Julia Csekö’s work reminds us of what it means to approach the visual arts as a form of education and social engagement. As a multidisciplinary artist, her practice embraces painting, sculpture, video performance, installation, and most recently, printmaking to comment on social, cultural, and political issues. The serial nature of her artistry allows for exploration and progression. Her Brazilian-American identity informs how she understands symbols of national pride in both countries. For example, words, flags, ribbons, kitchen utensils, food, and heart representations, recur in her work. Csekö’s studio practice and creative thought unfold in the series Speaking Truth to Power. An ode to the literary world, her text-based paintings pay tribute to writers, activists, and political and community leaders, such as Diane di Prima, bell hooks, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Hannah Arendt, and John Lewis to respond to contemporary issues through mathematically-structured color schemes.

Michaela Blanc (ela/she/hers) is a Brazilian contemporary art researcher. She works across archives and museum collections investigating diverse issues. Currently, she is the Wikimedian in Residence at Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM); Curatorial Fellow in Contemporary Art at MassArt Art Museum (MAAM); and the Art+Feminism Regional Ambassador for New York and Brazil. She holds an MA in Museum Studies/Education from Tufts University and a BA in Art History from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Artist Statement

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As a Brazilian immigrant, Community Organizer, Educator, Independent Curator, and Visual Artist, my practice connects to several communities. 

Having grown up in Brazil, my work is deeply influenced by the colorful Brazilian culture and landscapes, in the same measure that it is marked by the country’s convoluted history.

Being an immigrant and dual citizen offers a disturbing perspective, that the spiraling degradation of Brazil’s environment, natural resources, democracy, and political scenario are not isolated events.

Brazilian thinker Paulo Freire and his Critical Pedagogy have taught me that dialog is the only true form of education, and this premise continuously influences my creative practice.

Within every aspect of my professional practices, I strive to listen and learn, and welcome communities into a conversation, inviting participation, agency, and critical thinking.

Through listening, learning, and a collaborative mindset we avoid conforming to outdated colonialist and imperialist discourses, narratives, behaviors, and practices. I am fueled by the thought that fatalism can be overcome and that alternatives abound.

I want a future where no one will dare say, "it has always been this way" to justify the unthinkable.

Julia

About

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Csekö currently divides her time between her practice as a Visual Artist, Independent Curator, Educator, Arts Administrator and Arts Advocate. Csekö is an AiR at Boston Center for the Arts, SMFA @ Tufts Travelling Fellow, and the Salem Public Artist in Residence. She received several prestigious awards and residencies, including the Tufts University & Andy Warhol Foundation Collective Futures Grant, Newton and Randolph LCC Grants, the Somerville Arts Council Cultural Ambassadorship, has work acquired by the Tufts Art Galleries Permanent Collection, is a member of the TUAG Acquisitions Committee, and was invited as an AiR at Sculpture Space NY, and MassMoCA, MA.

Csekö has extensive experience within the Arts and Culture sector. In 2022 she served as the Somerville Museum Community Curator organizing the Sanctuary City Exhibition and was a MassCreative CTV Fellow participating in the creation of a policy document bringing arts and culture to the agendas of Massachusetts gubernatorial candidates.  Her experience includes Communications, Marketing, and Administration Coordinator at Artisan’s Asylum, and in her time as the Arts Program Coordinator at the Villa Victoria Center for the Arts (IBA Boston), she implemented an exhibition program at La Galleria, with eight exhibitions featuring contemporary Latinx Artists.

Csekö started her visual arts and curatorial practice while pursuing a BFA from the Federal University of Rio, founding Group Py, an artist collective active from 2005 to 2008, and serving as First Assistant to Brazilian Sculptor Ernesto Neto. Since pursuing her BFA Csekö has been a dedicated Arts Advocate, successfully demanding an increase from 0.3 to 1% of Brazilian national funds be made available for arts and culture. She was later involved in a cultural committee to establish and maintain a dialog concerning cultural policies with local representatives and the Brazilian Ministry of Culture.

Her trajectory as an Artist, Curator, and Organizer is focused on diversity, inclusion, community building, artistic innovation, political engagement, social justice, and experimentation. Csekö has participated in and organized numerous group exhibitions at national and international venues as well as in unconventional spaces including a ferryboat. Her work is featured in collections locally and abroad, at Tufts University Art Galleries, Emerson College, Arts and Businesses Council of Greater Boston, the University of British Columbia, the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Centro Cultural São Paulo, and private collections.

2023

This is Where My Heart is., Beacon Gallery - Boston, MA.

Speaking Truth to Power. Randolph Intergenerational Community Center

2022

FURTHUR & Speaking Truth to Power at Mayor’s Gallery, Boston City Hall, Boston MA.

Speaking Truth to Power, Montserrat College of Art Founders Gallery, Beverly, MA.

Resume

2019

Embracers pop-up show A R E A Gallery, Boston, MA.

2016

Straight from the Heart - The Rant series, Walter Feldman Fellowship exhibition. Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA

2015

YOU/ME MUV Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2012

A Coney Island of the Mind (Um Parque de Diversões para a Cabeça).Galeria Oscar Cruz, São Paulo, Brazil.

