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Video Islands

Jan 29, 2015
6:30–8 pm

New York, NY, USA
Anthology Film Archives

32 Second Avenue (at E 2nd St)
New York, NY 10003

María Elena Ortiz, recipient of the 2014 Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Travel Award, curates a selection of video works from her research trips in the Caribbean in 2014. María Elena’s research has explored film and video practices, through interviews with local cultural producers and artists in the region. Following the screening will be a Q & A session with María Elena Ortiz.

Video Islands is a program of contemporary visual shorts produced by artists from or working in Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Martinique, Trinidad and Tobago. This presentation includes videos, film shorts, documentation of performances, new media practices, and experimental narratives that portray the nuances of Caribbean experiences. Some of the works narrate personal stories, sit on the realm of nonlinear experimentation, or use animation to explore social imaginaries through classic Caribbean motifs. An investigation of the moving-image, Video Islands is the result of a research initiative in the Caribbean supported by Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Independent Curators International.


This event is free and open to the public. To attend, please RSVP to rsvp@curatorsintl.org with VIDEO in the subject line.


Featuring works by the following artists:

Germille Geerman (b. 1988, Oranjestad, Aruba) started working in film at the age of 15. He started his formal art training at Ateliers’89 under the Elvis Lopez in 2009. He participated in the residency Caribbean Linked II. His work has been included in writing platforms such as Arc Magazine and Fresh Milk Blog. He lives and works in Aruba.

Marlon Griffith (b. 1976, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) started his artistic practice as a Carnival designer—a “mas’ man,” as Trinidadians would call him. This background deeply shapes his work as a contemporary visual artist, which has performative, participatory, and ephemeral characteristics that derive from Carnival. Griffith was an artist in residence at Bag Factory / Fordsburg Artists’ Studios, Johannesburg (2004); Mino Paper Art Village, Japan (2005); Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts, Kingston, Jamaica (2007); POPOPstudios, Nassau, Bahamas (2010-11); and Art Omi, Ghent, New York (2011). His work has been included in exhibitions such as South-South: Interruptions & Encounters, South Asian Visual Arts Center, Toronto (2009); Global Caribbean, Little Haiti Cultural Center, Miami (2010); and Wrestling with the Image: Caribbean Interventions, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington D.C. (2011). Griffith has also participated in international exhibitions including the Tate Modern Live Series (2014); Manifesta 9 Parallel Projects, Genk (2012); and Cape09, Cape Town (2009), among many others. In 2010, he was the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and of a Commonwealth Award. Since 2009, he lives and works in Nagoya, Japan.

David Gumbs (b. 1977, Saint-Martin) studied Interactive Multimedia at Les Aterliers, L’ENSCI in Paris in 2002. Then, he studied at the Visual Arts School in Fort-de-France, Martinique, where he currently works as a professor of visual arts. Recent exhibitions include Reflexions, 14°N 61°W Contemporary Art Space, Fort-de-France (2014); Transforming Spaces, The National Gallery of the Bahamas (2014); The Martinique Biennial, Fort-de-France (2013); ArtBémao, Port-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe (2013); Aruba Biennial, Oranjestad (2012); and Latitudes 2009, Paris (2008). Gumbs lives and works in Fort-de-France.

Alicia Milne (b. 1986, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working in Trinidad and Tobago. Her investigations into the physical and social landscape of the multicultural society that is Trinidad and Tobago, results in works that respond to the historical baggage associated with whiteness in a Caribbean context. Her works have been exhibited in group shows regionally and internationally. In 2013, she received a Prince Claus Fund Travel Grant and was artist in residence at Stichting Open Ateliers Zuidoost, the Netherlands. In 2014, she attended Beta-Local’s Summer Session, Puerto Rico. She is a founding member of the artists group See You on Sundays in Trinidad. Milne holds a BA Visual Arts and Minor Cultural Studies from the University of the West Indies.

Kareem J. Mortimer (b. 1980, Nassau, Bahamas) is a filmmaker that has worked globally and has made narrative, documentary and experimental work. Over the past five years he has won over 30 awards for his previous three film projects and has had his work distributed in over forty countries. Mortimer has made short music documentaries for the syndicated show Hip Hop Nation: Notes from the Underground; and has written and directed the short Narrative film Float that has won 5 international awards and distribution in North America, Germany, Australia, and Austria. Float received a Broadcast premiere on LOGO. Moving Pictures Magazine crowned Float as one of five short films to look out for and Kareem a writer/director to watch. Subsequently, he has directed the documentary I Am Not A Dummy and the feature film Children Of God. Children of God has won 18 awards, distributed in 24 territories, theatrical releases in the US, Netherlands and UK and broadcasted on SHOWTIME. Children of God was also named by BET as one of the top ten movies of the year and one of the top features to watch by The Independent. Mortimer also co-directed and produced the feature film Wind Jammers that was distributed globally through Filmworks Entertainment and this year won a prestigious African Movie Academy Award for his film Passage. Kareem is currently involved in raising finance for new projects as Co-Founder of Best Ever Film and the creative director of The Island House Cinema, the first and only art-house cinema in the English speaking Caribbean. Mortimer lives and works in Nassau.

Holly Parotti (b. 1972, Nassau, Bahamas) received her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia in 1997. Her work has been exhibited nationally venues such as The National Gallery of the Bahamas and POPOPstudios, both in Nassau. In 2011, she was selected as the recipient of the prestigious Royal Over Seas League’s fine arts scholarships. Parotti’s work was featured in Love & Responsibility: The Dawn Davies Collection, a comprehensive publication on art from The Bahamas. Parotti lives and works in The Bahamas.

Heino Schmid (b. 1976, Nassau, Bahamas) studied photography at The Savannah College of Art and Design (2003) and received a Master’s in Fine Art from The Utrecht Graduate School of Visual Art and Design (2006). Schmid has been working collaboratively with Tesse Whitehead, which works has been included in exhibitions such as Show Off, LeandaKateLouise, London (2014); Drawing a Round Square Takes Practice, POPOPstudios, Nassau (2014); and Antillean: an Ecology, The National Gallery of the Bahamas (2014). His work has also been included in other exhibitions such as Volta NY, New York, (2013); Material and Sculpture, Liquid Courage Gallery, Nassau, (2013); Into the Mix, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, (2012); and Wrestling with the Image, Art Museum of Americas, Washington (2011). Schmid lives and works in Nassau.

Tessa Whitehead (b.1985, Bahamas) received a BA Fine Arts from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London and an MFA from The Slade School of Fine Art, London. Whitehead has been working collaboratively with fellow artist Heino Schmid and their work has been included in exhibitions such as Show Off, LeandaKateLouise, London (2014); Drawing a Round Square Takes Practice, POPOPstudios, Nassau (2014); and Antillean: an Ecology, The National Gallery of the Bahamas (2014). Her work has also been presented at the 40 Years of Bahamian Art, The National Art Gallery of the Bahamas (2013). She is currently working on an awarded public sculpture commission for Baha Mar and SLS Hotel in Nassau. Whitehead was awarded the Chisenhale Studio4 Residency (2014), her work was shortlisted for the Wells Art Contemporary, Well's Museum (2013), and the Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries, London (2012). Whitehead lives and works in Nassau.


Credits 

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Thank you to The Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros for their generous support of this fellowship. CPPC works to increase the understanding and awareness of Latin America’s contributions to the history of art and ideas, and to support innovation, education, and research in the field of Latin American art.

Presenter
María Elena Ortiz

María Elena Ortiz is Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX.