Beyond Borders: Stories of im/Migration
January 8 - April 6, 2018
Santa Clara University, Edward M. Dowd Art and Art History Building Gallery
755 Franklin Street, Santa Clara, CA
Community Conversation with the Artists Friday, February 2, 2018, 4-5 p.m.
Gallery Reception: Friday, February 2, 2018, 5-8 p.m.
Music and refreshments!
Please join us for the artists conversation and the opening on Friday, February 2nd!
Participating Artists: Tessie Barrera-Scharaga, Carlos Cartagena, Rolando Chicas, Kathryn Clark, Judy Gelles, Taraneh Hemami, Diane Kahlo, Sana Krusoe, Erin McKeown/Stephen Brackett/Shawn King, Delilah Montoya and Sin Huella Collective, Julio Cesar Morales, Gala Narezo/Shamina de Gonzaga/Chantal Fischzang, Priscilla Otani, Judith Quax, Zahava Sherez, Doerte Weber, Shannon Wright, Yu-Wen Wu
Curated by: Karen Gutfreund and Sherri Cornett of Gutfreund Cornett Art
The exhibition Beyond Borders: Stories of im/Migration by the curatorial team Gutfreund Cornett Art and their group of international artists, sheds light on the personal and observed narratives surrounding the struggles of flight, immigration, assimilation, deportation, and the perception of being “other" in American society. The works acknowledge the dignity, dreams and sacrifices of these people and reflect on where we are going, individually and as community with shared desires for hope and home.
Enter the new Edward M. Dowd Art and Art History Building at Santa Clara University and one is immediately confronted with a Trumpian-inspired barricade, Feral Fence, a monstrous twisting armature reaching skyward with formidable barbed wire.by artist Shannon Wright. Through this “border wall”, visitors gain access to powerful, multi-media works: horrific and impactful, hopeful and reverential, abstract and emphatic, poetic and conceptual, with a call for reflection and action. The multi-media works powerfully speak to current, hot button and polarizing topics ripped from the news headlines.
Boy in Suitcase, a video by Julio Cesar Morales, shows the alarming lengths to which people go to bring in their children to safety. The video The Jailer, Part 2, by Erin McKeown, Stephen Brackett and Shawn King, is a call to action to defeat hatred. Diane Kahlo has created a reverential altar to those who lost their lives in transit through the desert. The tender voices of youth as they assimilate are captured by Judy Gelles in a series of fourth graders’ portraits. Carlos Cartagena’s diptych speaks to overcoming fear of the unknown, because the alternative is worse. In large banner portraits, Gala Narezo, Shamina de Gonzaga and Chantal Fischzang challenge preconceptions of immigrants propagated by media and politicians. Delicate ceramic sculptures by Sana Krouse and a butterfly installation by Priscilla Otani speak beautifully and conceptually to im/Migration issues, while Daniela Ortiz’s video brutally sheds light on procedures used during forced deportation. These detail just a few of 24 artists in the exhibition that candidly, poetically and conceptually speak to these issues, highlighting universal, shared human experiences.
Gutfreund Cornett Art is committed to promoting and supporting local, national, and global art activism. Art can produce a visceral response and can provoke, inspire, or disturb, and opens one’s eyes to worlds other than your own. Art can transcend language barriers, strengthen understanding, stimulate greater compassion between displaced people and the communities that receive them, move us to action and advocacy and create visions for a new, more inclusive society.
Karen Gutfreund and Sherri Cornett
Curators
