ANCESTRAL WISDOM
ANCESTRAL WISDOM
MARCH 26 - APRIL 30, 2025
ARTISTS
asmara | Susan MacMurdy | Darryl Alexander Moore | Palén Obesa
CURATOR
Lucia Warck-Meister
CURATORIAL STATEMENT
THE WORLD WE WANT TO LIVE IN / ANCESTRAL WISDOM
Ancestral Wisdom is a group exhibition featuring four contemporary Bronx artists selected through the recently introduced Open Call for Artists by the Longwood Art Gallery at the Bronx Council on the Arts. The artists in the exhibition draw upon generational teachings, traditions, and rituals to explore how ancestral heritage shapes our understanding of the world.
Rooted in this invaluable legacy, the artworks engage with pressing social issues, the natural world, the body, gender constructs, and the fluid intersections between ecological systems and the built environment.
Emphasizing the restoration of a fragmented reality, Susan MacMurdy bridges the natural world and urban life. She explores the hidden footpaths and ponds of urban parks and forests in the Northwest Bronx and northern Manhattan, revealing the delicate balance between nature and the built environment. This fragile relationship is echoed in the thin, vulnerable layers of paper she uses to create her collages, reinforcing a sense of delicacy and interdependence. MacMurdy rejects traditional hierarchies, employing a flat perspective where human and non-human subjects, as well as inanimate objects, share equal status—each element given the same weight within the composition.
Tormented lines follow Palén Obesa’s engravings. Digging into stories from her native Dominican Republic, Palén questions the nature of womanhood contrasting Western religious definitions —which impose submissive roles on women— with ancestral matriarchal empowerment. This tension between imposed limitations and inherited strength extends to her broader explorations of conflict, as other works depict the struggle between nature and humankind, where human actions inevitably lead to self-destruction. Through this journey, her work invites us to reflect on profound philosophical questions about purpose and justice within the natural world.
Darryl Alexander Moore’s work functions as a form of social criticism, challenging gender constructs and societal stereotypes imposed on women. Drawing inspiration from comic books and Roy Lichtenstein’s 1960s Pop Art paintings, Moore reinterprets the style to address pressing contemporary social and political issues. Expanding Pop Art’s traditional critique of consumer culture, the artist integrates elements of ancestral heritage, creating a dialogue between past and present. This approach is particularly evident in Moore’s books and zines, where heroes embody archetypal figures such as the warrior, healer, or sage. Shared by both comic book heroes and ancestral figures, these archetypes transcend time and culture, reflecting universal human experiences of courage, sacrifice, resilience, and transformation.
For asmara, art is deeply intertwined with life, spirit, nature, and community. Her site-specific installation seeks to reimagine mapmaking through ancestral, indigenous, and embodied practices, challenging colonial cartographic methods. By using memory, plants, events, and cosmic elements instead of conventional mapping techniques, the project highlights the significance of orientation and green spaces in the Bronx, particularly in the face of gentrification. The resulting map is an intimate, multimedia collage incorporating film, images, text, and plant materials to evoke the deep connection
between people and their environment, emphasizing memory and experience over abstraction and measurement.
Through the voices of these artists, Ancestral Wisdom invites us to reimagine our collective future by honoring the lessons of the past, fostering a deeper connection with nature, and embracing the transformative power of heritage to create a world rooted in balance, equity, and understanding.
CURATOR BIO
Lucia Warck-Meister, Gallery Director at BCA, Curator of Ancestral Wisdom
Lucia Warck-Meister is the recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Fellowship; Ibermuseum Prize; First Prize, Biennial of Sculpture in Public Spaces, Palm Beach, Florida; MTA Arts For Transit, Finalist, 231st Station, Bronx, NY; Public Art Program/Summit, City Hall, NJ; Creative Climate Awards, Human Impacts Institute; Artist’s Fellowship, Inc. New York, NY; National Endowment for the Arts Grant Buenos Aires; and was an artist in residency at School of Visual Arts, NY; TransborderArt Governors Island Residency; The Bakehouse, Miami, FL; Oolite Artist Residency, Miami; SACO6 Award Antofagasta, Chile; NYFA Immigrant Mentoring Program; CAMAC, Marnay-sur-Seine, France; American Academy in Rome, Italy; Sculpture Space, Utica, NY. Her work is included in The Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL; Marvin and Ruth Collection, Miami, FL; The Taplin Collection, The Sagamore Hotel Video Lounge, Miami, FL; Royal Caribbean Art Foundation, Miami, FL; Stanley Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa; MEIAC –Museo Extremadura e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporaneo-, Badajoz, Spain; Diego Rivera Mural Museum, DF, Mexico; Deutsche Bank Art Foundation; Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat, Buenos Aires.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Opening Reception
Wednesday, March 26, 2025, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Public Program
Thursday, April 24, 2025, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Closing Reception
Wednesday, April 30, 2025, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA)
Longwood Art Gallery
2700 East Tremont Avenue Bronx, NY, 10461 (718) 931-9500 Ext. 22 longwood@bronxarts.org
Longwood Arts Project
The Longwood Arts Project is the contemporary visual arts program of the Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA), 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 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
LONGWOOD ART GALLERY
YOUTH ARTS ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM
Longwood’s Youth Arts 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 arrange a gallery tour, email us at longwood@bronxarts.org or call (718) 931-9500 Ext. 22.
