Damali Abrams
Bio:
Damali Abrams the Glitter Priestess is a New York City based artist and educator. Damali attended the Whitney Independent Study Program and earned an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BA from New York University.
Damali is a member of SEQAA (Southeast Queens Artist Alliance). She is a recipient of grants from Women’s Studio Workshop, Flushing Town Hall, and Queens Council on the Arts. She has been a fellow at Culture Push, the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, A.I.R. Gallery, and apexart in Seoul, South Korea.
Damali has also been an Artist-in-Residence at RU (Residency Unlimited), Fresh Milk in Barbados, Groundation Grenada, The Center for Book Arts, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning (JCAL), and LMCC on Governors Island. She was a Creative-In-Residence at Brooklyn Public Library and is currently a Chashama Teaching Artist -in-Residence at the T-Building in Jamaica, Queens.
Damali has presented her work at School of Visual Art (SVA), Tufts, St. John’s University, Sonoma State University, Soho House, UConn Stamford, Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), Barbados Community College, New York University (NYU), SUNY Purchase, Hunter College School of Social Work, and Syracuse University’s 601 Tully.
Damali’s work has been exhibited at El Museo del Barrio, MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art), Queens Museum, King Manor Museum, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, JCAL, and The Point.
Her work has been featured in Artforum, Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, and on the art21 blog. Her writing has been published by Harlequin Creature and Women’s Studio Workshop.
Coralina Rodriguez Meyer
Bio:
Everglades swamp born, raised Ital & Tinkuy (queer) between a rural South immigrant neighborhood and the Caribbean, Coralina Rodriguez Meyer is a mixed-race indigenous Andinx, Brooklyn based Quipucamayoc artist, architect, archive digger and activist. Coralina creates fertility effigies, builds skyscrapers, teaches in universities, mentors LGBTQIA+BIPOC and transforms institutions into vibrant sanctuaries to transgress structural violence in American mythology.
MamaSpaBotanica project (2007-Present) is a full spectrum cultural medicine workshop that restores dignity and divinity to vulnerable, fertile people and habitats. Spanning 2 decades and 30 countries, Coralina has collaborated with reproductive justice and climate leaders across disciplines to build civic agency in their unvanquished barrios. Coralina is a founding boardmember of RetreetAmerica, MenstrualMarket & ¡SolarLibre! They are currently a NALAC Advocacy fellow, leading a nationwide delegation for arts & culture in DC. They have worked for 2 decades on direct action political organizing with progressive, grassroots campaigns translating rituals from her resistance matriarchs to future ancestors, activists and archives.
Coralina studied painting at MICA and anthropology at Hopkins, holds an Architecture BFA from Parsons and Combined Media MFA from Hunter College. Rodriguez Meyer received awards from National Latino Arts & Culture, Oolite Arts, VSArts, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, NYFA and Young Arts. Coralina was a resident of Mildred’s Lane and the Bronx Museum AIM program. Coralina was a research fellow at Museo Machu Picchu Peru, Syracuse University Florence, Artist’s Institute NYC, University of Miami Kislak Americas collection, University of Maryland Jackson African collection and Universitat Der Kunst Berlin studying Nazi Utopian urban design. They taught urban design at Florida International University after building 18 skyscrapers & hundreds of hospitality hubs internationally. Coralina is currently a 2024 Ankhlave artist in residence, 2023 artist & scholar in residence program at Miami Dade College, and alumni of the Bronx Museum AIM residency. Rodriguez Meyer has had solo or group exhibitions at Queens & Bronx Museum, Perez Art Museum Miami, Smithsonian, Kennedy Center, Kunsthaus Brethanien Berlin, Colonial FL Cultural Heritage Museum, Contemporary Art Center New Orleans, and Bronx River Art Center. She has been featured in the NY Times, Hyperallergic, Univision, the Guardian, London Review of Books and Jezebel. Coralina’s 2023 solo show at University of Maryland was reviewed in the Washington Post.
Diego Espaillat
Bio:
(b 1994) is part Dominican, part Nuyorican, and 100% dyslexic. He currently lives and works in New York City. Diego is a sculptor whose work is inspired by objects, activities and stories that collide between the Caribbean & New York. He participated in his first residency and solo show at Flux Factory, exhibited with Calderon Gallery and Deli Gallery.
Xiong Wei
Bio:
Based in New York, Xiong Wei have been working as a sculptor, performer, and conceptual artist since 2013. As an artist with cross-cultural background, Wei focuses on the reinterpretation of classic aesthetic images and symbols in art history, and the dilemma people encounter under the guidance of different philosophical thoughts and ideologies in the East and the West. Combining his foundation in social realism sculpture making, with American postmodernist art practice, Wei has exhibited his work at CUNY Hunter College-Thomas Hunter Project Space (NY), The Blanc Gallery (NY), The Border Project (NY), Latitude Gallery, (NY), Watchung Arts Center (NJ), Shockboxx (LA). He has received residency awards, including Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio (Shinnecock Nation, NY); Vermont Studio Center (VT), etc. Recently, he is working as a sculptor, assistant, and art department film crew member in Matthew Barney’s recent project Secondary in Queens, New York.
Chihiro ITO
Bio:
Chihiro IT is a Multidisciplinary artist. He was born in Tokyo where studied painting at Musashino Art University. He was an invited artist at European Capital of Culture events in Portugal, Cyprus and Serbia, Lithuania.
In 2018, he received a grant from the Japanese government to come to the USA where he created his art work and began documenting the remaining living artists associated with Fluxus.
During that time, he encountered the artist, Jonas Mekas. After meeting him, Chihiro began to create poetry and film. He received awards from Holbein painting award and New York Foundation for the Arts, Jonas Mekas Fellow Residency, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Monira Foundation, Bronx Art Space etc. He received scholarships from The Poetry Project and The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Robert Black Burn Print Workshop. His activities are MoMA PS1, Governors Island, Pioneer Works, Queens Museum etc. In his art he looks for the poetry opportunity in ordinary objects and everyday experiences to connect people across geopolitical boundaries. He immigrated to NYC.
