Artist Reception
Chantal Feitosa and Daniela Puliti at Real Art Ways

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Artist Reception
Chantal Feitosa and Daniela Puliti
All are welcome to the opening reception for Real Art Awards recipients Daniela Puliti and Chantal Feitosa and their respective solo exhibitions, There were no casseroles… and Can You Repeat The Question?. Both artists represent Real Art Ways’ mission of supporting innovative emerging artists early in their careers. There is no admission fee to attend this event. From Daniela’s statement: “This work gave me something to live for when hope lost out. It speaks to the everlasting love I have for my person and the disenfranchised grief associated with his loss. As we emerge from this pandemic we do so with individual and collective PTSD. This exhibition serves as an invitation for healing, for all who have passed, Covid-related or not, and those of us who remain.” From Chantal’s statement: “This is for all the slow thinkers and classroom daydreamers who watched from the window side of the classroom. It is for all who watched in confused spite as white boys were granted extended time to breeze by all the ivory pages of standardized exam booklets. I broke the arms off all the clocks, so your mind can wander all day until you’re ready to respond.” We want to take a moment to reassure you how seriously Real Art Ways takes visitor and employee health. With the rise of the Delta variant, visitors have been asked to mask, and we provide masks for any who might not have them. As of 8/11, the Mayor of Hartford has instituted a mask mandate, along with other directives for public spaces, and we are following his lead. All visitors must wear masks. You can visit our Welcome Back page for more information.
About the Real Art Awards:
The Real Art Awards is an annual opportunity for emerging artists living in New England, New Jersey, or New York. The open call, offered with no entry fees to artists, attracts hundreds of applicants each year, of which 6 artists are chosen. Selected artists receive a solo exhibition, with a commissioned essay, professional documentation, and a cash prize of $2,500. The 2020 Real Art Awards was juried by artist and educator Mary Mattingly, Director of the Laundromat Project Kemi Ilesanmi, and Real Art Ways Executive Director Will K. Wilkins.
The 2020 Real Art Awards is supported in part by:
An award from the National Endowment for the Arts and an Excellence in the Arts award from the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation. Visual arts at Real Art Ways is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for Contemporary Art.
Welcoming You Back Safely:
As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.
Can You Repeat the Question?
Chantal Feitosa
Real Art Ways presents a solo exhibition of new work by 2020 Real Art Award recipient Chantal Feitosa. 
Chantal Feitosa’s exhibition, Can You Repeat the Question?, utilizes the aesthetics of elementary school education and classrooms to explore complicated racial identities in Brazilian culture. Feitosa’s work uses a 1976 survey of Brazilian households to inform its content. When given the opportunity to self-identify their skin color and identity, Brazilians across the country came up with 136 unique labels and definitions, many of which are names of foods. Feitosa has taken this list and created decks of flash cards, video, drawings, and an interactive website allowing viewers to engage in her ideas as if they are her students in a classroom setting.
Artist’s statement:
“The projects on view blend contrasting cultural references tied to race relations within Brazil, the United States and the first generation immigrant experience. The exhibition’s central video piece, “Brown Bag Lunch,” merges early childhood learning, a 1976 Brazilian survey documenting the population’s nuanced descriptions of race, and a re-staging of Modesto Broco’s 19th century painting “Ham’s Redemption.” The characters displayed across the drawing series, “Mind Maps,” are modeled after the Brazilian Namoradeira doll and depict bodies that are free to wander physically, emotionally, and mentally. These figures refuse to be easily legible or digested for the pleasure of outsiders. This is for all the slow thinkers and classroom daydreamers who watched from the window side of the classroom. It is for all who watched in confused spite as white boys were granted extended time to breeze by all the ivory pages of standardized exam booklets. I broke the arms off all the clocks, so your mind can wander all day until you’re ready to respond.” [smartslider3 slider=”12″]
About the Real Art Awards:
The Real Art Awards is an annual opportunity for emerging artists living in New England, New Jersey, or New York. The open call, offered with no entry fees to artists, attracts hundreds of applicants each year, of which 6 artists are chosen. Selected artists receive a solo exhibition, with a commissioned essay, professional documentation, and a cash prize of $2,500. The 2020 Real Art Awards was juried by artist and educator Mary Mattingly, Director of the Laundromat Project Kemi Ilesanmi, and Real Art Ways Executive Director Will K. Wilkins. The 2020 Real Art Awards is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and an Excellence in the Arts award from the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation. Visual arts at Real Art Ways is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for Contemporary Art.
Welcoming You Back Safely:
As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page. Photo Credit: John Groo
There were no casseroles…
Daniela Puliti
Real Art Ways presents a solo exhibition of new work by 2020 Real Art Award recipient Daniela Puliti. 
There were no casseroles… explores multiple forms of communal grieving and funerary traditions, using her personal narrative as a means to connect with the universal experience of death. Puliti’s use of textiles references her experience with neurodivergence (anxiety, ADHD, etc.), weaving materials together in complicated and almost obsessive means. The large scale woven tapestry You, Me, and Jesse’s Ghost, serves as the main component of the installation. It also functions as a memorial for Puliti’s partner, who suffered an anoxic brain injury in January of 2019 and passed away mid-pandemic in 2020, unable to have a funeral. In addition to the gallery exhibition, the public is invited to submit their recipes for comfort for an ongoing publication and future interactive performance. To learn more and submit a recipe, click here. [smartslider3 slider=”6″]
About The Artist:
Daniela Puliti studied painting at Montclair State University (BFA, 2011) and The Savannah College of Art and Design (MFA, 2015). Puliti manipulates craft-based materials with an intuitive painter’s sensibility; creating installations, paintings, and mixed media works about gender, sexuality, vulnerability, and mental illness. She identifies as a gender-questioning femme, forever evaluating the shifting ideals around intersectional feminism within structural misogyny. She has participated in short term residencies at The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (NYC), Vermont Studio Center, The Wassaic Project and ChaNorth. Puliti is an alumna of the A.I.R. Gallery Fellowship Program in Brooklyn, NY (2017-2018), which granted her first solo exhibition in NYC in February 2018. Puliti received a 2021 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
About the Real Art Awards:
The Real Art Awards is an annual opportunity for emerging artists living in New England, New Jersey, or New York. The open call, offered with no entry fees to artists, attracts hundreds of applicants each year, of which 6 artists are chosen. Selected artists receive a solo exhibition, with a commissioned essay, professional documentation, and a cash prize of $2,500. The 2020 Real Art Awards was juried by artist and educator Mary Mattingly, Director of the Laundromat Project Kemi Ilesanmi, and Real Art Ways Executive Director Will K. Wilkins. The 2020 Real Art Awards is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and an Excellence in the Arts award from the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation. Visual arts at Real Art Ways is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for Contemporary Art.
Welcoming You Back Safely:
As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page. Photo Credit: John Groo
Cimafunk returns!
Cimafunk is returning to Real Art Ways for a free outdoor concert on Sunday, August 29!
“Cimafunk’s magic is at its peak when he’s singing live.” – The New Yorker ” […] the crowd’s enthusiastic roar nearly overwhelmed the sound system.” – Rolling Stone “Cimafunk, el cantante del momento en Cuba (Cimafunk, the top singer in Cuba).” – El País Cimafunk is one the most exciting new faces in the Latin music space, and a pioneer in bringing Afro-Cuban funk to the world. Singer, composer and producer, the young Cuban sensation offers a subtle and bold mix of funk with Cuban music and African rhythms, which is currently revolutionizing the island’s music scene. DJ Mr. Realistic will be spinning, too! DJ Mr Realistic spinning Food trucks: Dori’s Latin Inspired Food, Samba Kitchen
Artist Conversation: Colonialism as Disability/Disability as Colonialism