Illustration by Ruben Ramirez
Ancestral Wisdom – Longwood Art Gallery
Samantha Diaz
Ancestry is cultivated in many different forms, not just what makes our identity or being. Ancestry can be timeless, natural, transformative, and cultural.
Darryl Alexander Moore’s collection is influenced by famous pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. “When I started doing these paintings a year and a half ago, I just thought, ‘Why don’t I try the Lichtenstein style, but updated to 21st-century situations and ideas?’”
I’m Late... and Anna of the... are two works that speak to the reality of women in America, where abortion is banned. Along with that comes A Bridge Too Far reveals the excuses being made for the events of January 6th.
Priorities and Cheesecake Factory are associated more with the pop culture concerns of women today. Getting Beyoncé tickets is all the craze, but a first date at the Cheesecake Factory? Not so much.
asmara and David Onabanjo’s collaboration turns into natural pieces: This Place I’ll Remember, with images and vegetation taken from Ujamaa Garden.
“People keep asking me if this is me! It’s my sister and our dear friend Penelope.” The figure in the art is asmara’s sister, Penelope. Her ancestry is within nature, creating a spiritual connection where her figure and the environment become one.
abndn, by asmara, is a ten-minute short film featuring dancing and paintings. The process of making the piece was not easy, as they dealt with limited funding and equipment. “This was only possible because of the personal relationships that exist between everyone who was involved in the art.”
Palén Obesa’s work is multi-layered as political, vulnerable, and intimate with dark undertones. “I embrace despair as a pathway to healing, so even if my work reads as ‘heavy’ or ‘dark,’ I believe it’s a transformative experience that can lead to beautiful and positive discoveries.”
Her work was heavily inspired by her own experiences as a Dominican immigrant, as well as the political and social conversations of the Mexican Revolution. The Aches and Pains of Daily Living and Memorable Memories have this commentary, as well as dreamlike, painful, and distant emotions.
Journaling, poems, and inner monologues also function as sources of her work. Kindhearted features the powerful image of a figure riding on a fierce animal, Disruption conveys a fight for survival, and All the Women I Know are Broken has a mutilated head as the universal symbol of all these feelings.
Susan MacMurdy, a longtime Bronx resident, keeps the culture of the borough alive through collaging its natural scenes. “There’s so many misconceptions that people have about The Bronx, so that’s kind of part of my hidden agenda.”
Mother of All Moons captures the Bronx Super moon that happened in 2023. Turnings is a collage of things MacMurdy finds in a pond in the city. Swan Seekers highlights a time during the pandemic when she saw a family of swans at Van Cortlandt Park.
All of these aspects are often overlooked in a city where we are so busy worrying about other things in our lives. “People say to me all the time, ‘It’s so beautiful, where is that?’ I say, ‘Well that’s actually, you know, right behind my apartment building.’’
Our ancestry, whether it be natural, cultural, or spiritual, is a part of us in some way. The artists’ definitions of that wisdom were a reflection of their work.
