Current Residents

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Current Resident: Jan 1, 2023–Mar 31, 2023

Studio #221

Anamaría Garzón Mantilla

Anamaría Garzón Mantilla is an art historian and curator. In addition to being a professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, she is a PhD student at the University of Essex and the director of post(s), an academic journal about art, media and culture. Her research focuses on artistic and curatorial practices that challenge hegemonic narratives and omissions in art history.

Anamaría Garzón Mantilla has curated exhibitions at Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Quito; Arte Actual – FLACSO; and Khora, all in Ecuador.

Estado Fósil is a book that explores 50 years of oil exploitation in Ecuador

Anamaría Garzón Mantilla, Estado Fósil, 2023, publication

A+A is a platform that reunites artists and activists.

Anamaría Garzón Mantilla, Arte + Activismos, 2018-ongoing, platform that connects artists and activists

Anamaría Garzón Mantilla, post(s), 2015-ongoing, academic journal dedicated to the study of art, media and culture.

Exhibition of David Orbea, curated by Anamaría Garzón Mantilla

Exhibition poster 'Flat News (El largo siglo XXI)' by David Orbea, curated by Anamaría Garzón Mantilla, 2022

Exhibition of NHormiga, curated by Anamaría Garzón Mantilla

Exhibition poster of 'Doblar la esquina' by NHormiga, curated by Anamaría Garzón Mantilla, 2022

United States, Guatemala

Current Resident: Jan 1, 2023–Jun 30, 2023

The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc.

Studio #302

Artist

Hellen Ascoli

Hellen Ascoli creates multidisciplinary works that weave through memory and sensation. Working primarily with a backstrap loom, Ascoli situates herself within concepts of proprioception, affordances, and translation.

Hellen Ascoli has exhibited works at Art Pace, Texas; Contemporary Art Center, Ohio; and La Nueva Fàbrica, Guatemala, among others.

hellenascoli.com

This interactive sound table is an exploration of the relationship between text and textile, particularly through the oral tradition.

Hellen Ascoli, The Corners Speak, 2022, collaboration with Karl Williamson, textile, sound and wood, 63 × 63 × 20 in. (160.02 × 160.02 × 50.8 cm)

E como leer sets up a E or comb warp to explore forms of writing and reading. This textile is activated by the viewer by running the crank and focusing in on the detail of the warp.

Hellen Ascoli, E como Leer, 2022, collaboration with Karl Williamson, textile and wood, 63 × 10 × 12 in. (160.02 × 25.4 × 30.48 cm)

As the pandemic hit in 2020, and I was stuggling to keep in contact with my family members and community from Guatemala, my friend and collaborator Negma Coy asked me via text message ¿Achike’ rub’anon ak’u’x?, meaning ¿How is your heart? in Kaqchikel.

Hellen Ascoli, ¿How is your heart?, 2021, textile and wood, 196 × 236 in. (497.84 × 599.44 cm)

As I began my research for CIEN TIERRAS, I read “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler, for the first time. As I was reading, listening to the news, living through lock-down, and constantly thinking of a past-present-future I was drawn to her ideas of God and Chang

Hellen Ascoli, We Shaped Soft Gods Here, 2021, collaboration with Karl Williamson, textile, wooden molds and kinetic components, 275 × 80 × 2 in. (698.5 × 203.2 × 5.08 cm)

Cien Tierras features different configurations of the Spanish root word ‘tierra’ rendered in brown and navy thread with red, blue, and yellow horizontal stripes. The brocaded text features poetic uses of literary wordplay devices including malapropism, orthography and idioms to demonstrate the pliability of language and the complexity of translation. The upper panel reads ‘en cielo’ or ‘in the sky’, which is abutted with the phrases ‘en tierro’ and ‘des tierro’ which translates to ‘in the land’ and ‘of the land’ respectively. However, when spoken sounds like ‘entierro’ resembles the Spanish word for burial or grave. ‘Destierro’ means to be pushed away or exiled. The lower panel depicts the phrase ‘sin tierra’ which literally means without land or landless. The title, ‘cien tierras’, connotes the xpression ‘one hundred lands,’ though tierra could also signify earth, ground or world.

