SEQAA Exhibit - Care/Repair: Mending the Circle

June 1 - June 29, 2022

Care is a species activity that includes everything we do to maintain, continue and repair our world so that we may live in it as well as possible. That world includes our bodies, ourselves and our environments, all of which we seek to interweave in a complex life-sustaining web. – Joan Tronto

Care/Repair: Mending the Circle is not just an exhibition, it is a statement and conversation about human cooperation and our mutual interdependence. Care is fundamental to the human condition. It is manifest in myriad acts of kindness and labors of love. All humans are engaged in care activities, both as receivers of care and in most cases as care givers. And we care most for those that are emotionally, physically and culturally closer to us. What are the boundaries of our caring? How far should the boundaries of caring be expanded?

Unlike the expansiveness of Care, repair is a humble act of conserving resources. In days past, it was a necessity. Today it can offer a powerful antidote to the consumable, throw-away society in which we live. Other cultures have long recognized the beauty in the broken, imperfect and flawed. Repair techniques like Kintsugi in Japan, which highlights the cracks and repairs of broken pottery, and Rafoogari in India, which mends the fault lines in textiles provide visible and invisible ways of maintenance. Repair can express resistance against cultural norms and be a call to action against environmental catastrophe. The artists featured here invite renewed forms of social exchange and offer alternative, holistic ways of facing environmental and social breakdown. We hope this exhibition will catalyze empathy and action. Collectively, we can care more – and should.

This exhibition is presented by SEQAA (Southeast Queens Artist Alliance). Participating artists include Damali Abrams, Natali Bravo-Barbee, Sherese Francis, Jacqueline Herranz-Brooks, Chemin Hsiao, Marvenia Knight, Rejin Leys, Angela Miskis, Shervonne Neckles, Elizabeth Velazquez, Shenna Vaughn, Margaret Rose Vendryes. The exhibition is curated by Shilpi Chandra.

Learn more about SEQAA: www.seqaa.org

About the Curator: Shilpi Chandra is an art historian and curator with a focus on contemporary art of South Asia and its diaspora. Her curatorial practice is rooted in making art freely accessible to lay audiences by creating exhibitions that bring people into public and community spaces. After receiving her MA in Contemporary Art from SUNY-Purchase College, she worked as a Curatorial Assistant at the Katonah Museum of Art on thematic exhibitions ranging from self-taught artists to mid-century modern architecture. At the Pelham Art Center, a community based arts organization, Shilpi was responsible for managing the exhibitions program. Shilpi also has an MBA from Columbia Business School and worked in healthcare marketing for several years. She regularly teaches continuing education classes on Chinese and Indian Art History and Contemporary Asian Art.