Please join us for an evening of discussion on relevance in visual art with acclaimed artists Ana Maria Hernando and Suchitra Mattai. Moderated by Jessica Kooiman Parker, Curator at the Dairy Arts Center. Brought to you by Boulder County Arts Leadership Forum (BCALF) and BCAA. $5 admission
About the Artists:
Ana María Hernando, from Argentina and based in Colorado for the last twenty-three years, is a multidisciplinary artist, with a passion for calling forward what is lightest in us. She is interested in empathy, in making the invisible visible, and in the transformative, compassionate conversation of the universe. She considers the balance between the material and the transcendent, devotedly exploring the sacred feminine through women's rich histories, their daily lives and relationship to hand-worked textiles and wares. In her installations, Ana includes the work of women from around Latin America, from embroideries of cloistered nuns in Buenos Aires, to the weavings and wares of Peruvian women from the mountains.
She has done temporary public art for the City of Boulder and other venues. She is also a poet and translator, and has performed with poet Kenneth Robinson in English and Spanish. Together, they have just finished a new site-specific art installation about birds, as part of Re-Call for Redline, that opened at the Land Library.
Undomesticated, a new documentary about her work premiered in May of 2018. In 2017 CU Art Museum published a full catalogue dedicated to Ana’s work.
She is the proud mother of three dear children.
Suchitra Mattai explores how our natural environment shapes personal narratives, ancestral histories, and the creation of “home.” Her current project investigates Indo-Caribbean migration, assimilation, and identity within a postcolonial context. Suchitra creates mixed-media installations, paintings, drawings, sculpture and video through material engagement with physical and virtual fragments. She is interested in domestic iconography and the historic role of fiber-based processes.
Suchitra received an MFA in painting and drawing and an MA in South Asian art, both from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Recent and upcoming work includes projects with the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver and the Denver Art Museum, solo exhibitions at the Center for Visual Arts, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Denver, (2018), K Contemporary Art, Denver (2018), and grayDuck Gallery, Austin (2018) as well as group exhibitions with the Lancaster Museum of Art and History, California, (2019) the Center on Contemporary Art Seattle (2018), the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, New York (2017) and a travelling exhibition with the Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC (2019). She completed a residency at RedLine Contemporary Art, and was recently nominated for a United States Artist Grant. She will be participating in the Sharjah Biennial 2019.
About the Moderator:
Jessica Kooiman Parker believes in the power of art to change lives. She strives to bring thought-provoking and process-based work to new audiences, while promoting art collecting and paying artists fair compensation. She fostered her love of art and design by acquiring a BFA from the University of WI-Stout. Since that time she has held the role of Small Business Owner, Freelance Graphic Designer, Creative Director, Executive Director and Curator.
Before coming to the Dairy in 2018, Parker was the Executive Director/Curator for 4 years at Firehouse Art Center in Longmont. Under her guidance, the Firehouse emerged as the leading space for contemporary art in the area, winning the Times Call Best Art Gallery in 2014-17 and the Daily Camera Best Art Gallery 2013-17. She founded a monthly film program in 2012 and created Longmont’s only film festival – the Front Range Film Festival in 2013. Her work as Creative Director for Colorado Festival Productions continues to drive independent film in our region.
Recently Kooiman Parker partnered with multi-disciplinary artist Drew Austin and founded Studio.Public. Through podcasts, digital interviews, critical discussion, and a print publication, Studio.Public documents what makes an artist thrive and brings the person behind the work to the forefront.