 To register for this free event, click here.

Real Art Ways presents a conversation between New York-based artist Alex Dolores Salerno, Puerto Rico-based artist Miguel González Cordero, and exhibiting artist Kevin Quiles Bonilla. On Thursday, July 22 at 6:30 PM EDT, the three artists will present their work and explore the various ways disability, queerness, and Puerto Rican identity collide. The conversation will last about an hour with a question-and-answer portion at the end. This event will be held on Zoom and live-streamed to the Real Art Ways Facebook page.

Accessibility: Automated closed captions will be provided by Zoom, and all images/videos will be visually described.

          This panel is supported in part by the Artist Engagement Fund from the National Performance Network.

About The Artists:
Kevin Quiles Bonilla (b. 1992) is an interdisciplinary artist born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He received a BA in Fine Arts – Photography from the University of Puerto Rico (2015) and an MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons The New School for Design (2018). He has recently presented his work at The Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum, The Shelly & Rubin Foundation’s 8th Floor Gallery, Dedalus Foundation, and the Leslie-Lohman Museum’s Project Space. He has been an artist in residence at Art Beyond Sight’s Arts + Disability Residency (2018-2019), Leslie-Lohman Museum’s Queer Performance Residency (2019) and LMCC’s Workspace Residency (2019-2020). He currently lives and works between Puerto Rico and New York. Alex Dolores Salerno (b. 1994, Washington D.C.) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Informed by themes of care, interdependency, and queer-crip time, they work to critique standards of productivity, notions of normative embodiment and the commodification of rest. Salerno received their M.F.A. in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design and their B.S. in Studio Art from Skidmore College. They have exhibited at The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation’s 8th Floor Gallery, the Ford Foundation Gallery, Franklin Street Works, Gibney Dance, among others. Their work has been featured in the New York Times and Art in America. Recently, they participated in Art Beyond Sight’s Art & Disability Residency (2019-2020), and are currently an artist in residence in the Artist Studios Program (cycle 35) at the Museum of Arts and Design. Miguel González Cordero (b.1993), is an interdisciplinary artist from Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. In 2016, Miguel González Cordero received his BA in Visual Arts from the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in Santurce, Puerto Rico. In 2014, he held his first solo exhibition “Danza Coralina”, José Pepín Méndez Gallery at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón. González Cordero has participated in group exhibitions such as “DISLOQUE” at AREA Lugar de Proyectos, Caguas, PR (2016), “Video Voces Boricuas” at Tres50 Espacio Cultural, Chiapas, Mexico (2018), “Exploración Corporea: Formas y Movimiento” in Diagonal (2019), and “25 / 25 ”at Galería de Arte de Universidad del Sagrado Corazón (2020) both in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He is currently studying a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design at the School of Design and Architecture of the Ana G. Méndez University, Gurabo Campus in Puerto Rico.  
Image captions from left: Kevin Quiles Bonilla “Untitled (Exposure therapy documentation)” Analogue photography, 2002/2021 Alex Dolores Salerno “Pillow Fight” Used pillow cases and medical ephemera, 2019-ongoing Miguel González Corderro “How Do You Shower?” Pastels on paper, 2020
 