ASMARA
Guided by Black Feminist Insurgency, asmara is dedicated to the reality that freedom is a place we can build and arrive at in this lifetime. They study and practice traditions of feminist revolution to reignite the liberatory world-building that occurs before, during, and in the wake of global systems of domination. Inspired by the ancient relationship between women and nature, her work catalyzes the consciousness shifts necessary to restore dignity to the earth and third-world women; at the center of this is a reconfiguration of the feminine body as a precious and profound locus in earthly and cosmic ecosystems. As an artist of the experimental tradition, she focuses on raising social empathy through intimate community building and the creative practices of writing, performance, and film. As part of this practice, asmara grows food for free distribution to support resilient, sovereign community at Ujamaa Garden in the Northeast Bronx.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The impetus of asmara’s creative practice is their years of research in traditional archives, searching for subjects who are not properly cared for by institutional spaces, methods, and structures. Both of their pieces in this exhibition, abndn and This place, I’ll remember, began with archiving the oral histories of Black women who have made incredible contributions to their communities. In abndn, Nonna’s hands and voice guides us through the recipe for the traditional Afro-Cuban stew, Ajiaco. In Matanzas, where the film and Nonna’s life take place, the vestiges of colonization are inescapable, from dilapidated sugar mills to hungry children. The visual language of the film juxtaposes an abandoned train once used for transporting sugar with intimate images of Nonna’s hands. Much like the Cuban people, the train was abandoned once it
no longer served the colonizers. With this juxtaposition, they are attempting to trigger a confrontation that might inspire a different understanding of abandoned land, not dissimilar to the transformation they’ve experienced at Ujamaa Garden. It was not the hands of the colonizers that once made these landscapes rich and productive. It was always the Cuban people, specifically those of African descent. Although confronting colonial landscapes is traumatic, it is necessary to move through this trauma to discover new possibilities for the land. Land that can still be rich and productive, land that could be used to mitigate the various crises facing the Cuban people. Potentially abundant land. Part of a series of vignettes, this film attempts to honor the labor and creativity of Black women that can catalyze solutions to colonial problems. The visual language draws inspiration from Baby Suggs’s sermon in Beloved by Toni Morrison, “And O my people they do not love your hands. Those they only use, tie, bind, chop off and leave empty. Love your hands! Love them. Raise them up and kiss them. Touch others with them, pat them together, stroke them on your face ‘cause they don’t love that either. You got to love it, you!”
asmara, collaboration with David Onabanjo in connection to Ujamaa Garden, This Place I’ll Remember, 2025, image, film, text, plant material, 10 feet 25 inches x 8 feet 8 inches
SUSAN MACMURDY
Susan MacMurdy is a Bronx-based collage artist, relief printmaker, and former educator. Her mixed media collages and early woodblock and linoleum prints have been exhibited in solo, curated, and juried exhibitions throughout the New York metropolitan area and the Hudson Valley.
She was an artist-inresidence at the David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center in Tarrytown, NY in 2023 and a two-time Bronx Council of the Arts
BRIO Award Winner in 2022 and 2024. Her artwork has appeared on book covers, poetry journals, and publications focused on nonviolence, spirituality, social, and earth justice. Her current work contemplates the complex relationship between Nature and the urban environment.
ARTIST STATEMENT
At the most fundamental level, our ancestral home resides in Nature.
The Divine speaks through Nature in a universal language that our ancestors were animated by and rested in. It is a world many of us living in modern cities are largely cut off from.
Inspired by the community gardens, city parks, and urban woodlands of the Bronx, my current work explores the edges between Nature and the built environment where access to the natural world of our ancestors can be reclaimed, repaired, and restored.
MacMurdy, Conversations With Ancestors, 2025, 2D mixed media collage, 36 x 24 inches
Susan
DARRYL ALEXANDER MOORE
Darryl Alexander Moore was born in 1963 in Brooklyn, New York. In 1978 he moved to The Bronx with his family and has lived there ever since. During that time, Darryl attended the High School of Art and Design (1977-1981), and then enrolled at the School of Visual Arts, where he earned his BFA in Cartooning. In 1988, Darryl began his career in Education as a teacher for the New York City Board of Education. During that tenure, Darryl focused on teaching art to elementary school children in The Bronx for 34 years until his retirement in 2022. During this time (1988-present) Darryl continued to pursue his first love, creating art. He has self-published three children’s books: Tales of a Fifth Grade Know-It-All, Delirious Tiberious, Rickey’s Rude Awakening, and his proudest work, the graphic novel, Yvette and the Danger Rangerettes. Currently (2025), Darryl has been working as a vendor for the NYC DOE as a muralist and is also hard at work on his next graphic novel, Shannon Simone Versus the Principal of Doom! (2026).
