ISCP Talk
May 27, 2021, 4-5pm

Artists at Work: Daniel Ramos in Conversation with Monica Espinel hosted by Culture Pass

Artists at Work: Daniel Ramos in Conversation with Monica Espinel hosted by Culture Pass is a virtual event hosted by Culture Pass, a collaborative program coordinated by Brooklyn Public Library, Queens Public Library and The New York Public Library.

Registration is required here. This event will be presented in Spanish. Subtitles will be available. Scroll down for text in English.

Este evento virtual es presentado por Culture Pass, un programa colaborativo coordinado por Brooklyn Public Library, Queens Public Library y The New York Public Library, en colaboración con ISCP. Desplácese hacia abajo para ver la descripción del evento en inglés.

En diciembre del 2020, el artista estadounidense Daniel Ramos, llegó a la residencia ISCP en Brooklyn manejando una camioneta cargada con cientos de negativos fotográficos, madera recuperada y objetos encontrados en la casa de su familia en México. Para este evento, Ramos estará acompañado de la curadora independiente, Monica Espinel, quien lo entrevistará sobre la trayectoria de su práctica artística y la dirección experimental que ha tomado su trabajo desde su llegada a ISCP.

La registración para el evento es requisito para atender aquí. Este evento se presentará en español.

Daniel Ramos es un fotógrafo y artista estadounidense. Ha representado la vida y los paisajes de la clase trabajadora mexicana en los Estados Unidos y en México durante más de 20 años. Al comienzo de su carrera, Ramos decidió que las personas en su vida —familia, amigos, compañeros de trabajo— serían los sujetos de su trabajo. Ramos usa la fotografía como un vehículo para amplificar la presencia de sus sujetos en el mundo y recientemente ha comenzado a ir más allá de la tradición fotográfica de crear en una sola imagen. Ramos se atrevió a salir de los confines de la clase trabajadora para seguir una carrera en las artes, un conflicto que para él era más grande que el conflicto de su identidad cultural. Quién el es se seguirá definiendo día a día y no disminuye su deseo de pertenecer a la sociedad y al mundo.

En Marzo de 2020, Ramos completó el programa Spring International Artist-In-Residence en Artpace San Antonio, Texas y recibió el Premio Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor otorgado por el Center of Documentary Studies de la Universidad de Duke en 2018. Ramos será un Artista en residencia en Light Work, Syracuse, NY en Junio de 2021.

Monica Espinel es crítica y curadora independiente especializada en Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo de América Latina. Es candidata a doctorado en Historia del Arte, The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Ha trabajado en el Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Whitney Museum of American Art, la Bienal de Liverpool y Wave Hill, así como en galerías, ferias de arte, y espacios independientes. Recientemente, fue curadora invitada en Artpace (San Antonio, TX, 2020). Sus intereses incluyen temas de representación, redes artísticas internacionales, la intersección del arte y la política, el cuerpo, el cine, la literatura, el arte de acción, y la cultura visual.

Este programa está apoyada, en parte, por Hartfield Foundation; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York City Council District 34; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund in The New York Community Trust; Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF); The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc.; Teiger Foundation; Willem de Kooning Foundation; y William Talbott Hillman Foundation.

In December 2020, American artist Daniel Ramos arrived at his ISCP residency in Brooklyn in a well-traveled van filled with hundreds of photographic negatives, reclaimed wood, and other found art materials from his family home in Mexico. For this event, he will be in conversation with independent curator Monica Espinel, who will interview him about his art practice and the experimental direction his work has taken at ISCP.

Daniel Ramos is an American photographer and artist. He has depicted the lives and landscapes of the Mexican working-class world in the United States and in Mexico for over 20 years. Early on in his career, he decided that the people in his life—family, friends, co-workers—would be the subjects of his work. Ramos uses photography as a vehicle to amplify their presence in the world and has recently begun moving beyond the single image convention of picture making. Ramos dared to step out of the confines of the working class to pursue a career in the arts, a conflict which to him was greater than his cultural identity. Who he is will continue to be defined day by day and does not diminish his desire to belong to society and the world.

In March 2020, Ramos completed the Spring International Artist-In-Residence program at Artpace San Antonio, Texas and was the recipient of the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize granted from the Center of Documentary Studies at Duke University in 2018. Ramos will be an Artist-In-Residence at Light Work, Syracuse, NY in June 2021.

