DOING THE WORK
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CONTENTS The Collaborative
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Hamiltonian Artists
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Curator’s Foreword
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Kyrae Dawaun
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Cecilia Kim
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Ara Koh
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Samera Paz
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Matthew Russo
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THE COLLABORATIVE “A city without a rich artistic landscape is not a city” David Lloyd Kreeger
February 1980 Washington Dossier
David and Carmen Kreeger were devoted patrons of the arts and the Washington, DC arts community. They supported countless Washington-area artists including Sam Gilliam, Simmie Knox, Thomas Downing, Gene Davis, Morris Louis, Ed McGowin, and Albert Stadler, purchasing their work at the Corcoran Gallery of Art biennials, area galleries, and directly from artists in the 1960s and early 1970s. The Kreegers believed that the key to a good life was sharing; they shared their love of art and their collection by opening their home to visitors a few times a year and they loaned many paintings to art museums as well as universities. In addition, the Kreegers established arts awards at Georgetown University, George Washington University, and Catholic University. I am pleased to honor the Kreeger legacy of supporting Washington artists through The Collaborative, a program presenting powerful and thought-provoking exhibitions. We are thrilled to be in partnership with STABLE to present this exhibition and honored to champion these artists, providing many of them the opportunity to present their work in a museum for the first time.
Helen Chason Director The Kreeger Museum
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HAMILTONIAN ARTISTS Hamiltonian Artists’ mission is to build a dynamic community of innovative artists and effective visual art leaders by providing professional development opportunities and advancing their entrepreneurial success. It is a dynamic catalyst for DC’s creative economy and a vibrant center for contemporary art in Washington, DC. Through its unique investment into the next generation of cutting-edge artists, Hamiltonian helps artists to develop important business skills, professional experiences, and visibility to support and sustain their art career. Through its Fellowship Program, artist talks, and public events, the organization contributes to the vitality of DC’s burgeoning arts scene by deepening the appreciation for contemporary art and culture throughout Washington, DC and beyond.
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CURATOR’S FOREWORD There are several areas of contemporary discourse—from social justice to mental health—in which the question often arises: “what does doing the work look like?” In this group exhibition, “the work” is both personal and collective, theoretical, and tangible. In conversation with The Kreeger Museum’s permanent collection of historic artworks, 2021-2023 Hamiltonian Fellow artists Kyrae Dawaun, Cecilia Kim, Ara Koh, Samera Paz, and Matthew Russo present contemporary photographs, sculptures, drawings, and videos that embody labor in various forms. In this exhibition, work serves as a path toward connection, expression, and transformation. In Cecilia Kim’s Performed Labor series, three videos evidence the artist’s preparation of traditional Korean dishes. Her face, along with most of her figure, are concealed behind an opaque black partition. In each video, her hands emerge from a round aperture and begin assembling the ingredients that rest within the foreground. The size of the ornate serving dishes, along with the mounds of small bites steadily stacking up within them, suggest this durational performance may be an effort of hospitality. Perhaps this anonymous female figure is preparing to host a group of loved ones? Could this series of domestic rituals be in anticipation of some sort of communal celebration, or might the special occasion be the act of gathering in itself? The works that surround Kim’s video installation include Pablo Picasso’s iconic works At The Café (1901) and Fruit Bowl and Glasses (1943), as well as Paul Cezanne’s The Dark Blue Vase, III (c. 1880). These works and others that adorn the atrium gallery, formerly a sitting room, echo Performed Labor’s decorative aesthetic qualities and connect its compositions to the art historical still life. In conversation, paintings of vases filled with carefully arranged flowers and patterned bowls filled with sumptuous fruits highlight lasting motifs tied to gender and class. Traditions that tend to taste, sight, and smell—historically demarcated as “women’s domestic work”—are reflected upon as time spent and care given. Thus, the tedious work of preparing a beautiful meal is exalted as an intimate act of care spanning across generations. Just around the corner, Samera Paz presents a sentimental, self-reflective take on the still life. With three photographs, she documents a slew of diaries, beauty products, and clothing. The spines and pages of each journal reveal signs of weathering over time, yellowing at the margins. Some of the words written are clearly legible, yet many of them are blurred, barely discernible markings that force the viewer into a struggle for clarity. Dates ranging from 2001 to 2013, along with an old portrait confirm the diaries to be documents of the artist’s adolescence. This radical act of shared introspection introduces a deep sense of vulnerability. Through this still life and other object studies, Paz uses her belongings to confront her past, and hold a mirror to her present self.
