Artists are looking for ways to continue to share their art in the face of COVID-19.
Artblog is hosting an open call, non-juried, first come first-served online exhibition called Artists in the time of Coronavirus. Artists are encouraged to send a maximum 250-word statement and two photos to participate. Here's a link to the directions: https://www.theartblog.org/2020/03/open-call-for-virtual-exhibition-artists-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/
Below are entries from two Moore seniors, Nina Valdera and Kenyssa Evans.
Nina Valdera
I was in the middle of student teaching and participating in Senior Studios Fine Arts, until two weeks ago. Our spring break was extended another week, and we were sent an email to take our belongings in our studio and bring it home to work on.
This is a worldwide epidemic and there is fear and anxiety in all of us, but as seniors we feel our last semester was ripped away from us. Our Open Studio has been canceled for obvious reasons, but now our senior show and commencement is uncertain. I am graduating with some phenomenal artists who are trying to make sense of this and are absolutely heartbroken on how our senior year is unraveling.
I am a light sculptor and installation artist, and I had just finished my piece titled Connectivity. This was the last moment shared with my classmates in our studio, we were really excited for new work in our studio and the promise of how good our senior show was going to be. I am grateful for that last moment with my classmates because it was such a promising moment.
I am currently working on a piece on my parents' dining room table. It is a light sculpture created to hang in a corner of two walls. I am still working on it and do not have a title for it yet. We are hopeful that we will have a senior show, we just don’t know when. I wanted to thank Artblog for creating a platform for Philadelphia artist to exhibit their work from a distance.
See more of Nina Valdera's work in Instagram @Nina.M.Valdera.
Kenyssa Evans
I’m an interdisciplinary artist and student at Moore College of Art & Design. Due to the coronavirus epidemic, it has been difficult for me to continue with my thesis project with the lack of space and resources after having to leave the campus.
My thesis is still left untitled and a work in progress, but it focuses on surveillance in black dominant neighborhoods. Exploring the freedom of constant surveillance through “dark sousveillance” tactics that look to render one’s self out of sight, the piece combines elements of imagery and objects to create a surreal landscape and an elaborately constructed fragmented porch.
In the photos, you see a double-sided screen door of a transbluency figure printed on the screen mesh material that is still in the works. The piece also includes daily objects of bricks, grass, a basketball, yard gate and other items that are dissolving in plaster and spray-painted with shades of blue. It operates as a metaphor of solemnity, distance and fluidity.
I’m going to miss in-person critiques, especially since my work is material-based. I would like to stay in conversation with many artists and educators about this concept, and if anyone knows any space or resources that I can use to continue my art practice during this time that’ll be great, too.
See Kenyssa Evans' work on Instagram @kensnave.