Monica Espinel is an independent curator and writer specialized in Modern and Contemporary Art from Latin America and is a Ph.D. candidate in the History of Art at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. She has worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Whitney Museum of American Art, Liverpool Biennial, and Wave Hill, as well as galleries, art fairs, and alternative art spaces. Most recently, she guest curated the International Artist-In-Residence Program at Artpace in San Antonio, TX (2020). Her research interests include issues of representation, international artistic networks, the intersection of art and politics, the body, film, literature, performance, and visual culture.

This program is supported, in part, by Hartfield Foundation; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York City Council District 34; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund in The New York Community Trust; Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF); The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc.; Teiger Foundation; Willem de Kooning Foundation; and William Talbott Hillman Foundation.

4-5pm

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Participating Residents

Daniel Ramos

The image is a portrait of my parents in our kitchen in Berwyn, Illinois. My mother looks directly at the camera. She is casually dressed in a white sweatshirt, dark pants, and wears a long golden chain necklace with an enamel pendant of the Virgin of Guadalupe. She stands behind a wooden dining table with her hands resting on top of a chair. In front of her is a dish of assorted breads wrapped in plastic. On her left, my father is sitting down. He is eating a mango. His elbows are on the table. A small can of La Morena chiles and a basket of tortillas are within his reach. The walls and countertops of the kitchen are a white tiled brick pattern. The wooden cabinets give the room a sense of warmth. Behind them, magnets holding various papers decorate the large brown refrigerator and a doorway leads to the basement. Spanish: La imagen es un retrato de mis padres en nuestra cocina en Berwyn, Illinois. Mi madre me mira directamente a la cámara. Ella está casualmente vestida con una sudadera blanca, pantalones oscuros, y tiene puesta una cadena dorada con un colgante esmaltado de la Virgen de Guadalupe. Ella está parada detrás de una mesa de comedor de madera con sus manos reposadas en la parte superior de la silla. En frente de ella hay un platón lleno de panes distintos envueltos en plástico. A su izquierda, mi padre está sentado. Él se está comiendo un mango. Sus codos están sobre la mesa. Una lata pequeña de chiles marca La Morena y una canasta de tortillas están a su mano. Las paredes y la barra de la cocina son de un patrón de ladrillos hechos de cerámica blanca. Los gabinetes de madera le dan una sensación de calidez al cuarto. Detrás de ellos, imanes que sostienen varios papeles adornan el gran refrigerador marrón y la puerta que lleva al sótano.

Daniel Ramos, Mi Madre y Padre en el Comedor [Berwyn, IL USA], de la serie, "La Tierra de los Hombres Ilustres," 2003, impresión por inyección de tinta. Cortesía del artista, English: "My Mother and Father at the Dinner Table [Berwyn, IL USA]", from the series, "The Land of Illustrious Men," 2003, archival inkjet print. Courtesy of the artist

Current and Upcoming Events & Exhibitions

Sujin Lim: The Land, Dark and Muddy

Through February 7

Exhibition

Somewhere Inside: ISCP and the Studio

Through March 7

Exhibition

Open Studios
April 27–April 28, 2021

2021 Spring Open Studios

Spring Open Studios Open Hours:

April 27, 2021, 4–8:30pm EDT
April 28, 2021, 11am–3:30pm EDT
Guest speaker Aruna D’Souza

Registration for Spring Open Studios is required here.

For assistance with event registration and Zoom login, please contact info@iscp-nyc.org.

The International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) Spring Open Studios is a two-day presentation of international contemporary art by the 29 artists and 2 curators from 23 countries currently participating in the residency program. Award-winning modern and contemporary art writer Aruna D’Souza will make opening remarks each day reflecting on why artists and curators should be thinking about Lorraine O’Grady. D’Souza is the curator of the artist’s first retrospective, now on view at the Brooklyn Museum.

Join ISCP for its third online event of this scale, with an updated format to share residents’ work and experiences in a lively series of short talks, screenings, performances, studio tours, and interviews in a Zoom webinar. Q&A sessions will be built into each presentation.

This event is free and open to the public ($10 suggested donation).

