Exhibition Closing: Our Time by Antonio Serna

Last chance to see the exhibition:

Documents of Resistance: Our Time

by: Antonio Serna

Overview:

Loisaida Center Inc. is pleased to present Documents of Resistance: Our Time, a participatory exhibition and residency of new work by Antonio Serna.

How do we give contours to an art history that remains unwritten, scattered across archives, and siloed in scholarship? How can we begin to reconnect the struggle for civil rights across all artists of color and their fight for inclusion in our cultural institutions? How can we being to reflect on the complexity of artists of color and their unique experience, political actions, and art production as part of the art history in American? In the exhibition, Documents of Resistance: Our Time, Mexican-American artist, Antonio Serna is hoping to take us down a visual path to consider these and many other questions in regards to the important but often overlook contributions of artist of color.

Central to the exhibition will be a series timeline collages of art and activism from each decade, from 1960s up to our current decade. In combining the histories of artists of color, visitors will be able to visually locate overlapping shared concerns and experiences of artists of color: from the Chicano Movement to the Black Power Movement, and from the Labor Movement to the Feminist, Third World Movement, and beyond. Leading up to and during the exhibition, Antonio Serna is asking the public to send in their memories of this resistance: people, places, or events relevant in order to continue to expand this histories. Serna’s interest is not just a reflection of the past hopes to inspire and empower a new generation of people of color to join the struggle in becoming the next generation of artists, activists, curators, historians, archivist, and museum workers, to help end discrimination in our cultural institutions.

Goals:

My current project ‘Documents of Resistance,’ is an ongoing art project that draws inspiration from the history of art and activism by artists of color from 1960-present. My goal is to develop several specific in depth projects under this expansive umbrella. Specifically, for my residency at The Loisaida Center, I will be focusing on ‘Our Time,’ a multimedia installation that chronicles the connections and relationships between people, places, and events that influenced artists of color. Central to ‘Our Time’ is a series of 4 visual timeline-collages that contextualize this unique history. The timelines include historic images of protests against racism in museums in New York and collective activities in places such as Watts and East Los Angeles, among other political activities. By giving visual form to this history, we can gain an overview of overlapping concerns, cross-cultural themes, and socio-political forces that affected the studio production and protests organizing of artists of color. Over the span of my residency at The Loisaida Center visitors, special guests, and the public will be ask to comment and contribute to the project.

During the research and development phase of the residency, the artist will conduct a Call for Public Participation, to participate please fill out this form.

Outcome, exhibition:

Documents of Resistance: Our Time

September 14th – November 30th

Exhibition Closing: Friday, November 30th, 2018 – 11am to 5pm

For his exhibition, ‘ Documents of Resistance: Our Time, the upcoming exhibition at Loisaida, resident artists Antonio Serna, is creating timelines to highlight the art and activism of artists of color. Help us build these important timelines by sending in your memories of resistance: people, places, or events relevant to the history of art and activism by people of color; These timelines will provide information for future research, scholarship, and display.

Call for Public Participation: 

Do you remember a spot in your neighborhood that was an important place for artists of color meet and make art. Do you recall a rally or protest organized by artists of color? How about and  exhibition by and for artists of color? Or community art projects that were made by and for communities of color? We want to collect all these important moments. 

Contribute by filling out the form below:

About the artist:

Antonio Serna is a Mexican-American artist, activist, and independent researcher. For over a decade Antonio has helped lead and co-organize several art projects and activist interventions in New York, Texas, Las Vegas, Spain, Mexico, Berlin, and Romania. Most recently he has contributed to labor equity portion of “People’s Cultural Plan,” which launched at Artists Space in 2017, and the Brooklyn Community Forum on Gentrification at the Brooklyn Museum in 2016. Other notable projects include his work on alternative economies for artists including artCommons at The Queens Museum and “What Do We Do Now?” at Eyebeam, both held in 2013. Antonio Serna is originally from Texas and holds a Masters in Fine Arts from Brooklyn College, and a Bachelor of Arts from Parsons School of Art and Design.

His current project Documents of Resistances has recently been included in a new book Art As Social Action, edited by Gregory Sholette, Chloe Bass, and Queens Social Practice (Allworth Press). An artist residency and exhibition for this project has also been schedule for the Fall of 2018 at The Loisaida Center in New York City.

1. Personal website: www.antonioserna.com
2. Press: “Empowering Latinx Arts Practitioners at the Latinx Artist Retreat (LXAR),” Lynnette Miranda. Chicago Artist Writers, June 7, 2017.
3. Press: “Can Protest Art Survive And Thrive During A Trump Presidency,”Anjali Enjeti. Pacific Standard, May 27, 2017.
4. Press: “Antinomies of Art Activism and Documentation: The Curatorial Approach of Agitprop at the Brooklyn Museum,” Izabel Galliera, Issue 4, Field Journal, 2016.

“Opinions like those expressed while in a panel, presentation, performance or through artwork are expressed by the author in their personal capacity and are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Loisaida Inc., its affiliates or staff.”