María-Elena Pombo, Trinidad Bién (2023). On view at “Bronx Calling: The Sixth AIM Biennial” presented by The Bronx Museum.
Earlier this year, The Bronx Museum welcomed 53 emerging artists who completed the museum’s annual Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) Fellowship program to display their work in Bronx Calling: The Sixth AIM Biennial (Part 1). After concluding the critically acclaimed presentation, Bronx Calling is back for round two, featuring 27 additional artists on view April 12 – June 16, 2024. Drawing on lived experiences to critique systems of power in their work, the pieces on view powerfully engage with the complexities of the human condition: from our inseparability from nature to the dictates of our cultural identities and norms.
Curated by Eileen Jeng Lynch, Director of Curatorial Programs, exhibiting artists include Priscilla Aleman, Mickey Aloisio, Roni Aviv, Samantha Box, Ivana Brenner, Nicki Cherry, Christina Freeman, Sarah Friedland, Kat Geng-Caraballo, Daniel Giordano, Woomin Kim, Christopher Lin, Katherine Miranda, Carla Maldonado, Jonathan Sanchez Noa, Qinza Najm, Karl Orozco, María Elena Pombo, Xavier Robles Armas, Coral Saucedo Lomelí, Daniel Shieh, Rachel Stern, Sagarika Sundaram, Lorenzo Triburgo, Derick Whitson, Huidi Xiang, and A Young Yu.
Connections between nature and the body are examined by multidisciplinary artist Jonathan Sanchez Noa, as he interrogates how histories of colonial extraction have impacted notions of race, identity, and climate. Incorporating Cuban tobacco leaf in handmade paper, Noa creates large abstract landscapes, exemplified by Untitled (OLÙFINA mi carne, Isleños; pictured above), that reconstruct narratives of displacement and their cultural and religious significance. Sagarika Sundaram also uses natural materials such as fibers and dyes in her sculptures and installations that explore the interconnectedness of humanity and the environment with a particular focus on themes of migration, memory, and notions of home and domesticity. Subverting processes of mass production, Daniel Giordano’s provocative sculptures serve as eclectic assemblages—comprising industrial artifacts, foodstuffs such as prosciutto and Italian nougat, as well as all manner of organic material, from ticks to bald eagle excrement—that reflect the artist’s family, his Italian-American heritage, and the postindustrial realities of Newburgh, New York, his hometown.
Nicki Cherry, Lithophyte, 2022.
A tension that arises between the conflicting instincts of both embracing and controlling natural phenomena—including one’s own emotions and experiences—is examined on a psychological register by sculptor Nicki Cherry. Cherry delves into what it means to inhabit a body in her sci-fi-esque work that references mental illness, specifically anxiety, and the challenges of contending with it. Sarah Friedland addresses similar tensions in a more physical capacity as she brings attention to the power of movement in everyday life. In Movement Exercises Trilogy (2023), she reframes activities often considered banal—like walking a dog—in an empowering light, encouraging viewers to find beauty in ordinary actions.
The norms of bodily expression in various cultures are further explored by textile-based artist Woomin Kim, who draws upon her Korean identity to examine differing perspectives on sexuality within a patriarchal world. In Mokyok (Bathhouse) (2023), for example, Kim highlights the lack of self-consciousness among individuals of different ages who gather in Korean bathhouses, and contrasts this with the far more private dispositions of individuals in the U.S., thus illustrating the dichotomy between private and public spheres and shedding light on distinct societal attitudes towards personal space and community.
See the full show details here.
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