FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ArtYard 62A Trenton Ave. Frenchtown, NJ 08825 [email protected] ​ ​ www.artyard.org

Opening reception: Saturday, December 10, 2016. Time: 6:00pm- 8:30pm Final day: Sunday, March 5, 2017. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

BEDLAM AND BALANCE The inaugural group exhibition of ArtYard, featuring eight artists from four continents. Anila ​ ​ ​ ​ Rubiku, Carly Butler, Elsa Mora, Hoda Zarbaf, Hyang Cho, Magdalena Campos-Pons, ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Regina José Galindo and Vessna Perunovich. Curated by Magda Gonzales-Mora. ​ ​ ​

Bedlam and Balance draws attention to the struggles of individuals to find their own ​ balance, rebuild after the earth has shifted, or forge a new path through uncertain terrain. Eight female artists examine existential and autobiographical elements, drawing from disparate origins in Albania, Canada, Cuba, Iran, Korea, Guatemala and . In the wake of a surreal election and in an era when the diasporas of far flung continents are both accessible and remote, Bedlam and Balance offers visions of fear and displacement, refuge and restoration. The drawings, installations, objects, poems, and videos in this exhibition weave together personal and collective narratives that revisit the past, scavenge the present and suggest shrewd, hopeful and vulnerable approaches to the road ahead.

ARTISTS

Anila Rubiku is an Albanian-born Italian artist who studied at the Tirana of Arts ​ (1994) and did her postgraduate work in at the Brera Academy (2000). At present she works between Milan, Tirana and . Rubiku’s work is intimately connected to social and political issues. She creates drawings and sophisticated installations that involve contemporary approaches to traditional crafts such as embroidery. Rubiku is drawn to examining and representing the accretion of emotionally complex layers that comprise our identities as social creatures.

Carly Butler is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works on Vancouver Island, British ​ Columbia. She holds a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and , and an MA from Sotheby’s Institute/Manchester University. She also attended Central Saint Martins in London, UK where she specialized in video, performance and installation. Butler was a finalist for the prestigious RBC Canadian Competition in 2014, and in 2015 received the first parent residency grant awarded by the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, New York. In her work Butler reinterprets nautical knowledge around navigation and survival to reflect on longing, regret and nostalgia. Ideas connected to resilience as well as the chronic human need for course correction are strongly present in her practice.

Elsa Mora is a Cuban-born multimedia artist based in New York. She is also the artistic director ​ of ArtYard. Mora is a recipient of the UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries and her work has been ​ ​ shown internationally at art galleries and museums. Mora's work reflects on universal issues of identity, connectivity and survival. Through a variety of media the artist explores philosophical questions associated with isolation, individualism, and disjointed positions as originators of chaos. Mora is currently working on a solo exhibition for the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene, Oregon, which will take place in 2018.

Hoda Zarbaf is a multidisciplinary artist born in Tehran, Iran. She currently lives in Toronto, ​ Canada. Zarbaf uses recycled textiles, pre-owned clothing, old toys and a variety of found objects to make intriguing sculptures and installations that reflect on representations of womanhood. Through her work she studies female aspects associated with memory, pain, pleasure, sexuality and self-obsession. Her practice is imbued with elements of psychology that explore the conscious and unconscious nature of experience.

Hyang Cho was born in Seoul, Korea and currently lives and works in Guelph, Ontario. Her ​ ​ art practice engages rule-based, repetitive processes that challenge ideas of completeness, efficiency, correctness and rationality by testing them against process, repetition, omission, translation and error. Cho holds a Bachelor of Arts from Sogang University, Seoul, Korea, a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Alberta College of Art + Design, Calgary, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Guelph, Ontario.

Magdalena Campos-Pons is a Cuban-born artist based in Boston. Campos-Pons works ​ ​ primarily in photography, performance, audiovisual media, and . She is considered a key figure among Cuban artists who found their voice in a post-revolutionary Cuba. Her art deals with themes of gender and sexuality, multicultural identity (especially Cuban, Chinese, and Nigerian), Cuban culture, and religion/spirituality (in particular, Roman Catholicism and Santeria). She has been invited to the latest edition of Documenta in Kassel, Germany.

Regina José Galindo was born in Guatemala where she currently resides. Her practice ​ focuses on performance art that explores the universal ethical implications of social injustice in relation to racial discrimination, gender issues and problems associated with power and their impact on society. Galindo has participated in numerous international events such as four editions of the Venice Biennale, the XI International Biennial of Cuenca, the 29th Graphic Arts Biennial of Ljubljana and the Sharjah Biennial among others. She has also been been ​ invited to the latest edition of Documenta in Kassel, Germany.

Vessna Perunovich is a Toronto-based, internationally acclaimed interdisciplinary artist who ​ works in a variety of media including sculpture, painting, drawing, video, installation, and performance. Born in Serbia, she earned both her Bachelor of Fine Arts and her Master of Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts at the , Yugoslavia. She immigrated to Canada in 1988. Perunovich has exhibited at International biennials in Cuba, Albania, England, Portugal, Yugoslavia, and Greece as well as across Canada. She has attended residencies in Berlin, New York, Banff, Bursa, and Mileseva. Her work explores the notion of place and its complex and contradicting nature to both entice and alienate.

Curated by Magda Gonzalez-Mora. Guest Chief Curator at ArtYard.

Magda is an Independent Curator and advisor based in Toronto. She was a founder of the Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Centre in , Cuba, and a member of the curatorial team for seven editions of the Havana Biennale. A member of the International Association of Contemporary Art Curators (IKT), she is a curator for a permanent collection of contemporary Cuban art at the Art Gallery of Ontario and has curated shows for the Luminato Festival, Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, the Royal Ontario Museum, Arco Fair, Loop Video Art Barcelona, Pulse Miami, the Cuban section for the 1st Johannesburg Biennale, and the 1st Dakar Art Biennale, among others.

ArtYard is a newly formed non profit art center based in three buildings along the riverfront ​ in Frenchtown New Jersey, offering programs of performance, film, art installation and artist’s residency. ArtYard is an incubator for creative expression and a catalyst for collaborations that reveal the transformational power of art. For more info visit www.artyard.org