GLB Memorial Fund for the Arts • www.glbmemorialfund.org • 716 Monroe Street NE Studio #27 Washington DC 20017

Recent Acquisitions

Release Date: July 15, 2020

The GLB Memorial Fund for the Arts just acquired seven artworks by seven residing in Washington DC, Maryland or Virginia. The fund provides financial support to women artists and curators who reside in Washington DC, Maryland or Virginia to further advance women-led contemporary art initiatives. This acquisition, the first since the establishment of the fund in March 2020, had a sole aim to support artists during the pandemic through a COVID-19 Relief by Art Acquisition Submission.

A Party for Sojourner by Nastassja E. Swift When denied home we build a Memory Palace by Wool, tulle, natural dyes, 20x5x1 in. 2019. Sobia Ahmad

“’s “The Dinner Party”, comprised of 16x32 in., digital collage on chiffon. 2018. 39 place settings, attempts to commemorate (Diptych, Edition of 3) important women in history. Yet it, like much of first- wave during that time, fails to intentionally “These works on chiffon approach my include women of color, as Sojourner and elusive feelings and memories of places in relation are the only two non-white attendees to to the notion of home as an immigrant. In When the party. Not to mention Sojourner’s plate is the denied home we build a Memory Palace, I collaged only of the setting that isn’t quite a “creatively images of my childhood home in Pakistan and wrote imagined vagina,” rather a merging of African repetitively in Urdu. These fragmented images masks. As a way of acknowledging Sojourner’s become imagined recollections, floating on a flimsy, womanhood, in the context of “The Dinner Party,” translucent surface that responds to the slightest this piece – constructed of Black female faces in changes in air and light. As these elements shift, so different tones – gives Sojourner the party that she does this memory palace.” was vaguely a part of in 1979.” https://www.glbmemorialfund.org/collection-archive/when- https://www.glbmemorialfund.org/collection-archive/a-party- denied-home-we-build-a-memory-palace-sobia-ahmad for-sojourner-nastassja-e-swift GLB Memorial Fund for the Arts • www.glbmemorialfund.org • 716 Monroe Street NE Studio #27 Washington DC 20017

Books to Bullet by Stephanie Mercedes

Melted bullets, 12 in. x 9 in. x 4 in. 2020.

Mercedes melts down weapons confiscated by the DC police and turns them into musical instruments, Gold Bars by Jackie Milad installations and public works of art. She also excavates the archives of missing invisible histories. Mixed media collage on hand-dyed canvas, 48x40 in. 2020. Mercedes creates objects, such as this book and pencil, cast out of melted bullets. “Jackie Milad: Chaos Comes and Goes draws focus to time and movement, showcasing how artwork can Mercedes is available for commissions, public gun become part of a regenerative process, keeping the destruction ceremonies and workshops upon request. work from becoming static. Thinking about the similarities between this notion and the reality of https://www.glbmemorialfund.org/collection-archive/books-to- historical symbolism, we can begin to understand bullet-stephanie-mercedes Milad’s resistance to permanence. She presents the viewer with truths, that even the pyramids, which we think of as ever lasting, will crumble one day. Within her collages, Milad gives us hints of her identity as an Egyptian-Honduran-American through pictorial elements and deconstructed language. She utilizes color and texture, freeing herself up to be responsive and reactive during her process. This breakdown of symbols and collapse of ideas references her experience in the world and allows the viewer to draw multiple meanings from small details in each piece.” - "Worlds on the Brink of Collapse" By Maura Callahan for BmoreArt

https://www.glbmemorialfund.org/collection-archive/gold-bars- jackie-milad GLB Memorial Fund for the Arts • www.glbmemorialfund.org • 716 Monroe Street NE Studio #27 Washington DC 20017

