Materials for the Arts Opens FEARED & REVERED by Artist-in-Residence Nicole Awai
Awai's new body of work was inspired by her ruminations on the current precarious state of women's rights and the agency of women in the US.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Jul. 06, 2022
Materials for the Arts, a program of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, will present Feared & Revered, a solo exhibition of multi-media works by artist Nicole Awai, on view now through August 2022 at the Materials for the Arts Gallery. Awai has been the MFTA Artist-in-Residence since February 2022.
Awai's new body of work was inspired by her ruminations on the current precarious state of women's rights and the agency of women in the US. Her thoughts triggered her memory of a female Caribbean folklore character known as a Soucouyant. The character, a woman middle-aged or older, sheds her skin at night and transforms into a blood-sucking ball of fire. Unafraid and instead intrigued by the force of this incredible figure since she was a little girl, Awai is inspired to examine the historical and yet ongoing suppression, distortion, and commodification of women and African people and cultures in the Americas at large.
Feared & Revered is peripherally a meditation on Soucouyant's state and stages of transformation through a process of abstraction. Through the incorporation of vintage frames, plexiglass, fabric, beads, acrylic paints, decorative paper, and other found objects from Materials for the Arts, Awai has created a series of works, some glassy and others squishy in appearance, that seem to melt on the walls of MFTA Gallery. Her works range in color, as Feared and Revered 2 features predominantly black and dark reds with bits of white and yellow layered with plexiglass and paint, while Sucking Abstraction 1 features bright neon colors.
"In the last twenty years, Materials for the Arts has provided so many materials for me as a contemporary artist," said MFTA Artist-in-Residence Nicole Awai. "I've shopped at Materials for the Arts through other arts organizations, nonprofits, and for residencies-and would come and shop for about an hour-but to have this whole space to yourself is so fantastic and overwhelming at times, but such a lovely blessing."
"Nicole Awai's artwork involves a delicate and dynamic poetry of materials. From organic forms, to tight plexiglass lines, to found objects her work shows us the conversation possible in the mutable arena of artmaking," said John Cloud Kaiser, MFTA Gallery Director. "As she surveyed the wide variety of materials at MFTA, certain objects, such as a looping piece of metal from an old gate, would catch her eye and memories and become incorporated into the stories in these colorful and complicated art pieces."
The works in Feared & Revered were created during Awai's residency at Materials for the Arts. As a part of the MFTA Artist-in-Residence program, artists receive free studio space and access to the supplies in MFTA's 35,000 square-foot warehouse of donated materials to incorporate in their solo exhibition.
Event Details:
Who:
Materials for the Arts
Artist Nicole Awai
What:
Feared & Revered by Nicole Awai
When:
Exhibition on view: June 30, 2022 - August 2022
(Monday - Friday, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm)
Where:
Materials for the Arts Gallery
33-00 Northern Blvd, 3rd Floor
Long Island City, NY 11101
Established in 2012, the MFTA Artist-in-Residence program celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. In June, MFTA hosted The Sustainable Art Show, an anniversary exhibition featuring work by 19 former Artists-in-Residence at COPE NYC in Brooklyn's historic Pfizer building.
About Nicole Awai
Nicole Awai, born in Port of Spain-Trinidad and Tobago, creates multi-media works that infuse found objects and non-traditional mediums such as nail polish, melted vinyl, and found doll parts. Her process is often informed by social, historical, and economic issues in the Americas. Awai earned a Master's in Multimedia Art from the University of South Florida in 1996 and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1997. She was the recipient of the Joan Mitchell Painters & Sculptors Grant in 2011 and an Art Matters Grant in 2012.
Awai's installations, paintings, and sculptures have been exhibited at MoMA PS1, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Brooklyn Museum, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Queens Museum, The Vilcek Foundation, Sperone Westwater, Lesley Heller Gallery, The High Line, ArtsWestchester, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and Busan Museum of Art in South Korea. From 2009 to 2015, Awai was a Critic at the Yale School of Art in the Department of Painting and Printmaking. She is currently faculty in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin. Awai is represented by Barbara Davis Gallery in Houston, Texas.
About Materials for the Arts (MFTA)
A program of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, with support from the Department of Education and Friends of Materials for the Arts, MFTA is NYC's largest reuse center supporting nonprofits with arts programming, public schools and city agencies. On average MFTA collects over 1.5 million pounds of supplies each year which it provides, free of charge, to its member organizations. In addition to providing materials, MFTA has an Artist-in-Residence program and holds public events which include gallery openings and community workshops. Learn more at www.materialsforthearts.org.
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