Open Studios participating artists and curators: Yousef Bahzad (Qatar), Svetlana Bailey (Australia/United States), James Beckett (The Netherlands/South Africa), Maja Bekan (The Netherlands/Serbia), Myrid Carten (Ireland), Yu-Ling Chou (Taiwan), Pamela Council (United States), Veronika Eberhart (Austria), Anna Estarriola (Finland), Carlos Franco (Puerto Rico), Moko Fukuyama (Japan/United States), Aslan Goisum (Russia), Wieteke Heldens (The Netherlands/United States), Duy Hoàng (Vietnam/United States), Shih-yu Hsu (Taiwan), Uwa Iduozee (Finland), Nora Joung (Norway), Lauren Kelley (United States), Kubra Khademi (Afghanistan/France), Miki Leal (Spain), Conny Karlsson Lundgren (Sweden), Shaunak Mahbubani (India), Maria Meinild (Denmark), Alison Nguyen (United States), Bundith Phunsombatlert (Thailand/United States), Daniel Ramos (United States/Mexico), Maria D. Rapicavoli (Italy), Rashaun Rucker (United States), Nina Schuiki (Austria), Francesco Simeti (Italy/United States), and Joani Tremblay (Canada).

ISCP thanks the following residency sponsors: AES+F; Alice and Lawrence Weiner; Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec; Danish Arts Foundation; Danna and Ed Ruscha; Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport of Austria; Fire Station – Qatar Museums; Hartfield Foundation; IASPIS – The Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Programme for Visual Artists; Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation; Italian Cultural Institute of New York; Joseph Robert Foundation; The Kettering Family Foundation; La Fondation pour l’Art Contemporain Claudine et Jean-Marc Salomon; Ministry of Culture, Taiwan; Mondriaan Fund; New York City Council Member for the 33rd District Stephen Levin; New York City Council Member for the 34th District Antonio Reynoso; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; OCA – Office for Contemporary Art Norway; Pollock-Krasner Foundation; Saastamoinen Foundation; Temple Bar Gallery + Studios; Toby Devan Lewis; University of the Arts Helsinki; and Vision Fund.

This program is supported, in part, by the Austrian Cultural Forum New York: ACFNY; Consulate General of Canada in New York; Consulate General of Denmark in New York; Consulate General of Finland in New York; Consulate General of Spain in New York; Consulate General of Sweden in New York; Golden Artist Colors, Inc.; Google; Hartfield Foundation; Materials for the Arts; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; New York City Council Member for the 33rd District Stephen Levin; New York City Council Member for the 34th District Antonio Reynoso; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Nordic Culture Fund; Royal Norwegian Consulate General in New York; Teiger Foundation; William Talbott Hillman Foundation, and Willem de Kooning Foundation.

In addition to the many individuals who support ISCP, the members of Director’s Circle are also thanked for their largesse: Anne Altchek, Tansa Ekşioğlu, Samar Maziad, and Laurie Sprayregen.

This event will be recorded.

Open Hours: April 27, 2021, 4–8:30pm EDT and April 28, 2021, 11am–3:30pm EDT

Download Press Release (PDF)Download Spring Open Studios Program (PDF)

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A light pink painted triangular room with green wall to wall astroturf flooring. From this perspective you can see three 6- tiered chocolate fondue fountains, but instead of chocolate they are filled with Lusters Pink Oil Moisturizer Lotion. Topping each of the fountains is a Sqweel 2 oral sex toy, the kind that is white with little pink silicone

Pamela Council, BLAXIDERMY Pink, 2021, Lusters Pink Lotion, spinning oral sex toys, chocolate fondue fountains, framed silicone relief casts on panel, youth field hockey sticks, rhinestones, and custom protective style rugs, full room installation at UTA Artists Space in 'Sites of Memory,' curated by Essence Harden. Courtesy of the artist

Current and Upcoming Events & Exhibitions

Sujin Lim: The Land, Dark and Muddy

Through February 7

Exhibition

Somewhere Inside: ISCP and the Studio

Through March 7

Exhibition

Exhibition
April 13–October 22, 2021

Maja Bekan: Hold It Together. (We Have Each Other)

Maja Bekan: Hold It Together. (We Have Each Other) is a solo exhibition by ISCP resident Maja Bekan concluding a year-long collaboration with New York City residents Pon-Pon Yeh, Mandy Morrison, Marie Christine, Juliana Cope, Cynthia Berkshire, Susan Hapgood, Alison Kuo and many others.

