Mother Mold in group show @ TN State University 2.2 – 3.2.2024

Positive/Negative 39
Curated by Michelle Fisher, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
February 12 – March 8 at Slocumb Galleries East Tennessee State University 325 Treasure Lane Johnson City, TN 37614

Positive/Negative 39 exhibition will be held from February 12 to March 8, 2024 at the Slocumb Galleries.  A juried exhibition is a survey of diverse, creative, innovative and excellent examples of contemporary art created in the American South.

Luna (Debris from a Lunar Paraphrase) 2020 Mother Mold cast of Catherine of Liberty City in domestic construction materials 36.5 x 34.75 x 13.25

About the Juror:

Michelle Millar Fisher is currently the Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her work focuses on the intersections of people, power, and the material world. At the MFA, she is working on her next project, “Craft Schools: Where We Make What We Inherit” which took her on a train journey across all 48 contiguous US states, as well as the upcoming contemporary collection reinstallation called “Tender Loving Care.” As part of an independent team, she leads “Designing Motherhood: Things That Make and Break Our Births,” a book, touring exhibition, and series of programs. Find it on Instagram at @designingmotherhood. The recipient of an MA and an M.Phil in Art History from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, she received an M.Phil from and is currently completing her doctorate in art history at The Graduate Center at the City University of New York (CUNY). She is widely published, and has received numerous fellowships, including from the Pew, Sachs, and Graham Foundations, and DAAD. Previously, she was The Louis C. Madeira IV Assistant Curator of European Decorative Arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where she co-organized “Designs for Different Futures” in 2019. From 2014-2018 she was a Curatorial Assistant at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, where she co-organized, among other exhibitions, “Design and Violence” and “Items: Is Fashion Modern?” In 2010-11, she was a research intern in Arms & Armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  In 2011, she co-founded ArtHistoryTeachingResources.org, a Kress Foundation-funded project now used in over 185 countries. In 2019, she co-founded Art + Museum Transparency, home to the Salary Transparency Spreadsheet. She was part of the 2022 fellow cohort at the Center for Curatorial Leadership.

The Slocumb Galleries are educational exhibition venues of the Department of Art & Design under the College of Arts and Sciences at East Tennessee State University.

Our Mission is to develop creative excellence, foster collaborations, promote inclusivity and encourage critical thinking by providing access to and serving as inclusive platforms for innovative ideas and diverse exhibitions. The Slocumb Galleries promote the understanding, presentation and appreciation of contemporary art in support of the academic experiences and the cultural development of the region, through collaborative programming with various units and community institutions.

Karlota I. Contreras-Koterbay is an Appalachian-based Filipinx curator, artist advocate and arts administrator. She is gallery director for the ETSU Slocumb Galleries and its satellite venue in Downtown Johnson City, Tipton Gallery. She has organized and curated numerous exhibits both nationally and abroad, juried regional exhibitions and has lectured in the Philippines, Japan and the United States. Contreras-Koterbay graduated with honors from the University of the Philippines with a B.A. in anthropology and an M.A. in art history. She is former director of the MidSouth Sculpture Alliance, and member of the IKT International Association of Contemporary Art Curators, International Council of Museums, Southeastern College Art Conference, and International Association of Aesthetics. Grant recipient of the Tennessee Arts Commission APS and ABC grants, Hope in Action and Arts Fund of East Tennessee Foundation, Tennessee Craft and SouthArts as well as the Andy Warhol Legacy grant. Contreras-Koterbay received the ETSU Distinguished Staff Award in 2013 and the Jan Phillips Mentoring Award in 2015. She is Director of the Crafting Blackness Initiative, a five year collaborative research, publication and exhibition series to advance the visibility of Black Craft and African American artists in Tennessee since 1920 up to present. Her BIPOC and diversity art proigramming received numerous awards from the Tennessee Assocation of Museums (TAM).

