PrintbyPrint Group with sponsorship from ELNYA and Ode to Babel present
‘Fiber Talks: A Conversation with Bisa Butler, Stephen Towns, and Basil Kincaid’.
Moderated by Amber Robles-Gordon.
Bisa Butler, an artist and art teacher in New Jersey works primarily with fiber and textiles. Her work has been a part of the nationally renowned traveling exhibitions by Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi; Textural Rhythms, Constructing the Jazz Traditions, Quilting African American Women's History and The Journey of Hope in America , quilts inspired by President Barack Obama. Bisa is represented by the Hearne Fine Art gallery of Little Rock, Arkansas, The Thelma Harris Gallery of Oakland, The Richard Beavers Gallery in Brooklyn, and The Claire Oliver Gallery in New York. She has artwork in private and public collections such as the Louis Armstrong House Museum, the Arkansas Art Museum, and the Kinsey Collection. She has exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States and internationally, most notably at the Nelson Mandela Gateway Museum at Robben Island, and at the Emperors Palace in Johannesburg, South Africa. Recently Bisa Butler had the honor of having her artwork displayed with The Kinsey Collection at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, and is currently exhibiting at Walt Disney World Epcot Center. While at Disney, Bisa taught workshops as a part of the Disney Dreamers Academy. Bisa was the featured artist for the annual Art in The Atrium gallery show in Morristown, New Jersey, and currently has artwork featured on the hit Netflix show, Luke Cage. This past spring Bisa exhibited art on the Tom Joyner annual cruise.
Amber Robles-Gordon, is a mixed media visual artist. She primarily works and is known for her use of found objects and textile to create assemblages, large-scale sculptures and installations. Her work is representational of her experiences and the paradoxes within the female experience. Robles-Gordon has over fifteen years of exhibiting, art education, and exhibition coordinating experience. Her work has been reviewed and/or featured in the Washington Post, Washington City Paper, Washington Informer, Examiner, WAMU American University Radio, WPFW 89.3, MSNBC the grio, Hyperallergeric, Ebony.com, the Miami Herald, Huffington Post, Bmore Art Magazine, and Callaloo Art & Culture in the African Diaspora. She has exhibited nationally and in Germany, Italy, Malaysia, London, and Spain. In 2010, Robles-Gordon was granted apprenticeship to create a public art installation with the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, D.C. Creates Public Arts Program. Robles-Gordon was also commissioned to create temporary and permanent public art installations for numerous art fairs and agencies such as the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, DCCAH, Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association (NVFAA), Humanities Council of Washington, D.C., Howard University, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Washington Projects for the Arts. Throughout her career, she serves as an advocate for the Washington, DC area arts community.
Mixed-Media Artist Stephen Towns currently based out of Baltimore, Maryland was born in Charleston, South Carolina. Towns primarily works in oil, acrylic, and fiber attributing much of his visual inspiration from medieval altarpieces, impressionist paintings and wax cloth prints. His work has been exhibited at Galerie Myrtis, Arlington Arts Center, Gallery CA, Platform Gallery, Hood College and is in the collection of the City of Charlestown, South Carolina. Most recently, Towns was honored as the inaugural recipient of the 2016 Municipal Art Society of Baltimore, Travel Prize and received the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance Rubys Artist Grant in 2015.
Basil Kincaid – “I am a Vessel, a Vivid Dreamer, and a World Builder. My work is guided by our connection to ancestral strength, insight, and imagination...I practice self-exploration, historical investigation, and critical social questioning to cultivate healing on a personal and cultural level, towards the remedy of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Within my practice I seek to promote empathy, curiosity, critical thought, conversation, and inclusion...My goal is to co-create healing sites that stimulate the ancestral memory of love as freedom within us, activating space to participate in shared liberation on local and global scales. I create experiences, objects, and spaces for interpersonal and ancestral connection. I write, quilt, collage, make installations, photograph, perform, and invent games as avenues of questioning. My work is primarily comprised of culturally contextualized, found, or donated materials. I often collect materials from people through social media. This methodology explores the seeming immateriality and physical disconnection of online spaces while observing how waste is reflective of lived experience. I am currently most interested in the practice of Quilting as a way to collaborate with ancestral energy and as a method of empowerment. It is imperative that I nurture the evolution of my creative family traditions, honoring my predecessors while adapting the practice to address the questions and concerns of contemporary life...Quilting as a practice is saturated on both sides of my family dating back over 100 years. My immediate influence as a quilter is Eugenia Kincaid, my grandmother on my father's side. She appears to me in dreams, guiding my hands as we collaborate on every quilt that I make on a spiritual level. I strongly believe that Quilting opens a portal for me to exist with all of my ancestors that maintained the practice and potentially beyond. Upholding family traditions in the face of oppression is essential within my healing process. My stylistic approach is influenced by the innovations, practices, and cultural products of Black Americans, and West Africans. More specifically, I am interested in Black American folk and fine art, music, poetry, and family traditions.”
Eventbrite: https://fibertalkspanel.eventbrite.com
ABOUT EMERGING LEADERS OF NEW YORK
Emerging Leaders of New York Arts (ELNYA)
Emerging Leaders of New York Arts is a multidisciplinary arts network and professional development group for creative leaders in their 20s and 30s. Through innovative programing, open dialogue, and a collaborative community we redefine what it means to be an emerging arts leader in New York City. ELNYA builds communities by creating connections and spaces for art leaders from all backgrounds to feel welcomed, empowered, and inspired. ELNYA strives to be a catalyst for change by fostering an environment of exploration and innovation, and providing access to experiences.
ABOUT PRINTBYPRINT GROUP
PrintbyPrint Group (PbPG)
PrintbyPrint Group is a NYC-based curatorial Arts Education and Advocacy group that uses twenty first century mediums and digital tools to network with industry professionals; providing the public, emerging artists and students from underrepresented groups, with educational and unique events/experiences, workshops, and access to resources and The Arts. Through our partnerships with emerging artists, local businesses, public education institutions and private corporations/organizations, we are focused on providing engaging creative experiences to the general public and STEM to STEAM education opportunities to underserved children, teens, and young adults.
ABOUT ODE TO BABEL
Ode to Babel
Ode to Babel is a cool low-key chill cocktail bar and lounge in crown heights Brooklyn that provides an authentic atmosphere as an extension of home- a place to sip, enjoy the vibe, and nosh on small bites. Ode to Babel also provides a platform for local and/or independent creatives to showcase their art- whether in the form of film, music, mixed media, and performance.