, Time Out New York, and the Village Voice. He has completed residencies at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Program, the Smack Mellon Artist Studio Program, the Macdowell Colony, the Art Omi International Artists Residency, and the Guangdong Times Museum in Guangzhou, China.

Zanisnik is included in Art21’s award-winning documentary series New York Close Up. He has been a featured guest on the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC and is a contributing writer at Triple Canopy.

Recently, he presented a major solo exhibition at Franconia Sculpture Park in Minnesota.

Bryan Zanisnik, Remembrance of Things Past, 2006, single-channel video, 07:07 seconds

AGAINST THE GRAIN THE STORIES WE TELL OURSELVES All works courtesy of the artists unless otherwise noted.

Karewith Casas …mientras las abejas dormían, el colibrí cantó su oda…, 2023 Oil on canvas 8 x 12 feet

Karewith Casas amanecí entre tus brazos, 2023 Oil and cyanotype on dropcloth, dried roses, chicote and milkcrate Various dimensions

Karewith Casas Bulletproof Tierra del Sol (cuervos on the line), 2023 Oil on found tarp 20 x 15.5 inches

Karewith Casas Estados Dorados Alterados (meditating en las alturas), 2023 Oil and cyanotype on dropcloth 12 x 15 inches

Yan Cynthia Chen Retain, 2019 Glazed stoneware, copper mesh, silicone, and hardware 20 x 32 x 5 inches

Yan Cynthia Chen Measures of Proximity, 2021 Glazed stoneware, paper, aqua resin 72 x 36 x 8 inches

Yan Cynthia Chen Shelf Life 1, 2023 Pomelo fruit, slip cast oranges, wood and tree branch 13 x 48 x 18 inches

Yan Cynthia Chen Citrus and Lavender, 2022 Paper pulp, citrus fruits, dried lavender, cotton twine Various dimensions

Abigail DeVille Comet Come to Me, 2023 Antique wood door, paint, porcelain hand for casting rubber gloves, artists’ jewelry 79.50 x 24 x 7 inches

Abigail DeVille Left ventricle, 2023 Antique folding chair, antique medical magnifier lamp, vacuum cleaner, antique dolls, bungee cords, cables, wires, zip ties, artists’ jewelry, vintage buttons, anatomical model of the heart 58 x 31 x 24 inches

Abigail DeVille Midnight, 2023 Plywood, paint, wire, plastic ironing board, found image, flashlights, foil tape 68 x 68 x 12 inches

Abigail DeVille Optic Nerve, 2023 Wood framed mirror, chicken wire, galvanized wire, mirror shards, photographs from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of Harlem in the 1940s-50s 54 x 41 x 14 inches

Kathleen Granados Seeping, 2022 Dishtowel, drain strainer, window screen, my grandmother’s nightgown, modeling paste, thread, fabric, glue 10.5 x 5.25 inches

Kathleen Granados Between Quiet, 2019 Family dishtowels, thread, modeling paste, embroidery scissors, sewing scissors, grooming scissors 36 x 30 x 0.5 inches

Kathleen Granados Premonition, 2020 Dishtowel, drain strainer, window screen, my grandmother’s nightgown, modeling paste, thread, fabric, glue 10.5 x 5.25 inches

Kathleen Granados Visitors, 2020, Found dishtowels, teaspoons, fabric, thread, modeling paste 11.5 x 10 x 0.5 inches

Peter Hoffmeister Epoch, 2022 Artist’s baby teeth and a Long Island beach stone 3 x 2 x 2 inches

Peter Hoffmeister Quality Control (Gravity Check), 2023 Ceramic (clay sourced from the Eastern U.S.) and mason line Various Dimensions

Topher Lineberry Sleep of Desire Produces Mascots, 2019-2020 Single-channel video 12:45 seconds

E. Lombardo Devourer, 2020 Screen print on panel 12 x 48 inches

E. Lombardo Take me Away, 2021 Acrylic on panel 24 x 48 inches

E. Lombardo On the Verge, 2021 Acrylic on panel 30 x 30 inches

Emily Shanahan Sensitive Information, 2020 Single-channel video 10:15 seconds

E. Lombardo Intimacy, 2015 Relief print with paint on paper 36 x 60 inches

Emily Shanahan Women in Space, 2012 Single-channel video without sound 01:55 seconds

Bryan Zanisnik Remembrance of Things Past, 2006 Single-channel video 07:07 seconds

The Bronx Council on the Arts is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; Arts Midwest and the National Endowment for the Arts; the Coalition of Theaters of Color; the Cultural Immigrant Initiative; City Council Members Eric Dinowitz and Marjorie Velázquez; Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson; NYS Assemblymember Michael Benedetto and the NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services; and the Hispanic Federation, the City of New York, and the Department of Youth and Community Development. Also supported in part by the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Booth Ferris Foundation, the Altman Foundation, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Amazon, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the New Yankee Stadium Community Benefits Fund, the Tiger Baron Foundation, Claire and Theodore Morse Foundation, and Con Edison. Special thanks to Hostos Community College and the Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture for their support.

Bronx Council on the Arts 2700 E Tremont Ave Bronx, New York 10461 www. bronxarts.org @BronxArtsOrg