"Prima Materia, the exhibition on view at the Rowan University Art Gallery through January 4, features work by three multi-disciplinary artists, Blanka Amezkua, Esperanza Cortés, and Anthony Carlos Molden. The show is curated by Anabelle Rodríguez-González, a Philadelphia-based arts practitioner, anthropologist, and educator from Puerto Rico.
"Anabelle proposed this show to me," said Mary Salvante, the art gallery's chief curator and director, "and I was very interested."
"I try to be mindful and intentional about what we show in the gallery," she said, "I want the artwork and the artists to be a reflection of our audience. You want to see what looks like you."
And collaborating with guest curators is a way to expand the scope of what the gallery presents.
Gallery view of Prima Materia. Image courtesy of Rowan University Art Gallery and Museum, photo credit: Constance Mensh
"A guest curator brings a distinctive voice and a fresh perspective," Salvante said, "and often has a special relationship with artists. So, the show is very collaborative and very engaging."
When considering who to bring in for the exhibition, Rodríguez-González aimed to show a mixture of materials and techniques through the lens of diverse cultures—Mexican, Colombian, and African American—and explore the ways that many artists today blur the formerly distinct line between art and craft.
"She reached out to artists who are working with materials that typically be considered in the craft realm," Salvante said of the curator's choices. "But their process takes it to another level."
"As a professor, I'm interested in the relationship between what I see students making at Westby Hall, which is a studio-based program," Rodríguez-González said, "and what's happening in the gallery, which may be an alternate vision of what art is and how it's made."
"My primary consideration for choosing these artists was excellence."
As we walked into the gallery, Salvante introduced the works by saying, "These artists have very strong, but sometimes subtle responses to relationships, to a sense of spirituality, a sense of mysticism."
"And that brings us to Anthony Carlos Molden," she said.
Detail of Love Light in Flight, an artwork by Anthony Carlos Molden. Image courtesy of Rowan University Art Gallery and Museum, photo credit: Constance Mensh
His dynamic works serve as a striking place to begin. Molden started painting when he was 12, and later worked doing set painting for theater, movies, and music videos.
While the job was creative, it was also challenging. "A lot of that is massive problem-solving," he said. He did that for about 15 years, then construction work and decorative restoration, "the pretty parts on the front of brownstones," which required skills like mold making and stone casting.
"So, that's where I am now," he said, "all of that mixed up in one pot."
Lighting plays a significant role in Molden's current work. Still, this element came about inadvertently, after he was in three exhibits with no lighting.
"I got frustrated and decided I would start adding lights to the pieces from that point on," he said.
The lights not only highlight and add drama to the works, but they change the aura around the sculptures, creating a shifting backdrop that creates its own artwork on the walls.
"The lighting is also playing on my theme of color therapy for healing," he explained. And while he understood the power of the lights and colors, it took a while before Molden installed a piece in his home. "There are a lot of moods, which you can control," he said, "and they give off pleasant energy. When it is a rainy, gray day, they are amazing."
Light and color are primary elements for Molden. "I took a color therapy class, which I didn't really enjoy," he said, laughing. "But it did what it was supposed to," he said. "It helped me perceive colors and the gradation of colors on another level. And it led me to color therapy."
"I study any form of light and color affected by light – glass, flowers, trees," he said. "And I do photography, too."
In addition to color and light, Molden uses found objects – or things people bring him - first in his paintings and now in his sculptures. "I see it as repurposing of materials, which leads to a completeness in art. I can pull the spirit that I see out of it. I see it as reinventing objects so that people can see the value in them."
I asked what inspires him, and he quickly responded, "Music is my main inspiration."
Open the Gallery Guide and access the playlist created by Molden.
As a kid, Molden had to go to bed at "regular kid hours," so he laid in bed with a transistor radio and "twisted that dial until I fell asleep. Music became my close friend. My big favorite is funk – Parliament, Funkadelic. I was heavily influenced by that music, and then just evolved into my own self," he said. "I play Johnny Cash as much as I play funk."
And now for something completely different. Molden's current project is a sculpture of Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Orchestra, which will be unveiled soon around the corner from Allen's house. He next plans to build a community garden there.
Truly a man of many talents and interests, Molden tries to keep things simple and focus on what is important. "I taught myself to not be greedy as a way of life, accept that I am being led in a direction, and trust in that. If we are going to have a new world, we have to be transformed," he said. "We can't go into a new world as we are."
For Esperanza Cortés, her birthplace, Colombia, and its history profoundly impact her art. "It drives my interest and investigation of the art traditions, material culture, rituals, music, dance, medicine, and the lands of the Americas."
Detail of Gold Rush, an artwork by Esperanza Cortés . Image courtesy of Rowan University Art Gallery and Museum, photo credit: Constance Mensh
"My practice draws inspiration from my experience as an Afro-Latino dancer and teacher, and acts as a call-and-response to place, people, cultures, and history," she said, "It also serves to break down boundaries between painting, sculpture, and installation, while addressing social justice, cultural heritage, and environmental issues."
