Feature

Opening of The Immigrant Artist Biennial

13 october, 2020
Image: Kevin Quiles Bonilla, Self-portrait (with Tarp Mask), 2019.

The virtual premier of The Immigrant Artist Biennial (TIAB) will take place on October 16. The opening performance will be Kevin Quiles Bonilla's "Presidential Alert (America, Lip-Sync for your Life)", followed by a tour of the Biennale's main exhibition. You can already get acquainted with some of the featuring artists through the virtual studio visits available on the website now. 

The excerpt from the TIAB concept:

The current U.S. administration has enforced policies that infringe on human rights, discriminating against LGBTQ communities, women, DACA recipients, and immigrants. At this time of unrest and exclusion, the first iteration of The Immigrant Artist Biennial is centered around otherness and alienation. As the title Here, Together! alludes, the Biennial is also an invitation to consider those around us, especially those voices that are overlooked or silenced. By establishing urgent and innovative dialogue between artists and audiences, TIAB supports LatinX immigrants fighting their way across a wall of ignorance, Eastern European artists who have few opportunities for exposure in New York, artists from countries who face border controls, travel bans, and artists fighting for 01 Visas and Green Cards. Presenting performance, installation, video, interdisciplinary, and ephemeral work that investigates the multiplicities of the immigrant experience, TIAB is curated to bridge the art world and the general public with diverse immigrant and multicultural communities. It hopes to inspire voters to be conscious of how policy affects the lives of immigrants with whom they live side by side. Celebratory and inclusive of all bodies, all languages, all ages, and all religions, the presentation of works by historically significant and contemporary immigrant artists serves as testimony to how immigrants have and will continue to shape art, culture, and society in the U.S. 

TIAB is based on the premise of equal gender and race representation, highlighting the inequality and bias which is still prevalent in the art world today. TIAB is designed to attract a diverse audience, both within the existing artworld networks and broader immigrant and multicultural communities nationally and internationally. 

The Founding Artistic Director and Head Curator is Katya Grokhovsky — an immigrant artist, curator, educator, and the Founding Artistic Director of The Immigrant Artist Biennial (TIAB) and Feminist Urgent (FU). Katya Grokhovsky was born in Ukraine, lives and works in the USA. Share: