Flux Thursday : Artist as Ally
As part of the exhibition Against Competition / Towards Mutual Aid On February 9, as part of Flux Thursdays, Flux Factory and ABC No Rio will present the panel Artist as Ally. Please join us for a potluck and discussion, as four artists will share how they engage the arts in ways that address social issues.
February 9th
Potluck and reception starts at 7pm
Panel 8pm
The event is free, but do bring something to share!
Artist bios below
The panel will be moderated by Kelly Savage.
CRISTIAN ABBRANCATI is a 20-year-old student activist currently based in Brooklyn, NY. He is the founder of the A-Z Campaign and a student at Pace University studying Women and Gender Studies. He uses his spare time to venture into creative outlets such as photography and writing. Cristian is passionate about social justice and art and believes it is possible to fuse various elements together in order to achieve an innovative form of activism.
His past work includes the mini-films “Rainbow,” “Mindset,” and “Reacting to Homophobic and Transphobic Tweets,” as well as the A-Z photo series.
Upcoming projects include the mini-film “Thoughts on Valentines Day” and the Closet Party Podcast, in which the “the closet” is reclaimed as a space to discuss pop culture, social justice issues, and self-care.
MARIA HUPFIELD is a Canadian artist and a member of the Anishinaabe Nation at Wasauksing First Nation, Ontario. She is currently based in Brooklyn. Recently selected for the SITELines Biennial SITE Santa Fe 2016, she received national recognition in the USA from the Joan Mitchell Foundation for her industrial felt sculptures earning a Painting and Sculpture Grant. Maria’s work traveled across Canada for the exhibition “Beat Nation: Aboriginal Art and Hip Hop,” was shown at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Power Plant in Toronto, and at the 7a*11d International Performance Festival. Her project “Artist Tour Guide” was commissioned by The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York. In 2015 Maria designed a nine foot birchbark style hunting canoe out of industrial felt to be assembled and performed in Venice Italy over three consecutive evenings for the premiere of Jiimaan.
SABRINA JONES writes and illustrates graphic novels on social justice and radical history. She began her career in the 1980s with the activist art collective Carnival Knowledge and joined the editorial collective of the radical comics magazine World War 3 Illustrated, to this day contributing to most of its issues.
In the 1990s, Sabrina co-founded “Girltalk,” an anthology of women’s autobiographical comics, and illustrated and co-wrote “Prisoners of the War on Drugs” for the Real Cost of Prisons project. Her books “Race to Incarcerate: A Graphic Retelling” and “Isadora Duncan: A Graphic Biography” were named Great Graphic Novels by the Young Adult Library Services Association.
Sabrina’s most recent book is “Our Lady of Birth Control: A Cartoonist’s Encounter with Margaret Sanger.”
RACHEL STEINBERG is an artist, curator, and organizer based in Brooklyn, NY. She is interested in digital and time based media, science fiction, collaborative practices, and examining the role of alternative art spaces and artistic agency. She holds a BFA from Pratt Institute, and is currently the Gallery Director at SOHO20 Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn. She previously worked at NURTUREart, The Museum of Arts and Design, and was a co-organizer of Trade School New York. As an independent curator, she has curated exhibitions both locally and internationally.
Kelly Savage is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA summa cum laude from Brooklyn College. She is the founder of the artist collective Subject to Change and a member of the Visual Arts Committee at ABC No Rio. Savage’s art has been in numerous group exhibitions in NYC spaces including: ABC No Rio, Bullet Space, Not an Alternative/Change You Want to See, Petri Space, St. Mark’s Church and Soho20 Chelsea. In 2010, Savage installed a mural for 4th Arts Block titled Are We There Yet and in 2013 she had a solo exhibition at Brooklyn College, an all-paper installation titled Stuffing. She is the recipient of the Charles G. Shaw Brooklyn College Art Department Scholarship and the Sarah Koltun Scholarship. Savage is the recent recipient of the Soho20 Chelsea Fellowship award.