Though this image and Paz’s other photographs are hung in solitude, the contemplative gaze they embody is evoked in the warmth of the gallery space, largely occupied by floor to ceiling with bookshelves containing the Kreeger’s monumental collection of art books. In this meditative space of study, we are called to consider the work of bearing witness to oneself; assessing the possessions, people, and practices we choose to hold on to over time. Reaching the end of the hallway, viewers are greeted by the unassuming beauty of Kyrae Dawaun’s
a confluence toward an ill Delta. The sculpture, constructed with white oak, copper, limestone, and concrete, takes inspiration from both exterior landscapes, and the interior architecture of the museum. Its edges mimic the wood grain of the floor it rests on, meanwhile its powder blue, water-like surface dances with shadows; faint reflections resulting from the sunlight passing through trees just outside the gallery window. Its endpoint gives rise to the Delta, a pyramid of solid stone and nestled copper. These textures and colors find fellowship with David Urban’s Band of Hope (1996), which hangs within its sightline. Geologically defined as a triangular landform created by the deposition of sediment, a delta is the result of things rushed downstream by one body of water and pulled into slowness by another. Walking along the pathway suggested by the sculptures L shape and catching glimpses of your own shadow, viewers are invited to contemplate the necessary work of taking pause and moving with intention. A confluence
toward an ill Delta raises the question, what new formations and fortifications might slowness bring about? Descending into the lower level, Ara Koh’s Core Samples envelop the staircase landing. Thirteen sculptures of fired clay ranging from two, to nearly six feet tall spread across the floor space, commanding our close attention. Upon observation, the methodical nature of Koh’s clay building makes itself evident—every inch of each structure is filled with texture, traces of the artist’s hand. Rippling bands of earth tones encode the passage of time, resembling patterns of erosion found in canyons after centuries of effortless shapeshifting. The structures are staggered in a way that allows their folding into and behind one another. As the viewer moves around them, earthlike formations take shape, diverge, and vanish. This sculptural approach to landscape painting that is guided by feeling, color and form is perfectly complemented by the pure abstract expressionism of Clyfford Still’s Untitled (PH-440) (1964)—its jagged gestures seem to double the angular peaks of Koh’s Core Samples.
Taking cues from this line of expressionism, Matthew Russo’s Practiced Play, Iterations #1-3 imbue a sense of experimentation and playfulness. Perched center floor in the contemporary gallery, Russo’s casted sculptures made of resin, foam, plastic, and cement bend and curve atop and around one another. Much like Sam Gilliam’s Cape (1969), the brightly colored works convey a spirit of effervescence. From a distance, their abstract forms become enmeshed within the geometric shapes of Frank Stella’s Flin-Flon XIII (1970). A few steps away, Russo’s Workplace Drawings #1-15 offer vignettes of a wandering mind. With each illustration, viewers glimpse into afternoon daydreams and are prompted to tease out the relationships between objects. Situated between representational and fictitious, Russo’s drawings and sculptures are fostered by deep rumination and childlike wonder.
Doing The Work champions the care and intention that helps us bring meaning to the work we do. Rather than focusing on end results, this group exhibition is evocative of progression, calling attention to the patience, play, and serendipity that occurs within periods of growth and development. It inspires a deeper consideration of the ways in which unseen processes shape our interior lives and inform our broader social landscape—how we assign value to our time, energy, and efforts. By placing these contemporary works in the context of the Kreeger’s permanent collection, two fundamental truths emerge at the fore; the work looks different for each of us and there is always more to be done. Anisa Olufemi Fellowship Manager Hamiltonian Artists
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KYRAE DAWAUN dawaun.com @ky_day_one Baltimore-based Kyrae Dawaun is regionally calibrated to a New York sense of community, a DC readiness to discuss solutions, and a Baltimore smile beyond the vigor applied to hardship. Born to Far Rockaway, NY, Dawaun received a B.F.A. from Corcoran College of Art and Design, and an M.F.A. with a concentration of Painting at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has been invited to work, reside, and exhibit in Los Angeles, Italy, Toronto, and Berlin. Dawaun has been awarded Fellowships to Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities, and Hamiltonian Artists. He has recently exhibited at Museum of Modern Art Arlington, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art in Hampton Roads, and Sculpture Center in Long Island City.
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Kyrae Dawaun, a confluence toward an ill Delta, 2023, white oak, copper, limestone, and concrete.
