Thursday, February 14, 2019
6:30 – 8 pm
Scheuer Auditorium

Ruba Katrib, Curator at MoMA PS1, moderates a conversation with artists Alexandra Bell, Eric Gottesman, and Zoe Strauss exploring work that engages the intersection of art and social practice, held in conjunction with Martha Rosler: Irrespective.

Update: due to a personal matter, Eric Gottesman will no longer be able to attend.

About the Speakers 

Alexandra Bell is a multidisciplinary artist who investigates the complexities of narrative, information consumption, and perception. Utilizing various media, she deconstructs language and imagery to explore the tension between marginal experiences and dominant histories. Through investigative research, she considers the ways media frameworks construct memory and inform discursive practices around race, politics, and culture. Her work has been exhibited at MoMA PS1, We Buy Gold, Koenig & Clinton Gallery, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Atlanta Contemporary, Pomona College Museum of Art, Spencer Museum of Art, and Usdan Gallery at Bennington College. She is the recipient of the 2018 International Center of Photography Infinity Award in the applied category. She is also a 2018 Soros Equality Fellow and a 2018-2019 Bard at Brooklyn Public Library Fellow. Bell holds a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies in the humanities from the University of Chicago and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Eric Gottesman is an artist who makes images and social interventions addressing themes of nationalism, migration, conflict, structural violence, colonialism, and intimate relations. Frequently engaging communities in critical self-expression, Gottesman’s projects have been shown at health conferences, in government buildings, on indigenous reserves, and in public space as well as at museums like MoMA/PS1, MFA Boston, the Cornell Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Center of Photography, MoCA Cleveland, and the Addison Gallery of American Art. Sudden Flowers, his decade-long collaborative project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, resulted in temporary street installations and a collective monograph. Gottesman is a Creative Capital Artist, a Fulbright Fellow, an Artadia awardee, and a co-founder of For Freedoms, an initiative for art and civic engagement that won the 2017 Infinity Award. In 2018, Artsy deemed Eric one of the most influential individuals in Visual Culture. His translation of Ethiopian writer Baalu Girma’s banned novel Oromaye was published in Hayden’s Ferry Review. He is an Assistant Professor of Art at SUNY-Purchase College.

Zoe Strauss is an installation artist and photographer living and working in Philadelphia. In 2006, her solo exhibition, Ramp Project: Zoe Strauss, was shown at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia and her work was included in the Whitney Biennial. A mid-career retrospective, Zoe Strauss: 10 Years, was shown at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2012, accompanied by a display of 54 billboards showcasing her photographs. This exhibition also traveled to the International Center of Photography in New York City. In 2013, Strauss took part in the Carnegie International focusing her lens on Homestead, Pennsylvania. Strauss has received numerous awards for her photography, including a Seedling Award from the Leeway Foundation, a Pew Fellowship, the George Gund Foundation Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017. She is a member of the prestigious Magnum Photos cooperative. Strauss also serves as an executive director of the Philadelphia Public Art Project.

Free with Pay-What-You-Wish Admission; RSVP Recommended