The Tight Rope
Opening Reception:
Thursday, Dec 9th from 6-9 pm
Closing Reception:
Thursday, Jan 13th from 6-9 pm
Gallery Hours:
Saturdays 12-5pm
December 9, 2021 - January 15, 2022
Curated by Lou Serna
Automat is pleased to present
The Tight-Rope
A pas de deux featuring
sculptures by Emilio Maldonado and original video work by Vitche-Boul Ra. Straddling grace and violence, The Tight-Rope puts a spotlight on the American relationship with guns and what we stand to lose. Is there a path to healing that can keep us on the Tight-Rope?
Emilio Maldonado is an Afro-Caribbean artist living in Philadelphia. He graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design (MFA, Painting, 2013), Escuela de Artes Plasticas de Puerto Rico (BFA, Painting, 2011) and from Altos de Chavon in the Dominican Republic (AAS, Fine Arts and Illustration, 2007). Through a multidisciplinary practice, he boards questions that live between the realm of the domestic and the social-contemporary, dealing with culture, poverty and trauma and with a very keen interest in the human condition. He has been part of group and solo shows locally and abroad, such as Vox Populi Make/shift (Philadelphia,PA, 2021) and Santo Domingo Museum of Modern Art Biennial, (Santo Domingo, DR, 2013). He has also attended Elsewhere Residency (Greensboro, NC) and Tiger Strikes Asteroid in 2020 and is a 2021 Mural Arts Fellow.
Vitche-Boul Ra is a Transhumanist Folk-Theurgist with a BFA in Interdisciplinary Fine Arts (Sculpture concentration) from The University of the Arts [2018]. To develop a physicalized performance practice adjacent to western sculpture, It also studied dance in the UArts School of Dance directed by Donna Faye Burchfield. Winning the Edna Andrade Travel Scholarship from The University of the Arts in 2017, Ra traveled to Bali, Indonesia to observe/study the movement practices and theatrical vocabularies of Balinese Dance—further re-imagining It's priorities/performativity beyond whiteness. In Philadelphia, It has shown solo (+collaborative) works at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Vox Populi Gallery, Little Berlin Gallery, and Hightide Gallery. In New York, Ra performed in Fridman Gallery’s 5th Anniversary Festival and was curated into the Center for Performance Research’s Spring Movement Festival 2018 as well as the New Dance Alliance's 2019 Performance Mix Festival: 33. In 2021 It has collaboratively worked alongside Moor Mother (Goddess) showing at Pace Gallery (NY), CalArts REDCAT (LA), and The Kitchen (NY).
Link to Ra's video work Pags De-ari daik Black Biosh ensh Spaci (Spaku) (2021).