And yet, with all these weighty influences at work, the artwork is anything but sad and somber. This is primarily due to Cortés' chosen materials – ceramics, glass beads, encaustic, embroidery, and textiles. The results make their profound points without employing an overbearing darkness.
Because Cortés could not stand for an extended period following several surgeries, she turned to creating beadwork and using embroidery as primary techniques in her art. Not only were these something she could do while sitting, but they were also deeply grounded in the meditative nature of repetition and a sense of personal rhythm.
Like so many artists, the time of isolation brought on by the pandemic compelled Cortés to alter her ways of working. "At that time, my father was dying, and I spent a great deal of time caring for him," she said. "So, I refrained from shopping to limit any exposure to COVID and challenged myself to use only materials I already had in my studio."
One piece, Second Sight, strays from the artist's other works. It is not on a wall or freestanding but shows several pieces done in greyish beads on a table. The pieces are small, stark-looking sculptures depicting objects such as skulls and other body parts.
"That is the oldest piece," she said," It took ten years (2008-2018) to make, and it talks about many things. I remember when I did this piece, the skull with the bullseye referred to when a child was killed by a policeman for playing in the park with a toy gun."
"It just broke me up that this is how humans behave," she said. "I'm not trying to make people sad, but it's just the brain I have. If something upsets me, I make a piece of art."
And despite what Cortés recognizes as historically, and sadly still actively, true, about violence and exploitation, she continues to find and appreciate the beauty and wonder around her.
"Much of the imagery in my art is meant to pull attention to the work," she said, "and to remind us that we live in a remarkable world."
Detail of Ofrenda, an artwork by Blanka Amezkua. Image courtesy of Rowan University Art Gallery and Museum, photo credit: Constance Mensh
To introduce the final piece in the exhibition, a mixed media altar, or ofrenda, the artist Blanka Amezkua talked about the text about the work written by the curator. "Anabelle wrote this before she actually saw the piece," Amezkua said, "and I was blown away that what I had made was exactly what she had described."
Amezkua is an interdisciplinary artist, cultural promoter, educator, and project director, who was born in Mexico City and now lives in New York. Her art focuses on identity and draws heavily on her background as a Mexican-American artist.
This being her first invitation to create an altar for public viewing and having been raised in the Mexican state of Michoacán, where Dia de los Muertos holds deep significance, Amezkua accepted the opportunity with joy and a deep sense of responsibility.
She had created small altars/ofrenda in her home but never a large-scale one. "Anabelle invited me to create an in-situ piece for the show," Amezkua said. "I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but when I realized that the show was in the fall, I decided to create something in honor of the children we have lost to gun violence."
"The altar at Rowan was going to be the first I had ever made for a public space, but unexpectedly, I was invited to make the very first altar/ofrenda for The Met/Cloisters for their Day of the Dead celebration weeks before I installed the one at Rowan," she said. "I was so honored."
Once she decided what she would make, Amezkua began to collect the elements she wanted to use.
"I asked friends for toy donations, and even BIMBO (the American affiliate of the Mexican multinational bakery product manufacturing company, Grupo Bimbo) donated baked goods to include."
"Unlike traditional ofrendas, I wanted this to catch the viewers' attention as they approached it," she said. "It is a piece that seduces you and then strikes you with an unexpected message."
In addition to traditional elements included in an ofrenda, Amezkua added personal objects. "I included a photo of my grandmother, who is no longer with us, as child, a framed image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and a couple of metallic hearts I bought in Oaxaca many years ago," she said.
Amezkua told me that creating the altar had a profound effect on her. "It was a powerful experience that invited intense introspection," she said. "As the piece was growing, my feeling of sadness and loss increased."
"Each object represented life and child's play that was no longer accessible to all the children in the photos," she said. "Thinking about that made me angry because we could not protect those children from harm."
Garlands of white flowers hang in the space, and I asked Amezkua what they symbolize. "In a violent world, the flowers represent peace, solace, the sky and clouds," she said, "and they are also a decorative item created by one of the university students. So many hands joined to craft the installation. It was a coming together of the efforts of so many."
Assembling the altar was a full two-day project, on November 4th and 5th, and Amezkua said she paid no attention to the election news during that time. "I was completely engaged in arranging toys, books, and photographs on the wall," she said. "And once I finished placing everything, I threw confetti everywhere, not celebratory, but with sadness and anger. Suddenly, the confetti represented tears to me."
With help and support from the curator, Amezkua completed the installation at midnight on November 5." It felt profoundly powerful. I believe we had achieved our mission to convey a message that would resonate with everyone who experienced it, " she said.
"My hope is that the ofrenda would prompt viewers to reflect on the role of guns in our society and the pressing need for gun control measures to protect the most vulnerable among us."
"And" she added, "may we stand in solidarity with those who have lost a loved one under such tragic circumstances."
The exhibition is free and open to the public. It closes on January 4, 2025.
The High Street Gallery will be closed Tuesday, December 24; Wednesday, December 25; Tuesday December 31; and Wednesday January 1.