Three Bodies (Series) Upcoming Performance

GLB is excited to announce the commission of an Will to Adorn by Omolara Williams McCallister upcoming performance series by Nicoletta Daríta e la Brown entitled Three Bodies (Series). Inkjet print on silk banner, 46x68 in. Edition of 5 (1 artist proof and 4 editions) Three performances documented by film that will exist as one "suite of three performances". Omolara uses textiles, fibers, foraged and found GLB's grant is to acquire one suite, there will be 3 objects to explore O’s identities and their social editions total. significance. Textiles are the perfect medium for this kind of meditation. In all of O’s lineages—African Timeline: July & August 2020 ~ performances. Our American, Yoruba, Creole, Southern US, Queer, intention is to pitch for screenings to begin to take woman—there are culturally and historically place Fall 2020. significant relationships between textiles and community. Textiles are physically and symbolically Nicoletta Daríta de la Brown is a performance artist, functional. They are a place where people construct installation artist, filmmaker, and mother of four. and maintain memory, identity, history. The material She is Black Latinx; proud to be a first-generation textile object preserves and conveys critical bits of Panamanian born in the United States. She is a information about how to survive and what it means chamána (shaman) and comes from a long line of to be a part of a particular community. healers. Her work reconceives the life of an artist as thriving, nourishing herself and others during and https://www.glbmemorialfund.org/collection-archive/will-to- through her creative practice. Nicoletta is adjunct adorn-omolara-williams-mccallister faculty in the MFA in Community Arts Graduate Program at MICA, and former Visual Art Department faculty member at Baltimore School for the Arts. She is the Maryland Citizens for the Arts (MCA) Artist Navigator Fellow. She is the founder of Vida Mágica Love; a creative platform dedicated to wholeness-centered joyous experiences.

https://www.glbmemorialfund.org/collection-archive/three- bodies-series-commissioned-performance-nicoletta-darita-de-la- brown GLB Memorial Fund for the Arts • www.glbmemorialfund.org • 716 Monroe Street NE Studio #27 Washington DC 20017

Phaan Howng’s centers around various narratives and landscapes that reflect nature thriving in a utopian post-human planet, or what she terms an “optimistic post-apocalypse.” She intentionally places the viewer in an apocalyptic future to encourage reflection on the fate of humanity’s survival if they themselves and especially those responsible for the mass consumption and laying waste of Earth’s resources do not make changes to thwart climate change and mitigate the negative effects of the Anthropocene epoch. These post- human scenarios are generated by deconstructing her investigations in philosophic reasoning and anthropologies of historical culture and the zeitgeist. Through painting, sculpture, installation, and performance, Howng's work stands as a statement against environmental, political, and social Destruction for Reconstruction II by Phaan Howng exploitation that offers a timely pictorial call-to-arms for humanity. Acrylic and Acryl Gouache on Paper, 55x48 in. 2014. https://www.glbmemorialfund.org/collection-archive/phaan- howng-destruction-for-reconstruction-ii

GLB Art Collection

The GLB Art Collection is comprised of a contemporary art collection of works by emerging and established women artists who reside in Washington DC, Maryland or Virginia married with artworks, furniture, and decorative objects collected by Grace Linton Battle during her life. The contemporary addition to the collection began with the GLB COVID-19 Relief by Art Acquisition May 2020 submission, which was announced with the launch of the GLB Memorial Fund for the Arts.

Curators and institutions wishing to include pieces from the GLB Art Collection for exhibition loan (and film screenings) should email [email protected], subject ‘GLB Art Collection Loan Inquiry’.

General Information

The GLB Memorial Fund for the Arts in March 2020 debuted with a mission to provide financial support to women artists and curators who reside in Washington DC, Maryland or Virginia to further advance women-led contemporary art initiatives. The initial vision is to grant a total of $10,000 a year split between two artists/curators who submit project proposals (Project Seed Grant) aligned with fund’s mission. Additional upcoming projects such as art auctions, benefits and other curatorial programming as well as the development of a 501c3 are currently in motion. Application for the 2021 Project Seed Grant opens July 20, 2020. GLB Memorial Fund for the Arts • www.glbmemorialfund.org • 716 Monroe Street NE Studio #27 Washington DC 20017

The GLB Memorial Fund for the Arts is a family memorial fund honoring a modest collector, Grace Linton Battle, supported by Anne Battle and Len Slater, long supporters of the Richmond, VA art scene and the VMFA, and Dan Ludwin of Salomon & Ludwin.

The GLB Memorial Fund for the Arts is directed by artist and curator Marta Staudinger, and comprised of a Curatorial Selection Committee of local women in the arts: Margaret Bakke, Alison Beshai, Madison Bolls, Annie Broderick, Zoë Charlton, Helen Criales, Fabiola R. Delgado, Rebecca Fasman, Meghan Masius and Taylor Parker.

For additional press information please call or send inquiries to: GLB Memorial Fund for the Arts c/o Latela Curatorial 716 Monroe Street NE Studio #27 Washington, DC 20017 202-340-3280

Director: Marta Staudinger [email protected]