Past Residents
Past Resident2017: Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar
Rhys Himsworth
As an artist working at the junction of analogue and digital media, Rhys Himsworth’s paintings, prints, photographs and multimedia installations attempt to form a discourse around issues of surveillance, mimesis, simulacrum and authorship. He mixes natural elements with the machine to create hybrids and attempts to articulate virtual media though translating its information into physical manifestations. This often takes place through installations that are physical, but have a generative component through their use of network-based media. Information from these sources is then used to generate a physical outcome whereby the viewer is confronted with, and often part of, a complex informational experience.
Rhys Himsworth received his BA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins and his MA in Printmaking from the Royal College of Art, London. He has exhibited in Europe, North America and the Middle East including solo shows at Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. He also took part in the International Contemporary Art Biennial, Locws International, Swansea, United Kingdom; India Art Fair, New Delhi; and the CICA Museum, Gimpo, South Korea. Himsworth has been a visiting lecturer at Central Saint Martins and University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom; University of São Paulo Brazil; and Art Institute of Chicago.
Residents from Qatar
Bita Razavi
Bita Razavi’s practice is centered around observations and reflections on variety of everyday situations and is highly influenced by where she is based at the time. She examines the inner workings of social systems in relation with the political structures and national events of historic proportions in various countries. While socio-political observation is at the core of her practice, the dialectic between bringing what is personal to the public sphere, and the impossibility of total exposure because of law or social pressure, creates a secretive feel in some of her pieces. In her recent works she reacts to, and explores, the agency of the objects and the systems as they act upon her, and as she documents and records them.
Bita Razavi (born Tehran, 1983) lives and works between Helsinki and Metsakivi, Estonia. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Music from Tehran Art University and holds a Masters in Fine Art from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki. She has exhibited her work at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, 1st Trondheim Biennale, Finland, Finnish Museum of Photography, XV Biennale de la Méditerranée, Thessaloniki, Helsinki Photography Biennale, Design Museum, Helsinki, Videobrasil, SESC Pompeia, Cité international des Arts, Paris, Fotografisk Center, Copenhagen, Göteborg International Biennal for Contemporary Art, and National Art Museum of Ukraine.
Past Resident2017: Dedalus Foundation
Betty Yu
Betty Yu is an interdisciplinary artist who uses multimedia platforms to tell the stories of marginalized, underrepresented and underserved people. Her creative work is influenced by her direct experience as a daughter raised by immigrant garment worker parents. In her artwork, Yu approaches social issues through personal stories, family narrative and community history. Her work has explored issues ranging from labor rights, immigrant justice, militarism and housing equity. In the past several years, Yu’s art projects and installations have allowed her to engage with directly impacted communities through onsite installations, projections, participatory workshops and media production.
Betty Yu is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, educator and activist. She co-founded the Chinatown Art Brigade, a cultural collective telling anti-gentrification stories of Chinatown tenants through public projections. She holds a BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and a MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College. Yu’s multi-media installation, The Garment Worker was featured at Tribeca Film Institute’s Interactive. She co-created Monument to Anti-Displacement Organizing, which was on view at the Agitprop! group show at Brooklyn Museum. Yu is a 2016 A Blade of Grass Fellow for Socially Engaged Art and received the 2016 SOAPBOX Artist Award from the Laundromat Project. She has received funding for her projects from foundations including the Paul Robeson Fund, Brooklyn Arts Council, and Art Matters.
Events & Exhibitions
Spring Open Studios 2017
April 21–April 22, 2017