42 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • AUGUST 6, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
buzz
Queens Botanical Art in the Garden outdoor
exhibit displays works of six local artists
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
AnkhLave Arts Alliance Inc., a nonprofit
that works to provide inclusive representation
of people of diverse ethnicities
within the contemporary art conversation,
is partnering with Queens Botanical
Garden for a new outdoor art exhibition
displaying the works of six Queensbased
artists.
Th e Second Annual AnkhLave Garden
Project 2020 is currently on display in
the garden until Tuesday, Sept. 8, featuring
female artists of color — fi ve immigrant
artists and one fi rst generation U.S.
citizen.
By presenting artists and art-making
in a nontraditional setting like the QBG,
AnkhLave aims to promote artists of color
who represent and refl ect the garden’s visiting
audience.
“We choose these spaces because they’re
public spaces where people feel comfortable
and the nature of the place where
people can see themselves unwinding,
versus presenting our artwork in galleries
where it may not be seen by many diff erent
communities, because not everyone is
privy in going to an art gallery for one reason
or another,” said Dario Mohr, founder
of AnkhLave Arts Alliance.
With a grant from the Queens Art
Fund, AnkhLave had its artist fellows
create social distanced installations in
Queens Botanical Garden, which recently
reopened its gates to the public.
“I’d like to thank the Queens Botanical
Garden for having us, and our Artist
Garden Project Fellows,” Dario said. “We
are grateful to receive the grant and to be
able to pay our artists for their time in creating
the installations.”
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the
organization reframed their entire project
to be able to fi lm the artists — from
a social distance — in the garden interviewing
them about their experience during
quarantine while they set up their art
installations.
A series of blogs will be available on the
Queens Botanical Garden website for the
public to view the interviews and work
created by the artists.
Additionally, the organization is working
on creating a documentary fi lm to
submit to fi lm festivals, according to
Dario.
Th eAnkhLave Garden Project 2020 artists
include the following:
Asano Agarie Gomez,“Rosie”
Location: Across from the Annual
Garden
Gomez is a Japanese born artist creating
large-sized media sculptural paintings
using fabric, pigment, sewing, painting
and drawing. Gomez’s project is a rose garden
which mimics nature while using artifi
cial materials and bright colors in order
to investigate the concept of “otherness” in
relation to the garden environment. Th e
juxtaposition between her use of the artifi
cial and the garden environment highlights
both the diff erences and commonality
between the natural environment and
the human creative experience.
Cecilia André, “Blossom”
and “Rainbow Squared”
Locations: Crabapple Grove and
Entrance to the Green Roof
André is a Brazilian artist residing in
NYC for 28 years, coming from a family
of Lebanese immigrants to Brazil.
In André’s work, incidental sun light
traverses color transparencies projecting
shadows on to the ground. Patches of
color intensify or fade depending on the
sun’s intensity. Participants can bathe in
colored light and transform themselves
under it. André is inspired by the transcendence
of stained glass and the versatility
of assemblage. Hand stitching brings
these traditions together and evokes the
realm of feminine expressions of the past.
Natali Bravo-Barbee,“Flores de
Femicidio (Femicide Florals)”
Location: Perennial Garden
Bravo-Barbeewas born in Córdoba,
Argentina, and creates works at the
boundary of photography and sculpture.
Bravo-Barbee’s project Flores de
Femicidio (Femicide Florals) examines
gender-based violence against women in
Argentina. In 2019, the rate of women
murdered based on their gender was
onemurder every 27 hours. Flores de
Femicidio investigates and documents the
rising numbers of femicides occurring in
Argentina during the entire year of 2019.
Each cyanotype fl ower represents a specifi
c victim of femicide, who is memorialized
with a label that honors each woman
by her name. At QBG, Bravo-Barbee creates
a large cyanotype paper fl ower surrounded
by smaller cyanotype ferns, and
tags with information honoring the many
women that have met violent endings at
the hands of a loved one.
Kayo Shido,“Dry Garden”
Location: Green Roof
Shigowas born in Hyogo, Japan, and
upon graduating from Saga Art College
in Kyoto, she came to New York to study
painting at Art Student League, New York
Studio School and School of Visual Arts.
Inspired by a Japanese Dry Garden, the
space is installed with sculptural rocks
made of abstract paintings on Mylar and
a large painting along the skylight railing
creating a backdrop for the Green Roof
plantings. Mylar, a draft ing fi lm, is durable
enough to shape into three dimensional
form to be exhibited outdoors.
Christine Sloan
Stoddard,“Rabbit’s
Storytelling Throne”
Location: Arboretum
Stoddardis a Salvadoran-American
author, artist and fi lm/theater-maker.
Rabbit’s Storytelling Th rone is a fanciful
installation that celebrates storytelling
and the place rabbits hold in folk traditions
around the world. Made largely
from recycled and salvaged materials,
the piece pays homage to QBG’s landfi
ll history.
Mariana T. Vilas Boas,“Marielle
Franco Presente!”
Location: Crabapple Grove
Tonini Vilas Boasis a digital and traditional
artist from Curitiba, Brazil, working
and residing in Queens.
Th is portrait of Marielle Franco is an
homage to her life and work. Marielle
was murdered on March 14, 2018, while
returning from a speech. She was a politician,
a feminist and human rights activist
fi ghting against police brutality in Brazil.
Her murderers were never found. Mixing
her portrait with that of the crabapple
trees it is a way to say, “Marielle presente!”
Photo by Anne Tan-Detchkov/QBG
The Second Annual AnkhLave Garden Project 2020 is currently on display in the Garden until Sept.
8 featuring female artists of color — fi ve immigrant artists and one fi rst generation U.S. citizen.
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