Video Interviews
Thank you to the Framingham Public Access TV
Interview with Mary Erickson (Danforth Museum )
We had a very lively discussion in our studio with Mary Erickson from the Danforth Art Museum and Julia Csekö, a multidisciplinary artist. Julia will be featuring her work at the Museum on Saturday, April 20th from 2-4 p.m. You can watch their discussion at: accessfram.tv/vod
The Museum is hosting Community Conversations Through Art, which is a new three-part series where diverse artists are invited into the Museum to share selected pieces of their work with the audience as they talk about their art and process, and their involvement in their community. Discussions will be available in both Portuguese and in English.
conversation with Mark Hetfield from HIAS
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."
New TV Interview with Jay Sugarman 2023
Museum Open House - Speak Up 2022
Dig Boston 2020
BAR Don’t miss 2023
News
Jamaica Plain News 2022
This is the second new mural on the Extra Space Store Facility at 141 McBride St., thanks to a mural competition was planned by the Stonybrook Neighborhood Association (SNA) and SSG Development and Construction. The new mural, a collaboration between Julia Csekö and Eddie Maisonet, is on the east side of the building.
Community Curator Grant 2021/2022
This exhibition will feature artists speaking to themes of immigration, otherness, belonging, and building communities that aggregate diversity and inclusion. This exhibition will speak to Somerville's diverse population, addressing immigration in conversation with the Somerville Museums' history and collection. It will also initiate a broader conversation through the vision of contemporary artists exploring this theme. Originally from Brazil, Julia has curated many shows in the Boston area and has been a Somerville resident for ten years.
Somerville Museum 2022
PANEL: PRACTICE, PLACE, AND MATERIAL
(Somerville Wire) – As part of a long-term plan to uplift and celebrate the Stonybrook community in Jamaica Plain, Somerville-based artist Julia Csekö has created a new mural on an exterior wall of the Extra Space Storage facility at 141 McBride St. in Jamaica Plain.
Boston Art Review 2022
At Somerville Museum, Julia Csekö curates “Sanctuary City,” a group show that confronts a system that requires designated spaces to protect human rights. Featuring twelve artists across various mediums from installation to comic books, the exhibition considers a range of immigrant and refugee experiences—stories of hope, resiliency, and community building. The exhibition offers various public programs, including in-person tours in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, as well as a reading of !Vamos¡ Let’s Cross the Bridge, a children’s book written by featured artist Raúl the Third on October 22.
—Maya Rubio
Dig Boston 2022
JP Gazette 2022
“Julia Csekö’s mural is titled A Message to the Future, and consists of three smaller squares on the parking lot side of the storage building. The murals feature inspirational words from influential local people and bright paint colors to draw the eye of passersby. Csekö does a lot of public art, and said that she’s “always kind of scouring the internet for proposals for places. I tend to look for work that’s more local.”
Somerville Wire 2022
WBUR 2022
Artscope Magazine 2022
Somerville Museum is hosting the exhibition titled “Sanctuary City,” organized and curated by Julia Csekö, the recipient of the museum’s Community Curator Grant. The exhibition is a group show that includes emerging and well-established local artists. Invited by Csekö, artists were requested to present contemporary artwork that resonates with the theme by exposing sensitive considerations, challenging the idea, the significance, elicited by individual interpretations of the term sanctuary and the concept of a sanctuary city. In 1987, Somerville’s City Council ...
Cambridge Day 2022
The wide-ranging, 12-artist “Sanctuary City,” the Somerville Museum’s first exhibit since an ambitious construction project, is in its final week exploring the meanings of home and safety through the lens of immigration.
Works are in a variety of mediums, from comic book art to video installations and sculpture, anchored by “SOS (Safety Orange Swimmers),” a series of sculptures by Ann Hirsch and A+J Art+Design that includes striking video of them floating in Boston Harbor.
Somerville’s Julia Csekö: A weaver of art and words
DH: Why should people view your work?
JC: As an artist I find that one of my roles is to educate myself continuously in hopes to be able to educate others. As an educator I believe that I learn from my students in the same measure that I teach them. I am hopeful that we will reach a point where the vision of Brazilian philosopher and educator Paulo Freire will be common sense, and that critical pedagogy will clear the way for an education and communication based in dialogue and diversity, freeing our minds and bodies from oppression. (…)
Artcubator Residency
One of The Umbrella’s two current Artcubator artists is Julia Cseko, a Brazilian/American Visual Artist. Julia endeavors to engage viewers ranging from art enthusiasts to those who have never been exposed to contemporary art.
The Umbrella Artcubator awards studio space to visual artists for short-term projects throughout the year. The Artcubator expands possibilities for audience engagement with visual arts by catalyzing new and experimental work. (…)
2021
2020
Emerson Contemporary
“To select the three passages of text at the heart of the piece, the artist collaborated with the Boston Literary District, a nonprofit that promotes sites and events pertaining to the Hub’s literary heritage. The group gave Csekö a reading list, introducing the Brazil born artist to a number of Boston writers with whom she had little previous familiarity. She calls the experience “eye opening.” (…)
The Berkley Beacon
If you take a peek inside Emerson’s Quiet Room on the second floor of Piano Row, a new 20-foot mural in honor of the late Congressman and Civil Rights Movement leader John Lewis stands tall.
As a prominent figure in the Civil Rights Movement, Lewis was an inspiration to many who left a powerful legacy of social justice behind him. He was also a Freedom Rider, one of dozens of civil rights activists that protested against segregated bus terminals in the South.
Jewish Boston
This summer, Emerson College turned to public artist Julia Csekö to impart a message decrying the racism and antisemitism of graffiti found in a stairwell close to the college’s Boston campus. Csekö had previously created a mural for the college in 2014, presenting the words of philosopher and communications guru Marshal McLuhan. (…)
MCC Art Sake
Artists and other interested folks can attend a presentation by Julia Csekö this Thursday, November 19, 2020, 6:30 PM EST, as part of the Somerville Arts Council’s Home Alone Art Series.
Boston Guardian 2019
“To select the three passages of text at the heart of the piece, the artist collaborated with the Boston Literary District, a nonprofit that promotes sites and events pertaining to the Hub’s literary heritage. The group gave Csekö a reading list, introducing the Brazil born artist to a number of Boston writers with whom she had little previous familiarity. She calls the experience “eye opening.” (…)
Artscope Magazine 2016
“Straight from the Heart” is focused primarily on three large triptychs hung in succession; the canvases in each of these triptychs all measure up to an even 50 by 50 inches, and all are populated by Csekö’s carefully painted distinctive white lettering. Together, the canvases — nine in total — spell out Csekö’s philosophy about painting, material and the role of art in day-to-day life, always addressing their viewers directly.” (…)
Big Red and Shiny 2016
Jonathan Talit: I thought a good place to start would be the title: Straight from the Heart – The Rant Series. What did you feel you needed to rant about?
Julia Csekö: The phrase comes from a performance created during my MFA. I melted sugar letters onto plates filled with Vodka, poured it into glasses and offered them to viewers. The first one used the phrase “straight from the heart.” But I stopped using my own phrases after a bad critique at SMFA… (…)
Boston Globe 2015
(…)“For her own “Tripas de aço (Guts of Steel),” Csekö has wrapped a table and a child-size chair in skin-tight purple velvet. Bumps under the surface suggest a dish and more, and atop the velvet sits the silverware, which bends and branches out. The fork feeds eight. The artist subverts access to food and dining rituals to unnerving effect.(…)
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