A Wonder Women project presented by _gaia and hosted by New Jersey City University

March 4 – March 26, 2010

New Jersey City University

2039 Kennedy Boulevard

Gilligan Student Union Building

Art Gallery - Room 120

Jersey City, NJ 07305

For directions visit www.njcu.edu

Opening Reception Thursday, March 4th 4:30-8:30p.m. *Fado performance 6:30pm

Closing Reception and Artist Talk Thursday, March 25th 7:00-9:30pm

Gallery hours by appointment contact rmoreira@ njcu.edu or (201) 200-2269

Artists: Christine da Cruz, Pamela-Cleo Godard, Giana Gonzalez, Willa Goldthwaite, Anjelika Krishna, Lizette Louis, Roxana Marroquin, Holly Pitre, Sonali Sridhar, Agnieszka Wszolkowski

Curated by Doris Cacoilo and Renata Moreira

New Jersey City University is pleased to host WW5: Ah, Motherland!, the culminating exhibition of the Wonder Women Residency Project presented by _gaia.  The residency invited artists and curators from the New Jersey/New York area to participate in a six week program that would engage them in discussions about their work, feminism, (im)migration, identity construction, human rights, and culture.

WW5: Ah, Motherland! created a collective dialogue and artwork that explored the dynamic issues of emigration and (im)migration into the United States. As the projects came into focus, it became clear that notions of home, family, culture, and heritage are as as fluid and rich as the work being created. The exhibition illustrates a collective journey to determine the participants' knowledge of (im)migration, as well as to set a new standard of living with cultural relatedness and awareness. Each project represents a personal struggle with (im)migration and it’s effect on identity. Anjelika Krishna drapes her heirloom saris to create new representations of self and identity that includes a merger of east and west. Sonali Sridhar explores technology, tradition and design in "Odhni," a traditional Indian textile that harnesses solar energy.

Other artists explore notions of body and memory. Holly Pitre uses essential elements of salt and water to illustrate change, erosion and a personal typography of identity. Roxana Marroquin's "In my Skin" uses photography to merge her body with landscapes of memory. Giana Gonzalez and Christina da Cruz both approach a revisiting and reframing of their cultures with their work exploring Portuguese Fado and Panamanian Carnavale. In the exploration of Motherland many of the artists focused on mothers and the inheritance of culture and identity through family. Willa Goldwaithe reinvents the japanese noren inspired by her grandmother. Lizette Louis and Pamela Godard both create portraits of mothers via woodburning and video productions, respectively, and Agnieska Wszolkowski collaborates with her mother in "Gobelin" in order to explore her own Polish culture and traditions of craft and artmaking.

WW5 coincides with the Feminist Art Project. The purpose of the Feminist Art Project is to bring public attention to the significant and continuing impact of women and their art on all aspects of contemporary art practice, highlighting their international influence, and guaranteeing their inclusion in the cultural record, past, present, and future.

_gaia is a collective of women, for women, for the making of textiles, clothing, printmaking, painting, architecture, music, film, photography, science, the performing arts, writing, environmental, social and political activism: all things which color the lives of the women involved. We actively promote and support the work of local women artists while developing programming to reach out to and help emerging artists in need of studio space, facilities and resources. In our pursuit of awareness we also concentrate on activism, from issues in the local community to global issues affecting the lives of women.

Sponsors: Division of Student Affairs, Division of Academic Affairs, Office of the Dean of Students, Office of Campus Life, Speicher-Rubin Women's Center, Alumni Relations, Art and Design Association.

PRESS CONTACT: Doris Cacoilo                   973-699-0399                              info@ gaiastudio.org