ARTIST STATEMENT
21st Century Pop (2024) is a series of everyday situations faced by 21st century American women done in the Pop Art style of Roy Lichtenstein. The six pieces are all done in acrylic on canvas. Like the genre that the pieces are taken from the palette of colors are bright and bold, with a heavy emphasis on primary colors. The purpose I strove to achieve was to showcase a decidedly diverse set of women
dealing with political and cultural state of affairs in their own unique ways. As a result, the fresh, and current approach to the comic-book stylings of Lichtenstein is updated and given a 21st century mindset. Overall, the series invites the viewer to regard 2024’s hot-button topics, from light-hearted issues like dining at the Cheesecake Factory and inflated Beyonce concert tickets, to more serious concerns such as the 2024 presidential election and a woman’s right to choose, in a bold, unambiguous manner.
Darryl Alexander Moore, I’m Late, acrylic on canvas, 24 X 36 inches
PALÉN OBESA
Palén Obesa [Paloma Leida Natividad Obergh Santos] is a visual artist whose work scrutinizes the principles of pain and mortality through a span of mediums, including printmaking, digital art, painting, and drawing. Sown and sprouted in the Dominican Republic, Obesa was transplanted to NYC during their formative years, where they received a BFA in Painting and Drawing from SUNY Purchase in 2017. Often inspired by daydreams, inner monologues, and intrusive thoughts, Obesa’s work delineates intricate dream-like scenarios through the rich use of symbols, nature and unsettling imagery.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work explores the complexities of identity, power, and transformation through the lens of womanhood, culture, and nature. Through bold imagery and symbolic references, I challenge societal narratives and the ways in which history has shaped our perceptions and behaviours. Through these works, I invite the viewer to reflect on the tensions between external expectations and internal truths. My art is a conversation about selfhood, struggle, and the ways in which we negotiate our place within both personal and societal narratives.
Palén Obesa, Memorable Memories, 2022, screenprinting, 15 x 22 inches
ANCESTRAL WISDOM
All works courtesy of the artists unless otherwise noted.
asmara
This place, I’ll remember, 2025 In collaboration with David Onabanjo and in connection to Ujamaa Garden
Image, film, and plant material 10 feet x 8 feet 8 inches
asmara abndn, 2024
Film
Sample cut: 10 minutes
Susan MacMurdy
Conversations with Ancestors, 2025
Collage on wood panel
36 x 24 x 2 inches
Susan MacMurdy
Swan Seekers, 2023
Collage on wood panel
36 x 24 x 2 inches
Susan MacMurdy
Mother of All Moons (Bronx SuperMoon), 2024
Collage on wood panel
36 x 24 x 1.5 inches
Susan MacMurdy
Now You See It, 2023
Collage on wood panel
36 x 24 x 1.5 inches
Susan MacMurdy
Picnic, 2024
Collage on wood panel
36 x 24 x 1.5 inches
Susan MacMurdy
Turnings, 2024
Collage on wood panel
36 x 24 x 1.5 inches
Darryl Alexander Moore
A Bridge Too Far, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 36 x 2 inches
Cheesecake Factory, 2023
Acrylic on canvas 24 x 36 x 2 inches
Darryl Alexander Moore I’m Late, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 24 x 2 inches
Darryl Alexander Moore
Anna of the 45%, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 24 x 2 inches
Darryl Alexander Moore
Priorities, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 24 x 2 inches
Darryl Alexander Moore
The Art of Darryl Moore
Rickey’s Rude Awakening
Delirious Tiberious
Yvette and the Danger Rangerette
Moore Murals
Publications, 2020 - 2025
Palén Obesa
Disruption, 2022
Linocut
19 ½ x 25 inches
Palén Obesa
All the Women I Know are Broken (ATWIKAB), 2018
Digital drawing
13 x 19 inches
Palén Obesa
Kindhearted, 2022
Linocut
11 x 15 inches
Palén Obesa
Memorable Memories, 2022
Screenprint
15 x 22 inches
Palén Obesa
The Aches and Pains of Daily Living, 2023
Screenprint
30 x 22 inches
Palén Obesa Vivir con poder, 2022
Linocut 18 x 12 inches
The Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA) is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) in partnership with the City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) 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 Member Eric Dinowitz; and NYS Assemblymember Michael Benedetto. 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 Tiger Baron Foundation, the Claire and Theodore Morse Foundation, the New Yankee Stadium Community Benefits Fund, the Northwestern Mutual Foundation, Con Edison, Webster Bank, and BronxCare Health System.
Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA) 2700 E Tremont Ave Bronx, New York 10461 www.bronxarts.org @BronxArtsOrg