2010

Velvet Screw (Parafuso de Veludo). Galeria TAC, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

AWARDS, RESIDENCIES, GRANTS & FELLOWSHIPS

2024

SMFA Travelling Fellow Grant

Salem Public Artist In Residence

2023

Tufts University Art Galleries Andy Warhol Foundation Collective Futures Fund Grant

Newton LCC Project Grant

Randolph LCC Project Grant

Somerville LCC Cultural Ambassador Grant

Boston Center for the Arts AiR

2018

Mass MoCA AiR

2016

Walter Feldman Fellowship for Emerging Artists, administered by the Arts and Business Council of Greater Boston, Boston, MA.

2010

President’s Award, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

2009

MFA Merit Grant, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

2022

Somerville Arts Council Project Grant Recipient

Somerville Museum Community Curator

MassCreative CTV Fellowship

Boston Center for the Arts AiR

Sculpture Space NY, Winter AiR.

2021

Somerville Arts Council Visual Arts Fellow

2020/2021

Umbrella Art Center Artcubator AiR

COMMISSIONS AND PUBLIC ART

2024

Salem Public Artist in Residence

2023

Be the Change Award, JArts Public Art Piece Fenway, Boston, MA.

Newton City Hall - FURHTUR Flags - funded by the Newton LCC project grant.

2022

Boston City Hall Atrium, FURTHUR Flags, Boston, MA.

Fort Point Open Studios, FURTHUR Flags, Seaport, Boston MA.

Stonybrook Neighborhood Association, Jamaica Plain, MA, Public Mural Commission.

2014

Emerson College, mural commission for the Walker Building entrance, Boston, MA.

2005

A Gentil Carioca Gallery, public mural commission, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Inauguration of the Gentil Parede project, supported by the Paulo A.W. Vieira collection.

2021

Somerville Arts Council and the Somerville Homeless Coalition. Public wheatpasting mural commission.

2020

Emerson College, Boston MA. Visiting Artist, Mural Commission for the Piano Row Campus

2019

Downtown BID, Winter Pl, Boston MA. Commission of public mural, created in partnership with the Boston Literary District.

Tufts University Art Galleries Permanent Collection

Emerson College, Boston, MA.

Collections

Arts and Business Council of Greater Boston.

Private Collections in the United States and abroad.

Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection

Centro Cultural São Paulo, Brazil

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024

Fire in the Basement

2023

Tufts Art Galleries Portrait as Place, Medford, MA

Heroes Among Us PEG Center, Newburyport, MA

Midway Studios, State of the Earth, Boston, MA.

Nearby Gallery, This is America, Newton, MA

Through These Eyes, PEG Center Newburyport, MA.

2022

RED Cambridge Arts Association, Kathryn Schultz Gallery, Cambridge MA

Fort Point Arts Community Members Show, FPAC Gallery, Boston, MA

2021

Beacon Gallery, Boston MA, Coded

Umbrella Art Center, Concord, MA, Dazzleship

2020

Beacon Gallery Totems, Boston, MA

Montserrat College of Art, Beverly Faculty Biannual.

2019

Mosesian Center for the Arts, Watertown, MA Please Touch the Art

Nick Cave Joy Parade, Boston, MA.

Nave Gallery, Somerville, MA, Avatars//Ghosts.

A R E A Gallery, Boston, MA, Collage.

Emerson Urban Arts, Boston, MA, Memorial to Joseph Ketner II.

2017

Concord Art, Concord MA, Inhabiting Words.

2016

Nave Gallery Annex, Somerville, MA, The Uncanny Home of Our Imagination.

Gallery 263, Somerville, MA (juried by Ruth Erickson, ICA Curator), On the Body.

2014

Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA, One Language is Never Enough: Latino Artists in Southern New England.

GRIN Gallery, Providence, RI., Nonspace.

Khaki Gallery, Boston, MA Satellite, (School of the Museum of Fine Arts International Student and Alumni Group Exhibition)

2013

Laconia Lofts Gallery, Aftermath: MFA Thesis Exhibition, Boston, MA

MUV Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

17 Cox Gallery, Beverly, MA, Vestments.

2011

Caixa Cultural, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Nova Escultura Brasileira (Panorama of Brazilian Sculpture)

Galleria TAC, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Vênus Terra.

Emerson College Gallery, Boston, MA Generation Next 4

2010

Maus Hábitos, Porto, Portugal (Causos Casos Ou) Quase Casais,

Oscar Cruz Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil, Com Afeto Rio

2009

Centro Cultural do Banco do Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil, Nova Arte Nova,

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, Idyll.

Oficina Cultural Oswald de Andrade, São Paulo, Brazil, Poética Têxtil.

A Gentil Carioca Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Educação.

2008

Galerie Mansart, Centre Culturel Brésil-France, Paris, France 2007

Gallery 32, London, UK, Bandeiras do Brasil, Brazilian Flags.

Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2006, New Acquisitions of the Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection (Novas Aquisições da Coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand)

Museum of Modern Art of Bahia, Bahia, Brazil, 13o Salão da Bahia.

Marcantônio Vilaça Gallery/Casa do Brazil, (Brazilian Embassy), Brussels, Belgium

Traveling exhibition originating at Pinacoteca de São Paulo, SP, Brazil; to Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Curitiba, Brazil; Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Um Século de Arte Brasileira: Uma Retrospective da Coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand (100 Years of Brazilian Art: A Retrospective of the Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection),

2005

Abre Alas, A Gentil Carioca Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2004

Fundação Eva Klabin (Eva Klabin Foundation), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Projeto Respiração (guest artist at Ernesto Neto exhibition).