Poetics are the license to access the life and inadequacies of language. My complex of painting and conjuring alchemical objects are organized accordingly. I put a face to these moments of intersection by way of a contemporary genre painting. A single painting may simply translate to one’s cultural recognition, plausible to the reminiscence of a stranger. This is a gesture of hospitality. Furthermore, the agency of such a guest, neighbor, or tenant is to be privileged an intellect, often granted by a knowledge of the environment. In a confluence toward an ill Delta , cast abstractions are nestled into interiors, while architectural excerpts yield a careful indulgence. The materials presented are paint matter, minerals, and metals, their togetherness cuing vignettes; a stage of gathered politics. By the teeth of a personal corridor, the filtration of local concerns is regarded anew. What is represented once we input may skew what we are reflective of. The water reflects, the sky refracts, each traveler commits a path. Walking with care permits the attention to the work necessary on the ground. Our individual zeal is appreciated, though it must also withstand the discord of our neighbors’ priorities. Here copper is featured for its rich conducive properties. Whilst its exposure to weathering is beautiful, in a some sense, it is also fortifying.
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CECILIA KIM ceciliakim.persona.co @cecikim Cecilia Kim is a South Korean video artist working in DC. Kim’s video work is shaped by conversational exchanges as she traverses spaces as a transnational woman, and focuses on labor, language, and cultural barriers through intimate narratives. Kim was awarded the 19th Trawick Prize and her work has been shown in solo and group shows including at the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington Biennial, The Immigrant Artist Biennial, Kaplan Gallery, Hamiltonian Gallery, 0 Gallery, and The Anderson Gallery. Kim has been a resident at Ox-Bow Artists’ School of Art and Artists’ Residency, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Corsicana Artist and Writer Residency, and VisArts Bresler Residency. She is a 2021-23 Hamiltonian Artists Fellow and 2023 Wherewithal Grant recipient. Kim received an M.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University and B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Cecilia Kim, Performed Labor (kkochijeon); Performed Labor (songpyun); Performed Labor (daechugoim) 2021, video.
My work is shaped by people that I have close relationships to through our immaterial exchanges and conversations over shared meals, voice recordings, or therapy. As a transnational Korean woman, I traverse the liminal space between national borders and physical places. I am both an insider and an outsider, in constant search for belonging. In my video series, Performed Labor, I set out to bridge the gap between personal and collective memory. Using traditional Korean recipes as a focal point, I performed a series of food preparations lasting from twelve minutes to over an hour long. As performative gestures, Songpyun, Daechugoim, and Kkochijeon contemplate women’s labor and ties across generations. Though my hands are made visible, my identity remains obscured in black. By blurring boundaries between cultural documentary and surrealist fiction, the Performed Labor series offers a site of relation for women to project their voices, bodies, and narratives into with each careful gesture. Through this video series and others, I am interested in borderless narratives and how they might overcome cultural barriers to foster a sense of connection, understanding, and belonging.
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ARA KOH idkohara.wixsite.com/araangelakoh @araangelakoh Ara Koh was born in Seoul, South Korea from a fashion designer mother and an industrial designer father. She received her B.F.A. in Ceramics and Glass from Hongik University, Seoul, South Korea in 2018, and an M.F.A. in Ceramic Art at New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2020. Her works are installations claiming space. The intensity of the labor and palliative obsessiveness manifested in her sculpture bring a fresh reveal to the ageless themes of body, architecture-shelter, and landscape. Her works have been exhibited in Korea and in the United States. Koh received numerous awards including the Minister of Foreign Affairs Honor by the Korean government. She teaches as an adjunct faculty at Maryland Institute College of Art, American University, and George Washington University. Ara Koh currently lives and works in the greater Washington, DC area.
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Ara Koh, Core Samples, 2020, fired clay.
I speak Korean, English, and Clay. My studio practice translates the invisible and the amorphous into something visible and solid. My clay sculptures serve as a vehicle for memory, honesty, and reflection. For me, building sculptures with clay is an opportunity to relive and work through fading childhood memories and traumas. In my meditations, clay building becomes an exercise in landscape painting. The ceramic pillars seen in Core Samples embody geologic time, the earth-like patterns and color variations evoking metamorphosis. Questioning how architecture and landscape hold humanity, I think about my body contained in space, my body as a container, and spaces being contained in the larger body of humanity. Being present in my body is essential to my process, and in doing so I am able to deploy past experiences as reflections of myself in relationship with space.This group of ceramics, each a space of my own, asserts my position and process of evolution as an artist, a daughter, and a human. Physically imposing enough to envelop the viewer, Core Samples’ monumentality also imbues the intensity of my labor, its repetitiveness and palliative obsessiveness. Here, there is room to reflect upon a multitude of polarities; light and heavy, dense and loose, ephemeral and concrete.
