Via Zoom
For the second event accompanying Sara Jimenez’s exhibition Roots Burrow Through Stones and Hard Facts, the artist will lead a virtual panel discussion to elaborate on the themes presented in the work on display. The panel will feature the voices of multidisciplinary artist Crystal Z Campbell; writer, editor, and art historian Re’al Christian; and educator, curator, and community organizer PJ Policarpio. Each participant will speak about their current research and curiosities in relation to colonial displacement and the fragmentation of histories. The event will run approximately 1 hour and will take place via Zoom.
Sara Jimenez is a Filipinx-Canadian interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Jimenez received her MFA from Parsons the New School for Design (2013). Jimenez has exhibited at the Pinto Art Museum, El Museo del Barrio, Rush Arts Gallery, BRIC Gallery, BronxArtSpace, FiveMyles Gallery, The Brooklyn Museum, The Bronx Museum, and Smack Mellon, among others. She has performed at numerous venues including The Dedalus Foundation, The Noguchi Museum, Jack, The Glasshouse, and Dixon Place. She has been an artist in residence at various organizations, including Brooklyn Art Space, Wave Hill’s Winter Workspace, a full artist fellowship to The Vermont Studio Center, the Bronx Museum’s AIM program, Yaddo, BRICworkspace, Art Omi,, Project for Empty Space, LMCC’s Workspace and Bemis (upcoming). She is the recipient of the Cecily Brown Fellowship and has been listed as Smack Mellon’s “Hot Picks” in both 2018 and 2019. Her work was recently acquired as part of the permanent collection of the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice. She has received grants from NYFA for the Canadian Women’s Artist Award, as well as from Canada Council for the Arts. Jimenez teaches at Parsons the New School for Design, New York University, BMCC, and mentors graduate students at the Vermont College of Fine Art, and the School of Visual Arts. sarajimenezstudio.com
Re’al Christian is a writer, editor, and art historian based in Queens, NY. She is a contributing editor at ART PAPERS, and the Assistant Director of Editorial Initiatives at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School. Her writing has appeared in Art in America, Art in Print, BOMB Magazine, and The Brooklyn Rail. She has written catalogue and exhibition texts for Sikkema Jenkins & Co., DC Moore, and CUE Art Foundation, and has participated in public programs with Dieu Donné and the Rubin Foundation. As a curator and editor, she has worked on exhibitions and publications with the Hunter College Art Galleries, including The Black Index (2021) and Life as Activity: David Lamelas (2021). She is an MA candidate in Art History at Hunter College, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Art History and Media, Culture, & Communication from New York University. Her work explores issues related to identity, diasporas, media, and materiality. rschristian.com
Crystal Z Campbell is a multidisciplinary artist, experimental filmmaker, and writer of African American, Filipino, and Chinese descents. Campbell finds complexity in public secrets—fragments of information known by many but untold or unspoken. Select honors include a Guggenheim; Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship; Pollock-Krasner; MAP Fund; MacDowell; Rijksakademie; Whitney ISP; UNDO Fellowship; and Skowhegan. Select exhibitions/screenings include the Drawing Center, ICA-Philadelphia, and SFMOMA. Campbell’s writing is featured in two artist books (VSW Press), World Literature Today, Monday Journal, GARAGE, and Hyperallergic. Founder of archiveacts.com, Campbell is currently a Distinguished Scholar at the University of Buffalo who lives and works in New York & Oklahoma. crystalzcampbell.com
PJ Gubatina Policarpio (he/him) is an educator, curator, and community organizer. He has organized exhibitions and programming in San Francisco and New York including Notes for Tomorrow (Independent Curators International, 2021), Tarsal by Metatarsal (Headlands Center for the Arts, 2021), Solidarity Struggle Victory (Southern Exposure, 2019), Pilipinx American Library at Asian Art Museum (2018), Rally: Queer Art and Activism Now (Dixon Place, 2017), that bring together artists, writers, poets, scholars, collectives and activists whose practices challenge power and representation. PJ is co-founder of Pilipinx American Library, an itinerant library and programming platform dedicated exclusively to Filipinx perspectives. His publication Textiles of the Philippines is in the collection of the Thomas J. Watson Library at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Born in the Philippines, PJ migrated to the United States in his early teens. He lives and works between San Francisco and New York City. pjpolicarpio.net
Image: Sara Jimenez, Roots Burrow Through Stones and Hard Facts, 2021, installation detail. Image Courtesy of the Artist.
This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York City Council Member Stephen Levin, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and with generous support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Robert Lehman Foundation, Select Equity Group Foundation, many individuals and Smack Mellon’s Members.
Smack Mellon’s programs are also made possible with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and with generous support from The Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund of The New York Community Trust, Jerome Foundation, The Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation Inc., and Exploring The Arts. In-kind donations are provided by Materials for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs/NYC Department of Sanitation/NYC Department of Education.
Smack Mellon would like to extend a special thanks to all of the individuals, foundations, and businesses who have contributed to the NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund.
Space for Smack Mellon’s programs is generously provided by the Walentas family and Two Trees Management.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
The artist would like to thank Lau Nau, Ryan O’Connor, Isabelle Schneider, Jason Schwartz, Katherine Weir, Keefe Murren, Gabriel de Guzman.