Linea Negra photos in Invisible Bodies @ Penn State 10.21.2023 – 2.18.2024

Invisible Bodies | Curated by The Border Gallery and Emireth Herrera Valdés 

On View October 21, 2023 – February 18, 2024

at Hub Robeson Galleries Penn State University I Art Alley

Invisible Bodies group show at Penn State University (Art Alley at Hub-Robeson Galleries) Curated by The Border Gallery and Emireth Herrera Valdés on view October 21 – February 18, 2024 at 241 HUB- Robeson Center University Park, PA 16802

Invisible Bodies examines the intersection of migration and labor Invisible Bodies examines the intersection of migration, labor and the hierarchical structures in the United States. Illuminating the often-overlooked narratives of those whose bodies remain hidden in the shadows of society, the exhibition seeks to uncover the often overlooked realms of migrants as an invisible working force and their integral role in labor production, who despite being vital providers of inexpensive labor, have wielded transformative power. The gallery’s green walls symbolize our support for an open immigration system, allowing immigrants to contribute to the nation’s labor force. Featuring fifteen artists, this exhibition offers a variety of visions and experiences that not only challenge conventional perceptions but also address cultural identity.

Through socially engaged projects, paintings, sculptures, installations, and performances, Invisible Bodies illuminates the labor’s demanding nature, its inadequate compensation, and undervaluation, while delving into the gendered and racialized dimensions of migrant bodies as non-citizen workers, crucial to constructing today’s society. Despite these challenges, their contribution remains indispensable for societal prosperity, positioning ‘Invisible Bodies’ as a lens to perceive the hidden yet crucial forces driving our interconnected world.

Invisible Bodies features artists:

Abang-guard (Maureen Catbagan + Jevijoe Vitug), Bianca Abdi-Boragi, Billy Gerard Frank, Brendan Fernandes, Coralina Rodriguez Meyer, Jamie Martinez, Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, Julia Justo, Lina Puerta, Luis Alvaro Sahagun, Magdalena Dukiewicz, Manon Wada, Michael Pribich, Zac Hacmon, Zahra Nazari

Birthing Justice virtual discussion Mamá Spa Botánica

Virtual healing worshop centering BIPOC procreators & birthing justice allies

Saturday November 13, 1-230pm

@ Google Meet FREE RSVP eventbrite

Mama Spa Botanica is a reproductive justice care workshop created by and for non-binary procreative communities of color to heal and navigate the reproductive health crisis in America. Culture is full spectrum medicine in a femilia, where matriarchal resistance traditions are celebrated from biological to biographical interdependence and wellness traditions that strengthen our reproductive community’s health. Centering BIPOC families (chosen and inherited), this virtual discussion invites BIPOC community members to a talking circle as part 1 of a 3 part reproductive health healing program at Bronx River Art Center and online. Unbearable Fruit: Mother Mold, Linea Negra, Mama Spa Botanica exhibition invites diaspora community members to participate in a 3 part workshop. Part 1 is a virtual talking circle with local and national doulas on 11/13. Part 2 is an in-person photo and sculpture casting workshop for BIPOC families and SAGE lgbtqia+ members on 11/18 . Part 3 is a multi-sensory fiesta on 11/20 celebrating BIPOC families and reproductive health workers.

To visualize our colorful care support system, the virtual discussion participants will create a critical resource map of their support network (family, friends, lovers,etc) that helped them survive the pandemic. Sometimes those relationships were toxic, other times they were restorative. This workshop seeks to reconcile our lived experience and our virtual one. Engaging our embodied wisdom and critical perspectives on transcending trauma while celebrating our own family’s or our wider cultural matrilineal traditions, our healing discussion will envision a healthier reproductive habitat in our own homes that may extend to our barrios both US and abroad. Healing rituals are exchanged with reproductive health advocates ranging from community organizers, doulas and artists. This virtual space is safe and open to all forms of expression.

Honoring the birthing justice community and BIPOC reproductive health traditions, the workshop will envision a monument to matriarchal traditions whose legacy survives in our every-day rituals that resist binary definitions of motherhood. Healing is centered in this discussion as a form of resilience to recover from the trauma endured by BIPOC families during the pandemic. Talking circle leaders Doula Nicky Dawkins, Quipucamayoc artist Coralina Rodriguez Meyer acknowledge the compounded struggle pregnant BIPOC and reproductive health workers in our communities faced during the pandemic. An offering to BIPOC families, mothers (cis & nonbinary), community organizers, doulas, midwives and other birthing justice advocates; this discussion centers our unvanquished interdependence, while celebrating new and ancestral traditions with radical acts of diasporic citizenship.

Unbearable Fruit: Mother Molds, Linea Negra photographs from the Mama Spa Botanica workshop are currently on view at Bronx River Art Center Oct 30-Dec 12, 2021. The exhibition centering BIPOC procreators is created by, of and for birthing justice workers, and pregnant people of the diaspora whose death rate in America is 6-10 x that of white women birthing in hospitals. Immersive, multisensory retablos ask local BIPOC to visualize their own healthy reproductive habitat in a series of Mother Mold sculptures, Linea Negra photographs and Mama Spa Botanica workshop events to strengthen interdependence by celebrating ancestral healing rituals. The exhibition and programming is supported by grants from NYC Cultural Affairs, NY Community Trust, NY Council on the Arts, Bronx Care Health System, Foundation for Contemporary Art, Young Arts & Oolite Arts

Centering BIPOC families (chosen and inherited), the Mama Spa Botanica event series invites the reproductive health community to a 3 part healing program at Bronx River Art Center in the Unbearable Fruit: Mother Mold, Linea Negra, Mama Spa Botanica exhibition. Part 1 is a virtual talking circle with local and national doulas on 11/13. Part 2 is an in-person photo and sculpture casting workshop for BIPOC families and SAGE lgbtqia+ members on 11/18 . Part 3 is a multi-sensory fiesta on 11/20 celebrating BIPOC families and reproductive health workers.

RSVP FREE open to all BIPOC procreators, reproductive health advocates, birthing justice allies and those in the maternal health diaspora. https://www.eventbrite.com/o/bronx-river-art-center-5987115479

The exhibition and programming is supported by grants from NYC Cultural Affairs, NY Community Trust, NY Council on the Arts, Bronx Care Health System, Foundation for Contemporary Art, Young Arts & Oolite Arts

PARTICIPANT BIO Doula Nicky Dawkins

🇯🇲 Certified Holistic Full Spectrum Doula | Reproductive Health Coach | Activist ✊🏾

Nicky supports and advocates for all menstruators from fertility to postpartum and everything in between with an Ayurvedic approach. She stewards healthy periods, dignified pregnancy, joyous birth, and tender postpartum care. She supports the Learning with Dignity Bill SB242 and HB75 for Free menstrual supplies for our schools 🩸 And Bill SB806 for tax free diapers and wipes 🤱🏾 Her work has been featured on: Yahoo Life, The Menstrual Hub, Medium, Miami New Times, PBS South Florida. Doula Nicky is the founder of Werk it Moms, President of PERIOD Miami, VP of Miami Diaper Bank Board, SE Chapter Coordinator at PERIOD Movement and board member of Southern Birth Justice Network. Holistic maternal and feminine health tips on: podcast, blog and virtual courses at:

www.thankyounicky.com 💰 CashApp $thankyounicky. IG @ThankyouNicky. Clubhouse ThankyouNicky

PARTICIPANT BIO Doula Désirée Sprauve

Désirée Sprauve is a Canarsie Brooklyn based holistic doula and founder of Desired Doulas, a birthing wellness practice serving pregnant people in NYC. Originating from a St.Thomian and Jamaican family, she has spent her professional life in NYC. Trained as a doula at Mama Glow (Latham Thomas), and yogi at Maha Mama, she offers healing in her matrilineal, ancestral tradition including the legacies of her mother Daisy Lee and grandmother Daisy. Prior to her doula training, Désirée studied supply chain management at Howard University and worked globally in the automotive, aerospace, and non-profit industries. Through doula work and public advocacy, she empowers pregnant people to have dignified birth experiences. IG @thedoulayoudesire

PARTICIPANT BIO Quipucamayoc artist Coralina Rodriguez Meyer

Coralina Rodriguez Meyer is an indigenous (Andinx: Muisca,Inca) Colombian American, Brooklyn and Miami based artist who translates structural and domestic violence into American heirlooms. Raised queer in the rural US South and Caribbean; Coralina mends her mixed-race, Latinx identity into navigational tools to transform American colonial mythology and transcend trauma. Her role as a Quipucamayoc (urban designer, culture keeper, community organizer) activates her vulnerable barrio to perform their citizenship by building sovereignty and solidarity through civic action. In the wake of Ferguson and the Great Recession, she founded FEMILIA (City of Today for Feminine Urbanism) in 2009 as a masterplan for survival, proposing intimate solutions for urban scale problems. Her collaborative Cunt Quilt Arpillera city flags (2016-2020) were featured on the streets at protests and at museums across the US, to account for our bodies and hold our governing bodies accountable with intersectional citizenship. Coralina’s current Mother Mold sculptures, Linea Negra photographs created in the Mama Spa Botanica is a collaborative monument to the reproductive health crisis in America that centers ancestral wisdom and BIPOC procreative people.