in pieces... exhibition extended June 10 - July 9

Excited that PS122 Gallery extended the Residency Unlimited (RU) 2023 NYC-Based Artist Residency Program in pieces… exhibition curated by Rachel Raphaela Gugelberger until July 9. The show highlights works by Abang-guard (Maureen Catbagan + Jevijoe Vitug), Tatiana Arocha, Miatta Kawinzi, and Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow.

Featured in the exhibition is Abang-guard’s Little Manila Monuments, an ongoing research-based project that draws inspiration from the Rizal Monument in Manila, Philippines that commemorates the national hero, Dr. José Rizal and is guarded by the Philippine Marine Corps’ Marine Security. The multi-media installation presents brick-and-mortar businesses in Little Manila, Queens, as landmark monuments in New York City to pay tribute to the working-class immigrants who built them, and acknowledge them as modern-day transnational heroes. Abang-guard acts as sentinels in front of restaurants and convenience stores, framing their value and significance as bridges and lifelines between families and their homeland.

in pieces... exhibition at PS122 Gallery

PS122 Gallery is pleased to host Residency Unlimited (RU) to present in pieces…, an exhibition featuring works by Abang-guard (Maureen Catbagan + Jevijoe Vitug), Tatiana Arocha, Miatta Kawinzi, and Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow. The exhibition is the culmination of RU’s 2023 NYC-Based Artist Residency Program, and will be on view from June 10 – 25, 2023.

Residency Unlimited (RU) presents in pieces…, an exhibition that is the culmination of RU’s 2023 NYC-Based Artist Residency Program, where artists focused on research and the development of multidisciplinary projects around the history of Little Manila in Woodside, Queens, and the intersections to immigration, labor, and visibility (Abang-guard); the coca plant, colonization, scientific discoveries of cocaine, and the development of Coca-Cola (Arocha); the links between the United States and Liberia reflecting upon personal, national, and transnational histories (Kawinzi); and the interplay between sugar cane plantation slavery in Jamaica and the sugar cane industry in Scotland (Lyn-Kee-Chow).

in pieces… encompasses a broad spectrum of narratives to shape a fuller and more nuanced understanding of historical knowledge and the intertwined formations of identity, memory and place. The exhibition draws its title from Katherina Grace Thomas’s essay “Nina Simone in Liberia,” published on guernicamag.com in 2017. In the essay, Thomas recounts an anecdote shared by a friend: “Liberia’s past is in pieces, he said, and here’s one of them. Maybe it’s the one you’re looking for.” The text was among many shared by the artists during weekly salons that considered materials related to their research.

in pieces… is curated by RU Guest Curator Rachel Raphaela Gugelberger.

RU 2023 NYC-Based Artists-in-Residence

Thrilled and honored that my collab Abang-guard (with artist Jevijoe Vitug) is part of Residency Unlimited’s (RU) 2023 NYC-Based Artist Residents. Other artists that were selected include Tatiana Arocha, Miatta Kawinzi and Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow.

The cohort was selected from an open call for artists who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Color who have research-based practices that fill in gaps in historical knowledge. During the three month residencies from April 3 - June 30, 2023, Abang-guard will focus on the research and development of the history of Little Manilla in Woodside, Queens, and the intersections of immigration, labor, and visibility. We will be participating in a culminating group exhibition at PS122 Gallery in June.

The artists were selected from more than 180 applicants by a panel of three arts professionals: Elvira Clayton, Rachel Gugelberger, and Dario Mohr.