Real Wall: Lauren Be Dear
Real Art Ways presents Through the Veil, an installation and performance by Hartford-based artist Lauren Be Dear and part of the Real Wall series. The installation will open on Thursday, July 15 with performances at 7:00 PM and 9:15 PM during the Creative Cocktail Hour. 
Artist Statement:
“Through the Veil is an interactive collage of fabrics, photographs, jewelry and letters. The fabrics on the base layer have been spray painted and dyed, and tied and woven together to connect each item. Every element holds a personal meaning or memory associated with the history and lineage of my bipolar disorder. The letters are mostly from my father, who wrote to me from the hospital when he was ill, and when I was in the hospital myself. Plastic bags hold miscellaneous items that were in my possession when I entered the hospital that have since been returned to me. As if caught on the edges of the piece, feathers stick out, counting down my episodes: one black feather for every major depression I’ve experienced, and one brown/gold feather for every manic episode. The surface layer of the piece consists of strips of different fabrics knotted together without adhesives. This surface layer is meant to be interactive, allowing the audience to move the strips of fabric in order to view the base layer behind it.  I draw on my disorder’s history in my work as a way to heal, advocate and inform. In the process of mapping out my experiences, I attempt to reframe and alter my own perspective, and to shed unhelpful emotions. Many of us are taught to hide away our traumas, but I have learned that through the process of exposing them, they hold less power over our lives, and allow space for acceptance and/or forgiveness. I hope to spark a deeper discussion that travels beyond stigma; A discussion that moves into vulnerable territory: the stories and memories we sweep under the rug, the words that get lodged in our throats because we fear their reception. I hope these words and stories will be met with a compassionate ear, provide relief to the speaker, and facilitate further healing for both.”
About the Artist:
Lauren Be Dear is an interdisciplinary artist and spoken word poet from West Hartford, Connecticut. She has studied at Bennington College and Manchester Community College. Under the name FemmeGod, she released a collection of avant-garde pieces at the 2015 Hartford Fashion Week, and created two pieces for Hartford’s Trashion Fashion Show. In 2018, Lauren participated in Mental Health Connecticut’s “Write On!” program. She has since worked closely with the organization to help advocate for individuals with mental health issues, and to promote the use of writing as a coping tool for expression and healing. She currently lives and has a studio in Downtown Hartford. Image: Portrait of the artist, Courtesy the artist
Welcoming You Back Safely:
As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.
Then The Morning Comes
Lydia Viscardi
Real Art Ways presents a solo exhibition by Newtown-based artist Lydia Viscardi, curated by David Borawski.
Join us as Real Art Ways on Friday, October 15, 6pm for an in-gallery artist talk by Lydia Viscardi.
Viscardi utilizes mixed media, oil, and collage to create paintings that depict complicated layered scenes. The resulting textures and saturated color palette encourages the viewer to explore every nook and cranny to discover what hides within their compositions. Found textiles and images offer uncanny moments of legibility in otherwise chaotic scenes.
About the Artist:
Lydia Viscardi is a representational mixed media artist whose exhibition venues include ODETTA Gallery (represented by ODETTA/1stdbs.com), Rick Wester Fine Arts, the Drawing Center, Walter Wickiser Gallery, AHA Fine Art, Sideshow Gallery, Active Space, Brooklyn Fireproof, Concepto Hudson and The Heckscher Museum of Art in New York; Center for Visual Arts, Power Art Center of William Paterson University and Victory Hall Drawing Rooms in New Jersey; Housatonic Museum of Art, The Barnum Museum, Ely Center for Contemporary Art, Artspace, Real Art Ways, Hans Weiss Newspace Gallery of Manchester Community College, and Schelfhaudt Gallery of the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, and Utah Art Alliance, Salt Lake City, UT.  Viscardi’s work is in many private collections in the United States and in The Copelouzos Family Art Museum in Athens, Greece. In 2020, she had a solo show at Five Points Gallery in Torrington, CT. Upcoming exhibits this Summer, 2021 includes a solo show opening at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT, the Summer Salon Exhibition at AHA Fine Art, Brooklyn and a summer group show at Rick Wester Fine Art, NYC. A solo show is planned at Rick Wester Fine Art in early 2022.
Welcoming You Back Safely:
As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page. Photo Credit: John Groo
Online Artist Talks:
UHART Nomad MFA Thesis Exhibition
We invite you to a series of online artist talks by Hartford Art School’s Nomad MFA program, class of 2021.
The series will be streamed to Real Art Ways’ Facebook page on Tuesday, June 22, and Wednesday, June 23. These talks are in conjunction with their group exhibition, Force Fields, open now through June 25 at the Joseloff Gallery on the University of Hartford’s campus.
Event Schedule:
Tuesday, June 22 | 6:30 – 8:00 PM Mary Mattingly Grace Poulsen Aubrey Murdock Wednesday, June 23 | 6:30 – 8:00 PM Tara Long Elizabeth Deák Jess Blaustein In addition to graduating students, artist and educator Mary Mattingly will present on River Labs, an ongoing course in the Nomad MFA program connecting artists with the rivers and waterways they live near. Students in the program have been working with Mattingly since its inception, presenting their findings at Real Art Ways in two previous exhibitions exploring the Park River. This series of talks is a continuation of that collaboration, offering students a chance to present their work to our audience at a crucial moment in their careers. For more information on the group show Force Fields, click here to visit their website.
About Nomad MFA:
Created in 2015, the Nomad MFA program is an accredited, low-residency graduate program offered by the University of Hartford’s Hartford Art School. It features a high-impact, field-based curriculum that includes art, ecology, study of place, indigenous knowledge systems, and the craft-to-code technology continuum. The Nomad MFA is the MFA of the future, providing artists deeper ways of engaging with their home community and a network of communities in the Americas. Nomad MFA’s faculty and guest lecturers includes an international range of artists and curators, including Mary Mattingly, Marisa Williamson, Camila Marambio, Nico Wheadon, Mark Dion, and others. Feature video by Aubrey Murdock
There’s a rumble beneath the tarp
Performance by
Kevin Quiles Bonilla

 To register for this free event, click here.

Real Art Ways presents the premiere of a new performance by Kevin Quiles Bonilla, titled There’s a rumble beneath the tarp. The filmed performance, lasting around 15 minutes, will premiere via Zoom and Facebook starting at 6:30 PM EDT on Thursday, July 8. A talkback with artist Kevin Quiles Bonilla will follow the premiere.

There’s a rumble beneath the tarp incorporates Bonilla’s use of lip-syncing as a “form of embodiment,” with his ongoing exploration of the blue tarp. According to the artist, the tarp acts as “the remnants of a trauma that remains with us”. Bonilla’s body will become a physical representation of a hurricane through movement and dress, moving along to Caribbean dance and bomba music.

The full event will last about 45 minutes. 

Accessibility: Automated closed captions will be provided by Zoom, and all images/videos will be visually described.          

There’s a rumble beneath the tarp is supported in part by the Artist Engagement Fund from the National Performance Network.

About The Artist:
Kevin Quiles Bonilla (b. 1992) is an interdisciplinary artist born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He received a BA in Fine Arts – Photography from the University of Puerto Rico (2015) and an MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons The New School for Design (2018). He has recently presented his work at The Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum, The Shelly & Rubin Foundation’s 8th Floor Gallery, Dedalus Foundation, and the Leslie-Lohman Museum’s Project Space. He has been an artist in residence at Art Beyond Sight’s Arts + Disability Residency (2018-2019), Leslie-Lohman Museum’s Queer Performance Residency (2019) and LMCC’s Workspace Residency (2019-2020). He currently lives and works between Puerto Rico and New York.
Artist Conversation:
Kevin Quiles Bonilla

 To register for this free event, click here.

Exhibiting artist Kevin Quiles Bonilla is joined by Visual Arts Manager Neil Daigle Orians in a conversation surrounding the work in the solo exhibition, As the palm is bent, the boy is inclined. Bonilla uses photography, installation, and performance to explore ideas around colonialism, queerness, and disability using a personal narrative as a catalyst. As the palm is bent, the boy is inclined incorporates historic Western depictions of Puerto Rico with recent events, blurring boundaries between exoticized fantasy and reality. This conversation will take an in-depth look at the individual works contained in the exhibition and the greater narrative they create together. Lasting about an hour, the event will include time for audience questions This event will also be broadcast on our Facebook page.
About The Artist:
Kevin Quiles Bonilla (b. 1992) is an interdisciplinary artist born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He received a BA in Fine Arts – Photography from the University of Puerto Rico (2015) and an MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons The New School for Design (2018). He has recently presented his work at The Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum, The Shelly & Rubin Foundation’s 8th Floor Gallery, Dedalus Foundation, and the Leslie-Lohman Museum’s Project Space. He has been an artist in residence at Art Beyond Sight’s Arts + Disability Residency (2018-2019), Leslie-Lohman Museum’s Queer Performance Residency (2019) and LMCC’s Workspace Residency (2019-2020). He currently lives and works between Puerto Rico and New York.
Artist Talk: Robin Crookall and Aude Jomini

To register for this free event, click here.

