Los Angeles, CA (April 11, 2022) – SoLA Contemporary is pleased to present Migrant Madonna, a mixed media group show curated by the mother-daughter collective MamaDotta. The exhibition brings together two collectives and eight artists who engage and transform the Madonna to reflect contemporary economic and social issues, commemorate and celebrate their family culture and history, and amplify the voices and experiences of migrant women today. In California, approximately 50% of the child population has at least one immigrant parent. The migrant experience and the narratives of diasporic people shape the culture of our state and our city. Migrant Madonna activates SoLA’s mission by making visible the lives of migrant people, issuing a call for empathy, humanity, and action.
The Diasporic framework of this exhibition articulates the reverence of the Madonna through cultural lenses of Latin and Black America, Central Europe, Iraq, Lebanon, and contemporary and historical migrant journeys, including that of The Virgin Mary. These dynamic artists present a rendition of Mary for the everyday, for times of war and violence, and as resistance to conquest. Their practices engage personal and family archives, material culture, loss and dislocation, translation, and iconicity. Literally and figuratively, Artisans Beyond Borders, Carolina Aranibar-Fernandez, Doris Bittar, Christina Fernandez, Mark Steven Greenfield, Lahib Jaddo, MamaDotta, Michele Jaquis, Nadia Shihab, and Ralph Villalobos interpret the Madonna by reflecting the time and place of the artisan who crafted her.
Joyce Dallal and Naima White of MamaDotta say, "as curators, we seek to affirm the connection between the lives of migrant women today and the migration story of the Madonna, and reveal the varied ways artists appropriate her image to comment on their own era, history, and experience."
SoLA Contemporary is proud to present Migrant Madonna from April 21, 2022 - to May 14, 2022, with an Opening Reception on April 23. Sales from this exhibition will partially benefit the participating organization, Artisans Beyond Borders, a project initiated by artist and Benedictine oblate Valarie Lee James, to help source income for women trapped in shelters and refugee camps at the US/Mexico border seeking asylum in the United States.
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More Information:
Contact: Anefertiti Bowman, Executive Director, Anefertiti@solacontemporary.org
Press Contact: media@solacontemporary.org
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