Sweety’s Radio: Edición Especial Curated by Sweety’s members Bryan Rodriguez Cambana, Julia Mata, Eduardo Restrepo Castaño and Ximena Izquierdo Ugaz.

On View: June 27 through July 30, 2017 Interview Dates: Friday, June 30, July 7, July 14 and July 21 from 6-8P Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 12-6P

Episode 4: Elia Alba On View: July 18 through 23, 2017 Interview: Friday, July 21 from 6-8P, hosted by Sweety’s member Bryan Rodriguez Cambana

Elia Alba’s installation for Sweety’s Radio: Edición Especial will include three videos, Unruhe, Se Revela, Se Devela and Gigglers, all made between 2001 and 2010. These works show Alba’s manipulation of reality as fantasy and vice versa, always within a societal framework informing this dynamic. In Unruhe, Alba focuses on this German word, meaning unrest, to compose a dream-like scenario, using Super 8 and video, during which dolls are aggressively handled as they float on and move through the water. Se Revela, Se Devela expresses the idea of unmasking as a cultural practice that both contains and sustains the face. Gigglers, filmed on IslaMorada, examines fractured identities and adolescence through the laughter, play and the undeterred stare of four young girls wearing masks and wigs, floating in the ocean.

Sweety's Radio is a live talk-show/installation project developed by Sweety's - a curatorial initiative conceived by artists Julia Mata, Bryan Rodriguez Cambana, Ximena Izquierdo Ugaz, and Eduardo Restrepo Castaño that since 2013, works on seeking out spaces and producing events dedicated to the labor of black and brown artists.

At Cuchifritos, the collective will host Edición Especial, a special iteration of Sweety’s Radio that focuses on Spanish speaking cultural producers, as a means to bridge the conversations taking place amongst black and brown (Spanish-speaking) communities in and outside of the U.S. From June 27th through July 30th Sweety’s programming will consist of weekly interviews featuring four invited artists whose work will take over the Cuchifritos space for each week, culminating in a collaborative installation by the four members of Sweety’s.

In response to the local community surrounding Cuchifritos and Essex Street Market, as well as the history of the Lower East Side as Loisaida, and the curators’ personal investment as immigrants and first generation, Sweety’s brings together four artists: Cecilia Gentili (June 27th- July 2nd), Raul Gonzalez III (July 4th- 9th), Emanuel Xavier (July 11th-16th), Elia Alba (July 18th-23nd).

* * * ELIA ALBA was born in , NY in 1962. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Hunter College in 1994 and completed the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in 2001. She has exhibited throughout the United States and abroad. Those include The Rhode Island School of Design Museum; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; The Science Museum, London; ITAU Cultural Institute, Sao Paolo;

National Museum of Art, Reina Sofía, Madrid and the 10th Biennial. She is also recipient of numerous awards and residencies, for example, Artist-in-Residence Program in 1999; New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, Crafts 2002 and Photography 2008; Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant, 2002 and Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant 2002 and 2008; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) Workspace Program, 2009 and LMCC Process Space 2016; Recess Analog, 2012. Her work is in the collection of the Smithsonian Museum of Art, , Lowe Art Museum to name a few. For the past five years, she has been working on a publication/event series title “The Supper Club”, currently supported by The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, The 8th Floor. The project brings together artists, scholars, and performers through portraiture, food, and dialogue to examine race and culture. A solo show on The Supper Club is forthcoming fall 2017 at The 8th Floor.

Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space is a program of Artists Alliance Inc., a 501c3 not for profit organization located on the Lower East Side of New York City within the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center. Cuchifritos is supported in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. This program is made possible by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. We thank the New York City Economic Development Corporation and individual supporters of Artists Alliance Inc for their generous support. Special thanks go to our team of dedicated volunteers, without whom this program would not be possible. For more information, visit artistsallianceinc.org