Real Art Ways presents an artist conversation surrounding the work in Robin Crookall’s solo exhibition, Part Fact, Part Aspect. Joining Crookall is artist, architect, and writer Aude Jomini. This conversation will explore Crookall’s conceptual and material considerations while creating her photographs. Crookall’s photographs are deceivingly simple images which do not reveal their secret until the viewer takes a closer look. What appears to be observational photographs of architecture becomes meticulously crafted sets made of cardboard, hot glue, and other “low craft” materials. This event will also be broadcast on our Facebook page.
About the Panelists:
Robin Crookall is a 2021 finalist in The Print Centers’ 95th Annual International Competition. In Fall 2020 she completed a residency and solos show at Penumbra Foundation in New York City. Crookall is a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in photography from The New York Foundation for the Arts. In 2016, Crookall recieved her MFA from New York University. In 2015 she completed a solo show at Seattle’s 4Culture Gallery and her post bacc at University of Montana. Crookall is currently living in Brooklyn and working on a self published book of images. Aude Jomini is a Swiss-American artist and designer pursuing collaborative and cross-disciplinary projects in art and architecture. She holds a BFA in Painting from RISD and a M-ARCH from Yale School of Architecture. She is a Senior Associate at Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, and has served 5 years on Artspace’s Curatorial Advisory Board. She has also worked at Printed Matter Inc, Brooklyn Museum, and as a freelance designer.
Click Here for the exhibition catalogue, featuring an essay by Aude Jomini.
Artist Conversation: Felandus Thames, Kiese Laymon, Charlie R. Braxton and Noel W. Anderson

To register for this free event, click here.

4 outstanding Black artists and writers will take part in an online conversation sparked by Felandus Thames’ The Things That Haunt Me Still, on view at Real Art Ways, in Hartford, Connecticut. The dialogue will feature artist Felandus Thames, writers Kiese Laymon (Heavy: An American Memoir) and Charlie R. Braxton (Cinders Rekindled) and will be moderated by artist Noel W. Anderson. This event will also be broadcast on our Facebook page.
About the Panelists:
Noel W. Anderson is an artist, and Assistant Professor in Printmaking at NYU. Anderson holds a BFA from Ohio Wesleyan, an MFA from Indiana University, and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale. He was recently included in the Studio Museum of Harlem’s exhibition Speaking of People: Ebony, Jet, and Contemporary Art.     Kiese Laymon from Jackson, Mississippi, is the author of the bestselling Heavy: An American Memoir, which won the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the 2018 Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media, and was named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by The New York Times.   Charlie R. Braxton is a poet, playwright and journalist born in McComb, Mississippi. He has published two volumes of poetry, Cinders Rekindled (2013), and Ascension from the Ashes (1991). His poetry has appeared in literary journals The Black Nation, Black American Literature Forum, Cutbanks, Drumvoices Review, Eyeball Literary Magazine, Shout Out UK, The San Fernando Poetry Journal, The Transnational and others.   Felandus Thames is a conceptual artist living and practicing in the greater New York area. Born in Mississippi, Thames holds an MFA from Yale. He has been included in exhibitions at the Kravets Wehby Gallery, Galerie Myrtis, Tilton Gallery, Heather James Gallery, Charles H. WrightMuseum, USF Contemporary Art Museum, International Center for Printmaking New York, and the African American Museum of Philadelphia.
Artist Talk: Catalina Ouyang and Catherine Damman

 To register for this free event, click here.

Real Art Ways exhibiting artist Catalina Ouyang is joined by writer and art historian Catherine Damman for a conversation surrounding the work in Ouyang’s solo exhibition, THE SIREN. Ouyang and Damman will engage in a dialogue covering the conceptual, formal, and material aspects of Ouyang’s sculptural approach to narrative and history. This event will also be broadcast on our Facebook page.
About the Panelists:
Portrait of Catalina Ouyang Catalina Ouyang’s solo exhibitions include: it has always been the perfect instrument at Knockdown Center (Queens, NY); marrow at Make Room (Los Angeles, CA); fish mystery in the shift horizon at Rubber Factory (New York, NY); blood in D minor at Selena Gallery (Brooklyn, NY); and an elegy for Marco at the Millitzer Gallery (St. Louis, MO). Ouyang has attended residencies at Shandaken: Storm King (New Windsor, NY), the NARS Foundation (Brooklyn, NY), OBRAS (Evoramonte, Portugal), and the Atlantic Center for the Arts (New Smyrna Beach, FL), with residencies forthcoming at the Vermont Studio Center and MASS MoCA. Ouyang is a 2020-21 Studio Artist at Smack Mellon (Brooklyn, NY). Ouyang has received awards from the Foundation of Contemporary Arts, the Puffin Foundation, the Santo Foundation, and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. Ouyang received an MFA from Yale University and is based in New York.   Portrait of Catherine Damman Catherine Dammanis currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History at Wesleyan University and a Core Lecturer at Columbia University. Previously, she held an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Wesleyan’s Center for the Humanities and a Chester Dale Predoctoral Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) at the National Gallery of Art. With the support of a 2020 Terra Foundation for American Art Research Grant, she is at work on her monograph, which radically reconceptualizes the formation of “performance” in the 1970s. Her writing can be found in Artforum, Bookforum, 4Columns, BOMB, Frieze, Art in America, and elsewhere.
Situational Awareness
Jacob Cullers
Real Art Ways presents a solo exhibition of new work by 2020 Real Art Award recipient Jacob Cullers. 
Cullers combines found images printed on vinyl with canvas, animal pelts, and other materials to create layered paintings. Images are chosen from moments before, during, or after an act of violence, and combined with circular abstractions sourcing colors from the original image. Images include figures like Kyle Rittenhouse, Dylann Roof, Timothy McVeigh, and other perpetrators of high profile violence. His experience as an Air Force veteran informs his choices of events, images, and materials. The title of the exhibition, Situational Awareness, comes from a military practice of the same name. Cullers says, “…there is a hyper sense of awareness when you’re in a hostile situation over a period of time. You bring this back and carry it with you after going to ‘war’.” 
About The Artist:
Jacob Cullers currently lives and works in New London, CT. His educational background includes a Bachelors of Fine Art with a Minor in Art History from the University of Hartford ‘15 and a Masters of Letters in Painting from the Glasgow School of Art ‘16 in Scotland, UK.  He served in the United States Air Force and is an Iraq war veteran.
About the Real Art Awards:
The Real Art Awards is an annual opportunity for emerging artists living in New England, New Jersey, or New York. The open call, offered with no entry fees to artists, attracts hundreds of applicants each year, of which 6 artists are chosen. Selected artists receive a solo exhibition, with a commissioned essay, professional documentation, and a cash prize of $2,500. The 2020 Real Art Awards was juried by artist and educator Mary Mattingly, Director of the Laundromat Project Kemi Ilesanmi, and Real Art Ways Executive Director Will K. Wilkins.
The 2020 Real Art Awards is supported in part by:
An award from the National Endowment for the Arts and an Excellence in the Arts award from the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation. Visual arts at Real Art Ways is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for Contemporary Art.  
Hunting camo is stretched over stretcher bars with holes cut out depicting a photographic image inside circles are painted around the holes