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SAMERA PAZ hamiltonianartists.org/artists1/samera-paz
Samera Paz is a multidisciplinary artist based in Washington, DC, specializing in photography and performance art. Her work is deeply inspired by her identity as a queer Colombian-American woman, personal experiences with mental health, and the power of vulnerability. Paz has exhibited her work in over forty art exhibits, including solo shows and group exhibitions. Her work has been featured in several publications, highlighting her unique perspective on feminism, social justice, and personal growth. Paz is also a passionate activist and community organizer. Her commitment to creating positive change is evident in both her art and her activism. Through her work, Paz encourages others to be daring and vulnerable in their own artistic pursuits, embracing their cultures, identities, and stories.
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Samera Paz, Every Diary I’ve Kept, 2023, photograph. Samera Paz, Every Beauty Item I Own, 2023, photograph.
My bedroom is a place where I feel most comfortable, where I got my start as a self-taught artist. The place where my creative ideas have blossomed, and died. It is the space where I am most vulnerable, exploring my innermost thoughts and emotions. It was important for me to revisit my old habit of creating work in my bedroom, because it presented the challenge of finding new inspiration in an exceedingly familiar space. There, I was confronted by my material possessions, my role in consumerism, and how the items we use represent not only who we are—but the systems we engage in. When I’m no longer in this physical world, what will the items I leave behind reveal about me? The diaries I keep hold my thoughts, secrets, and past selves. My beauty products help me meet and maintain arbitrary beauty standards. The clothes I wear are simultaneously a form of self expression, and byproducts of an unsustainable fashion industry. These photographs document my ongoing process of self reflection. Through this series, I invite viewers to take stock of the items in their space and consider how they reflect aspects of their public and private selves.
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Samera Paz, Every Item of Clothing I Own, 2023, photograph.
MATTHEW RUSSO matthewjrusso.com @matthew_j_russo Matthew Russo observes, abstracts, and reshapes the objects and things he encounters. He plays with forms, questioning their material qualities and utility. Blurring the lines of how an object may be interpreted and known, he constructs objects in relation to one another to produce even further questions. Born in Worcester, MA, Russo received a B.F.A. in Painting from Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts and an M.F.A. from American University. Russo has exhibited throughout the DMV but most recently at Mono Practice in Baltimore, MD, and at Art Enables in Washington, DC. He currently works in Washington, DC as an Art Handler and is part of the 2021-2023 cohort of the Hamiltonian Fellowship.
Matthew Russo, Workplace Drawings #1-15, 2021, red and blue graphite on bond paper.
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My practice is a playful line of questioning made materials, sparked by a fascination with making and understanding how we come to know the objects around us. What happens when we strip objects down to their formal and material qualities? How would the understanding of an object change if it suddenly became squishy, or if it became rigid? How would the object hold the weight of another if its material makings were something else entirely? These are just a few questions I pose while engaging play as an investigative tool. In my drawing series, Workplace Drawings, I used the free moments I had during work to depict how two objects can inform one another. In these colored pencil works on paper, I used patterns, shadows, overlaps, and flatness to confirm or confound a reading of space. In working on a flat surface, I was able to render material qualities and forms interacting while evading the realities of working sculpturally. By keeping the work small and mobile, I was able to experiment quickly and allow for easy transportation once my shift had ended. Similarly, in my sculptural series Practiced Play, I question how these small objects may define or interrupt the domestic / gallery space, a nod to The Kreeger Museum’s hybridized architectural identity. Through these works and others, I invite viewers to take time and space for investigation, and consider how play might inform a catalog of possibilities.
Matthew Russo, Practiced Play, Iterations #1-3, 2023, resin, foam, plastic, and cement.
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This catalogue was produced in conjunction with an exhibition featuring alumni from Hamiltonian Artists and organized by The Kreeger Museum. Doing The Work The Kreeger Museum Washington, DC May 13, 2023 – August 5th, 2023 Published in the United States by The Kreeger Museum 2401 Foxhall Road NW Washington, DC 20007 www.kreegermuseum.org Helen Chason, Director Anna Savino, Designer Hamiltonian Artists 1353 U Street NW Washington, DC 20009 www.hamiltonianartists.org Lily Siegel, Executive Director Anisa Olufemi, Fellowship Manager Jonathan Bella, Administrator
Image Captions: Cover: Ara Koh, Core Samples, 2020, fired clay. Page 2: Cecilia Kim, Performed Labor (daechugoim), 2021, video. Page 4: Matthew Russo, Practiced Play, Iterations #1-3, 2023, resin, foam, plastic, and cement. Page 6: Matthew Russo, Workplace Drawings #1-15, 2021, red and blue graphite on bond paper.
Image Credits: All images are credited to Vivian Marie Doering.