Hellen Ascoli, Cien Tierras, 2021, textile and wood, 80 × 100 in. (203.2 × 254 cm)

United States

Current Resident: Jul 1, 2022–Jun 30, 2023

Toby Devan Lewis

Studio #305

Artist

Sarah Tortora

Sarah Tortora draws inspiration from canonical sculptures, urban infrastructure, and museum display. Her work alternates between relational warmth and misidentification, and functions parallel to language to create intuitive replicas of archetypal objects. Tortora’s work conjures the psychic displacement necessary to comprehend the cultural displacement such archetypes can induce. The artist accepts the premise that every equestrian monument is truly a Trojan horse, and questions legacies of labor across geological time.

Sarah Tortora has exhibited work at Ulterior Gallery, New York; C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore; and NADA x Foreland, Catskill, among others.

sarahtortora.com

Events & Exhibitions

2022 Fall Open Studios

November 18–November 19, 2022

A lifesize off-white vessel with a gritty papery texture, which has a black modelled gridded armature partially exposed. The vessel is not perfectly symmetrical. It undulates in a slightly awkward way. There is a black modelled Greek key design on the exterior of the vessel at the rim which encircles the form. Inside the vessel, a variety of pastel colors are mixed with white paint to create a subtle glowing effect within.

Sarah Tortora, Yolanda, 2018, paper pulp, epoxy clay, plywood, acrylic and latex paint, 64 × 35 × 36 in. (162.56 × 88.9 × 91.44 cm)

A life-size faded, grey, stone-textured vertical stele form sits atop a subdued lime green, smooth-textured rectangular pedestal which sits flat on the floor. The stele form is subtly curved in the shape of a gravestone. There is an organic, but rectangular shaped cutout in the center of the stele form, revealing its interior as well as a mosaic of wood fragments that are framed within the shallow interior of the cutout. The wood fragments are plywood, pine, and hardboard. Some of them are treated with a green or black paint wash. The wood mosaic forms taper off inside the form and consolidate toward the base.

Sarah Tortora, Tonguetied (Mirror for the Unthought Known), 2020, wood composites, plywood, pine, gypsum cement, acrylic and latex paint, 76 × 48 × 18 in. (193.04 × 121.92 × 45.72 cm)

This sculpture sits within a 3-4 foot square, and sits flat on the floor, extending no more than 40”in height. The bottom of this form is made of concrete which has different stones, minerals, and construction debris embedded in it. There are chunks of broken asphalt, large scallop shells, fragments of fallen graffiti, and unidentifiable minerals. The concrete and stones are cast in staggering layers; some stick out 3-4” from the central base form. There are also areas where black epoxy clay or epoxy resin had been modelled or poured over areas of shallow concrete. Appearing to be wedged within the concrete base is a fragmented drywall structure, which juts upward in enclosed, angular construction. On one side of the form, the concrete base is very short, and so are the drywall fragments. Toward the center, the concrete base gains height and so does the drywall form; utilizing larger and larger pieces of drywall toward the top of the form, which is cut into a crenelated, castle-like shape.

Sarah Tortora, Acropalypse, 2020, drywall, cement, epoxy resin, acrylic & latex paint, found minerals and construction debris, 33 × 38 × 44 in. (83.82 × 96.52 × 111.76 cm)

A sculpture comprised of a 4-‘5’ tall by 1’ wide cartoonish leg, appearing to move to the left, is thickly outlined by black painted wood, with an abstract, atmospheric recessed painting within this framing. Grey and white are the dominant colors painted on the leg, with occasional wisps of blue, yellow, and copper. Atop the leg sits a tapering white rectangular form, which extends perpendicularly from the leg on a downward tilt to the right, and hovers just over a massive stone-like structure to the right of the leg. The stone structure is approximately the same height as the leg, but three feet wide. It is a warm white, and the surface is sanded to reveal patches of light blue, green, and grey underneath. Embedded within this stone structure is a very graphic black X shape made from wood, that is not symmetrical. The upper left “leg” of the X meets the top of the leg to support the white tapering form, while the opposing upper right “leg” of the X is embedded fully in the stone structure.

Sarah Tortora, Wayward Queen, 2021, plywood, wood composites, gypsum cement, resin, acrylic and latex paint, 55 × 35 × 58 in. (139.7 × 88.9 × 147.32 cm)