8.12.17 Inkjet print on vinyl, hunting camo, and, oil 48 x 60 in. 2021

Featured image: 8.25.20 (detail) Oil, animal pelt, and inkjet print on vinyl, 2021 64 x 47 x 2 inches  
Welcoming You Back Safely:
As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.
As the palm is bent, the boy is inclined
Kevin Quiles Bonilla
Real Art Ways presents a solo exhibition of new work by 2020 Real Art Award recipient Kevin Quiles Bonilla. 
Bonilla uses video, photography, installation, sculpture, and performance. His solo exhibition incorporates archival research, both through the Library of Congress and his own familial history. According to the artist, this process explores “colonization through photography,” while, “unearthing the construction of an identity and a historic heritage.” Bonilla is one of 6 artists to be chosen for a Real Art Award in 2020. In speaking about his practice, he says, “…my work seeks to unearth the construction of a queer, historic heritage, using my body as the political repository, colonized by multiple structures of power: As a Puerto Rican, as a diaspora migrant, as a person with a disability, and as a queer man. The work in this exhibition explores how colonialism plays a role in the different intersections of my identity.” Click Here to view the exhibition catalogue and read the essay Inclination/Reclamation by danilo machado.
About The Artist:
Kevin Quiles Bonilla (b. 1992) is an interdisciplinary artist born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He received a BA in Fine Arts – Photography from the University of Puerto Rico (2015) and an MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons The New School for Design (2018). He has recently presented his work at The Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum, The Shelly & Rubin Foundation’s 8th Floor Gallery, Dedalus Foundation, and the Leslie-Lohman Museum’s Project Space. He has been an artist in residence at Art Beyond Sight’s Arts + Disability Residency (2018-2019), Leslie-Lohman Museum’s Queer Performance Residency (2019) and LMCC’s Workspace Residency (2019-2020). He currently lives and works between Puerto Rico and New York. 
About the Real Art Awards
The Real Art Awards is an annual opportunity for emerging artists living in New England, New Jersey, or New York. The open call, offered with no entry fees to artists, attracts hundreds of applicants each year, of which 6 artists are chosen. Selected artists receive a solo exhibition, with a commissioned essay, professional documentation, and a cash prize of $2,500. The 2020 Real Art Awards was juried by artist and educator Mary Mattingly, Director of the Laundromat Project Kemi Ilesanmi, and Real Art Ways Executive Director Will K. Wilkins.
The 2020 Real Art Awards is supported in part by:
An award from the National Endowment for the Arts and an Excellence in the Arts award from the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation. Visual arts at Real Art Ways is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for Contemporary Art. Image caption: Doris Bonilla Ramos and Kevin Quiles Bonilla, Self portrait as a young jíbaro (detail), 1996_2021, Analog photography, 4 x 6 in, courtesy of the artist.
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As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.
A standing figure on a beach is obscured by a blue tarp with the ocean in the background

Carryover (Blue tarp in Vega Baja/Coney Island) [detail], 2021, (2) digital photographs / C-prints, 20 x 30-in., courtesy of the artist.

The Things That
Haunt Me Still
Felandus Thames
The Things That Haunt Me Still is a solo exhibition by interdisciplinary artist Felandus Thames, curated by David Borawski.

Utilizing found objects and non-traditional materials like hair beads and barrettes, Thames’ work explores the viewer’s relationship with gender and race. Often asking more questions than offering answers, Thames’ playful use of materials and text utilizes humor as an entry point to exploring social and cultural issues.

From the artist’s statement:

“I am interested in creating vessels able to contain beauty and trauma at an equilibrium. Work that functions in the way that Black music is endowed by, but not the sum of, Black joy, pain, and suffering. I am invested in the residue of memory decoupled from nostalgia or narrative. Material choices, never superficial, become central actors in my practice and often function as surrogates to contested histories and lived experiences of those who consume them. Materials are the repository of history and memory in my practice.”