As Bekan puts it, the exhibition itself “is an (art) work in process, it is a spatial proposal for a future event, a work in a state of waiting.” Thus, the gallery is presented as a combination of performance stage, recording studio, and rehearsal space for visitors to contemplate Bekan’s choreography for human connection in a time of separation. The artist’s collaborators and audience are implicated in her call to prepare “to assemble again and exercise togetherness.”

Bekan’s sphere of intervention is often inspired by her own biography, art institutions, and the relationships she forms while doing artwork through collective activities. She is interested in the transformative force of the performance—the performance not bound as a category of temporality and disappearance, but seen as a space of becoming, not only understood as an aesthetic category, but also as a mode of political power. The protagonists of Bekan’s work are often women: artists, activists, students, retirees, and people seeking a place for themselves in difficult circumstances.

The work made for this exhibition was forced by the safety restrictions of the pandemic into an online platform. It became a bi-weekly “happening” of sorts that prompted more questions than answers, questions like, “How can we be collective if we are all in (Zoom) squares of our own? How do we mobilize (imposed) slowness? How do we create a collective intimacy without possibility to touch, to move, or to breathe in the same/shared space? What friendships do we need now and how do we become friends online? Who among us can actually slow down and who is asked to accelerate 24/7?”

A printed take-away with an essay by Thyrza Goodeve will be available in the gallery in July, 2021.

Maja Bekan is currently an artist-in-residence at ISCP sponsored by the Mondriaan Fund. She is a co-founder and developer of the Rotterdam based artists’ initiative ADA, Area for Debate and Art. In 2008 she began the long-term research project ‘P for Performance,’ as a method to initiate situations, use performance as a both a tool to investigate collective intimacy, and a stage for knowledge production. Bekan has exhibited work at Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw; Kunsthaus Graz; Casco Art Institute, Utrecht; Artikum, Rovaniemi; IZOLYATSIA, Kyiv; The Living Art Museum, Reykjavík; SMBA Amsterdam; Witte de With, Rotterdam; The Art Gallery, KCB, Belgrade; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; and Institute for Provocation, Beijing, among others.

This exhibition is coordinated by Alison Kuo, ISCP Arts Residency Manager, with exhibition assistant coordinator, Daniela Chaparro.

Special thanks to Vesna Bijeljic, Kari Conte, Juliana Cope, Gunndís Ýr Finnbogadóttir, Moko Fukuyama, Stine Hebert, Boris Krga, Frances Maggio, Angela Serino, and all the participants of the P for Performance reading group.

This exhibition is supported by Dutch Culture USA program of the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York; Hartfield Foundation; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; Mondriaan Fund; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York City Council District 34; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Stroom Den Haag; Teiger Foundation; Willem de Kooning Foundation; and William Talbott Hillman Foundation.

By visiting ISCP, you agree to abide by the following health and safety policies. Please make sure to plan ahead for your visit.

Four visitors are allowed in the galleries at a time, and appointments are required. Please write to info@iscp-nyc.org to schedule an appointment.
All visitors are required to maintain social distancing, keeping six feet from anyone not in their party.
Masks or face coverings are mandatory.
Hand sanitizer will be available for visitors.
If you have fever, chills, cough, muscle pains, headache, loss of taste or smell, or think you may have been exposed to COVID-19 prior to your visit, please contact us to reschedule.
An inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 and other infectious conditions exists in any public space where people are present. Those visiting the International Studio & Curatorial Program voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19, other infectious conditions, and other hazards that may be present in a public space.

Open Hours: By appointment on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, from 12-5pm.

Download Press Release (PDF)Download the essay written by Thyrza Goodeve (PDF)

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Participating Residents

Maja Bekan

Maja Bekan, #1 Exercise in Lying Low, 2020. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Boris Krga

Maja Bekan, Rehearsing Togetherness: Troublemakers, 2021, Zoom assembly with Pon-Pon Yeh, Mandy Morrison, Marie Christine, Juliana Cope, and Cynthia Berkshire. Courtesy of the artist