2023
Transcending Borders - Immigrant Experiences and Dreams
This Participatory Public Art piece is inspired by a Brazilian custom, where people of all ages, backgrounds, religious beliefs, and nationalities come to the historical Church of Senhor do Bonfim in Salvador, Bahia, and tie a ribbon representing a wish on the fence surrounding the premises. Transcending Borders features over 2,000 brightly colored ribbons featuring the phrase YOU ARE WELCOME HERE in several languages commonly spoken by immigrant populations of greater Boston. The public is invited to take a ribbon and engage with the piece through a QR code and a mailbox, allowing participants to share stories about immigration. The AR integration leads to organizations that support immigrant and refugee rights.
Photos by Deborah Karson
Artist Julia Csekö talks to Be the Change Global Ambassador Mark Hetfield, President and CEO of HIAS, about the inspiration behind her interactive piece "Transcending Borders: Immigrant Experiences and Dreams."
Tufts Art Galleries Permanent Collection Acquisition
The Tufts University Art Galleries are thrilled to announce the acquisition of "Paulo Freire" by Julia Csekö to the Tufts University Permanent Art Collection, with support from the TUAG Acquisition Committee.
“Paulo Freire” (2022) belongs to a series of written paintings that Csekö started around 2004 that share the work of philosophers and poets with the world. This painting is named after the famous Brazilian poet and educator Paulo Freire and references his seminal text Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1967 – 68), translated into English in 1970.
The Collective Futures Fund is administered by the Tufts University Art Galleries and is a part of the Regional Re-granting Program of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
2022 Jurors: Ruth Erikson, The Mannion Family Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Alison Croney Moses, Artist, craftsperson, educator, art administrator, mother, and Black woman. Laurel Nakadate, A photographer, filmmaker, video and performance artist. Cierra Rembert , A visual artist, arts administrator, critic, and curator based in Cleveland, OH.
Randolph LCC Grant
Speaking Truth to Power at the Randolph Intergenerational Community Center
Newton LCC Grant
FURTHUR Flags are coming to Newton! During Newton Open Studios.
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Randolph Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
Visiting Professor, GDIP Guangzhou, China November 2023
I spent the month of November teaching in Guangzhou, mainland China at GDIP through a partnership with Montserrat College of Art. I was honored to be invited as a keynote speaker at an international conference about how AI is affecting the creative industry.
In my presentation, I spoke about how AI can serve as a tool for the creative process, but cannot substitute the experiences, feelings, and memories that inform the creative mind and practice. To create this presentation I interviewed Bard, an AI, who gave me some thought-provoking insight on the topic of AI substituting humans in the creative industry.
Guangzhou is famously a textile production center, with perhaps the largest textile market globally. It is also famous for its fantastic food, being the home of Dim Sum, and Cantonese cuisine. People flock from all over the country and the world to experience unforgettable meals.
Paintings from the Speaking Truth to Power series. They feature words from women, BIPOC, Latinx, and LGBTQIA thinkers who question structures of oppression and domination, ranging from colonialism, patriarchy, and supremacist ideologies, to advanced capitalism. Each author takes us on a journey through realms of intimacy as well as macro social-political scenarios, both denouncing and presenting alternatives, sometimes sweetly others brutally. Each of these paintings and murals is an effort to preserve the memory and ideas of referential writers. Featured writers include bell hooks, Diane Di Prima, Paulo Freire, Hannah Arendt, Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, Gore Vidal, and Ailton Krenak.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Artist
Pauca Paucis Performance for the camera
Pauca Paucis means a few for the few in Latin. This endurance performance for the camera resulted in a 20-minute video only shown in exhibitions or private viewings. The action is a social experiment inspired by the conflict between scarcity and excess in our global society. The piece also takes inspiration from the Brazilian Cinema Novo, "New Cinema" in English. A genre and movement of film noted for its emphasis on social equality and intellectualism that rose to prominence in Brazil during the 1960s and 1970s. Cinema Novo was formed in response to class and racial unrest in Brazil and the United States.
Twenty participants were fed for four consecutive hours using the Pauca Paucis collective stainless steel utensils sculptures. This project is a collaboration with videographer Aaron John Bourque and lovingly co-directed with Matthew Barrieau.
All stills and filming by Aaron John Bourque at Factory on Willow, NH. Patrick Farley - thank you for making ALL the food! Thank you to the performers: Matt Barrieu, Galia Traub, Kosta Zavras, Catherine Demore, Nicole Westrom, India Dumont, Kristy Jordan, Dania Hadass, March, Omar Norris, Joe Wight, Ben Sano, Abby Howell, Oscar Corripio, Ariel Clark, Kevin Chiang, Isaac Hale. Thank you Liz Hitchcock for your support in making this happen.
Photo Credit: Aaron John Bourque
2023
ExXhibitions & events
Portrait as Place
Tufts Art Galleries
Slater Concourse Gallery
Portrait as Place / Place as Portraiture is organized in gratitude to our newest collections group who made a number of these recent acquisitions possible—the TUAG Acquisition Committee (TAC).
Featuring artwork by David Antonio Cruz, Julia Csekö, Gonzalo Fuenmayor, Dell Hamilton, Annette Lemieux, Helina Metaferia, Evelyn Rydz, Lorna Simpson, Taravat Talapesand, Margaret Rose Vendryes, and Suara Welitoff.
State of the Earth
Midway Gallery
August 29 - September 27
"State of the Earth" - Art and Science Exhibition
Through These Eyes
The PEG Center for Art & Activism
March 10-May 27, 2023
At Nearby Gallery
February 4 - 5, 2023
Heroes Among us
PEG Center
3 Harris Street Newburyport, MA 01950
October 7th to December 30th
At Cambridge Art Association
January 12 – February 4, 2023
S A T U R D A Y 8 / 2 6
Presented by Boston Center for the Arts
Mills Gallery, 551 Tremont St., 4:00–5:30 PM
SMFA @ TUFTS Alumni Panel
Alumni Panel with Isabel Beavers (MFA'17), Julia Csekö (MFA '13), Flor Delgadillo (MFA '22), Alonso Nichols (MFA '22), and Elly Stormer Vadseth (MFA '18). This program will explore the creation of public art and the practice of engaging a community. Moderated by SMFA Professor of the Practice Mary Ellen Strom. Medford, Saturday, May 20th, 11am-12pm.