Artist Conversation Recording
Exhibition Catalog with essay by Noel W. Anderson

About the Artist

Felandus Thames is a conceptual artist living and practicing in the greater New York area.  Born in Mississippi, Thames attended the graduate program in Painting and Printmaking at Yale University where he received his MFA in 2010. He has been included in exhibitions at the Kravets Wehby Gallery, Galerie Myrtis, Tilton Gallery, Heather James Gallery, Charles H. Wright Museum, USF Contemporary Art Museum, International Center for Printmaking New York, African American Museum of Philadelphia, Mississippi Museum of Art, Yale University, Wesleyan University, Columbia University, Art Hamptons, Art LA, The Texas Contemporary, and Miami Basel.

Image: Existential Crisis, Variable dimensions, Hairbrushes, 2020

 
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As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

Body Memory: A Conversation on Flesh and Stone

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Real Art Ways and ART PAPERS partner to celebrate two events—- the closing day of the group exhibition, Statues Also Die, and the launch of the Fall/Winter 2020 journal, Monumental Interventions. Artists Jeffrey Meris and Marisa Williamson will join ART PAPERS guest co-editor TK Smith, and RAW guest curator, Sarah Fritchey, in a conversation around artists who reject, subvert and revolutionize conventional traditions, concepts and materials of monument-making. Focusing on the sentient body as a receptacle for memory, a site of action, and the vessel through which we come to experience the world— the panelists will explore questions of absence, presence, memory, refusal, vulnerability, mutability, and agency. Drawing from Smith’s extensive research and writing on the history of monument-making, memorials, and the Black body, we will consider how artists are looking to ephemeral forms and new symbols to shape the future of monument making. Copies of the ART PAPERS journal are available for purchase on their website, and at Real Art Ways for $10 each. You can preview the journal here. Portraits of four people; a dark skinned male, a dark skinned female, a light skinned female, and a dark skinned male About the panelists: TK Smith is a Philadelphia-based writer, art critic, and curator. Most recently, Smith co-edited Monumental Interventions, the Fall/ Winter 2020 issue of ART PAPERS that explores where the concerns of art intersect with those of monument and memorial. He is the curator of Virtual Remains, a group exhibition of Atlanta-based artists opening at the Atlanta Contemporary in 2021. He is currently a PhD candidate in the History of American Civilization program at the University of Delaware, where he researches art, material culture, and the built environment. Sarah Fritchey is a curator and writer based in New Haven, CT. She has curated projects at UMass Amherst, Queens College, The African American Museum in Philadelphia, and Franklin Street Works. Sarah is a contributor to ArtForum.com, Hyperallergic, Art New England Magazine, and Big Red & Shiny. Her practice focuses on under-represented histories, and the cultivation of an exhibition space as a site for cultural exchange, debate, education and experimentation. Born and raised outside of Philadelphia, Sarah holds an M.A. in Curatorial Studies from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, and a B.A. in Comparative Literature and Studio Art from Hamilton College, NY. Born in Haiti in 1991 and raised in the Bahamas, Jeffrey Meris is an artist who earned an A.A in Arts and Crafts from the University of The Bahamas, a B.F.A in Sculpture from Tyler School of Art, and an M.F.A in Visual Arts from Columbia University in 2019. Meris is currently a 2020 NXTHVN Studio Fellow. Marisa Williamson is a project-based artist who works in video, image-making, installation and performance around themes of history, race, feminism, and technology. She has produced site-specific works at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello (2013), Storm King Art Center (2016), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2016), the University of Virginia (2018), and SPACES Cleveland (2019), and by commission from Monument Lab Philadelphia (2017), and the National Park Service (2019).
Part Fact, Part Aspect
Robin Crookall
Real Art Ways presents a solo exhibition of new work by 2020 Real Art Award recipient Robin Crookall. 
 Living somewhere between traditional photography and sculpture, Crookall creates deceivingly simple studies of architectural spaces. Interested in mid-century modernism and the “All-American” archetype, Crookall creates complicated sets out of unsophisticated materials like cardboard, hot glue, and plastic wrap, then photographs these scenes. The resulting black and white images seem like formal exploration of geometry and architecture until the viewer takes a closer look to see the truth of the image. 
Artist Talk: Sunday, April 18 from 2:30 – 3:30 PM EST.
To learn more and register for the talk, click here.
From her artist statement:
“Focusing on subjects like the corner of a room or the facade of a house, the images showcase environments that are at once familiar and safe, underwhelming and routine, creating something broadly accessible. What the audience sets out to experience in the photograph changes in perspective from visualizing the subject as an actual photographed place as opposed to seeing what is really its scale-model counterpart. The experience results in the viewer questioning the preexisting notions of reality, memory, and place. Complex abstractions result in the intersection and overlap of those perceptions. The photograph is the ideal pedestal for these concepts, for its singular capacity for both depiction and deception. If you can’t trust your own eyes, then you can’t trust your own definition of place. And where are you supposed to exist at the plane of the image if all that grounds you, is slowly dissolving away?”
Click Here for the exhibition catalogue, featuring an essay by Aude Jomini.
Black and white photo of a fake flamingo in a shower, everything in the photo is a miniature model constructed by the artist

