In Visible Spaces

Curated by Shannon Finnell

12 March – 2 May, 2020

Opening Reception: Thursday 12 March, 5-7pm

HEREarts Center

(145 6th Avenue, New York, NY 10013-1548)

In Visible Spaces brings together the work of Pawas Bajaj, Kevin Quiles Bonilla, Johnnie Chatman, Isadora Frost, Yi Hsuan Lai, and Tiffany Smith as they explore spaces–visible and invisible. Each artist tackles their own idea of space, from examining the space that structural oppression and citizenship occupy, to exploring physical and imagined spaces and how we fit within them. The show asks how people view the space they inhabit, and how to shift the space that is given to them.

When gathering these artists together, their stories, although different, engage in a complex conversation with each other. The work of Kevin Quiles Bonilla questions where Puerto Rico stands in relation to the United States, especially after Hurricane Maria while Johnnie Chatman’s portraits, taken throughout different American landscapes, place his form within the frame as a body that cannot be ignored despite how much contemporary America wishes to forget the pervasive racism that still exists. Pawas Bajaj’s sound installations reflect on what spaces feel like home as an Indian living in the US, while Yi Hsuan Lai plays with imagined and constructed spaces as a tool to explore selfness. Isadora Frost plays with the space her own body takes up with her playful performance work, delving into the idea of the physical space we occupy, while Tiffany Smith’s portrait is a fierce declaration of taking space for women and demanding the viewer to acknowledge the experiences of people who have periods surrounded by flourishing life.

To be visible or invisible in a space, to question how your body and identity inhabits a space to reimagine what a space could look like – the artists within this gallery engage with these questions in their unique way.