Art in Flux has invited Henone Girma to curate its upcoming exhibition at ALOFT Harlem as part of its mentoring initiative. “Woe-nderland” features five NYC-based artists – Belinda James, Ben Ponté, Elan Ferguson, JaSon Auguste, and Tariku Shiferaw.
The show presents works that evoke a collective feeling of world-weariness that saturates the current climate and paints an honest picture of lamentation apt for recent events. The title “Woe-nderland” takes as its point of departure the 1996 single ‘If I Ruled the World’ by recording artist Nas that begins with “Life, I wonder, will it take me under, I don’t know” – a simultaneous testimony to the ills of society and contemplation of its potentials. In the same wistful vein and framed within Art in FLUX’s 2017 curatorial theme “Re-Imagining a City”, the works in the show cajole us into wondering where we’re headed and examining our circumstances. None aim to be prescriptive but instead they embody the personal and socio-political to interrogate our relationship with each other and the world. The exhibition offers a rather satirical lens through which we may reimagine our current social construct – this perhaps creating a timely opportunity for relating and purging.
WOE-NDERLAND
April 19-August 31, 2017
OPENING: Wednesday, April 19, 2017, 6:00-9:00 PM
Aloft Harlem
2296 Frederick Douglass Blvd. between 123 and 124th Streets
Gallery hours: Daily 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM
(image provided by the artist)