“Shower Scene”, Gelatin silver print, 20 x 24″

About The Artist:
Robin Crookall is a 2021 finalist in The Print Centers, 95th Annual International Competition. In fall 2020 she completed a residency and solo show at Penumbra Foundation in New York City. Crookall is a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in photography from The New York Foundation for the Arts. In 2016, Crookall received her MFA from New York University. In 2015 she completed a solo show at Seattle’s 4Culture Gallery and her post bacc at the University of Montana. Crookall is currently living in Brooklyn and working on a self-published book of images.
Artist Reception:
A joint reception will be held on Sunday, January 31 from 1-3 PM along with artist Catalina Ouyang and their solo exhibit THE SIREN. Visitors will be required to wear masks at all times and remain 6 feet apart from those not in your party. Learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures HERE. 
The 2020 Real Art Awards is supported in part by:
An award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Visual arts at Real Art Ways is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for Contemporary Art.  Image caption: Outside Looking In, 2020 (Part 1 of Diptych) Pigment Print, 29 x 44 inches
Welcoming You Back Safely:
As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

THE SIREN
Catalina Ouyang
Real Art Ways presents a solo exhibition by artist and 2019 Real Art Award recipient Catalina Ouyang. 
Ouyang’s sculptures and installations explore trauma, dissidence, and desire. Ouyang’s practice, which the artist frames as “undisciplined,” draws holistically from literature, history, myth, and memory, creating objects, videos, and performances that disrupt normative frameworks of identification and self-definition. 
Artist Conversation with Catalina Ouyang and Catherine Damman Recording
For THE SIREN,
Ouyang presents the interactive video installation unable to Title (a reordering of every word written to make sense of [                     ] for Catalina by Amanda, Amber, Amy, Andy, Annelyse, Annie, Ariana, Arisa, Avery, Brighde, Chelsea, Ching-In, Christina, Claire, Diana, Douglas, Edward, Elena, Geoff, Geri, Gowri, Hanif, Heather B., Heather N., Jacklyn, Jane, Jennifer, Jesse, Jessica, Joy, Julia, Julie E., Julie W., Jungmok, Kathryn, Keegan, Keith, Kelly, Kenji, K-Ming, LA, Lara, Larissa, Laura, Lillian, Liz, Luca, Lynn, Marci, Maria, Maryam, Maura, Meredith S., Meredith T., Mia, Molly, Muriel, Nathaniel, Nora, Paul, Philip, Raquel, Robert, Rosebud, Sam, Sara, Sarah G., Sarah S., Sarah V., Sennah, Sharon, Terese, Thylias, Victoria, Xandria, and Yanyi) (2020). Image below: A television screen with a ceramic and wire hand made frame. On the screen is the text "obligated" The piece builds upon the artist’s ongoing project [Conclusion and Findings] (2017–), in which Ouyang invites hundreds of strangers and friends to “translate” the contents of a 2016 legal document that exonerated Ouyang’s rapist. Viewers of the piece are invited to sit on a 19-foot long sculpture titled bitch bench (2017), an elongated figure somewhere between self-portrait and the Capitoline wolf of the founding myth of Rome.  Ouyang’s additional research led to the life and work of Marguerite Yourcenar, who lived with her lover and translator Grace Frick in Hartford while writing Memoirs of Hadrian (1951), a deeply-researched account of the Roman emperor. Yourcenar described historical writing as requiring “a mystical act of identification,” which Ouyang echoes in sculptures and drawings dating from 2016-2020. Oriented against master narratives and aspirations of empire, the work trespasses between multiple meanings of “translation” as it has shapeshifted through time: from the ceremonial movement of a saint’s relic, to geometric displacement, to linguistic transformation. 
Artist Reception:
A joint reception will be held on Sunday, January 31 from 1-3 PM along with artist Robin Crookall and her solo exhibit Part Fact, Part Aspect. Visitors will be required to wear masks at all times and remain 6 feet apart from those not in your party. Learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures HERE. 
The 2019 Real Art Awards is supported in part by:
An award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Visual Arts at Real Art Ways is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for Contemporary Art. This exhibition was made possible with support from Smack Mellon, a Puffin Foundation Grant, and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.  Image caption: bitch bench  2018 / steel, polystyrene, plaster, Celluclay, wood, acrylic, epoxy resin 14 x 227 x 37 inches
Welcoming You Back Safely:
As you return to our physical space, your health and safety is our top priority. To learn about all the steps we have taken to prepare and our new procedures visit our Welcoming You Back page.

“Family Reunion”
Artist Conversation
Artist Shannon VanGyzen is joined by dancers and choreographers from the Hartford Dance Collective and drag artists Coleslaw and Severity Stone in a conversation surrounding “Family Reunion”, a collaborative performance.

Each choreographer chose one of VanGyzen’s sculptures included in her solo exhibition “Homebound” and crafted a piece exploring the conceptual and formal aspects using a diverse range of approaches. Each vignette performance is connected through a series of appropriated readings curated and read by Krystle Brown.

The filmed version by Laine Rettmer is viewable for free HERE.

Registration for this event is required.

Please register using this link.