CNR News & Events

THE COLLEGE OF NEW ROCHELLE'S
CASTLE GALLERY TO SPOTLIGHT BLACK MADONNAS
IN THREE-MONTH LONG EXHIBIT

NEW ROCHELLE, NY, September 29, 2004 -- Hundreds of examples of Black Madonnas still exist today in various locations throughout the world. Long recognized as a symbol of transformation and change, the Black Madonna is often viewed as our Earth Goddess and Mother to all humanity. The images of the Virgin Mother portrayed as a dark woman symbolize majesty and power, a love of great strength, powerful, unbroken and enduring. What inspired artists so long ago to create these striking icons? What purpose did they serve in communities around the world? In what ways do these icons today encourage artists to express their spirituality?

The Castle Gallery at The College of New Rochelle will host an exhibit entitled The Black Madonna from Sunday, December 5, 2004 to Sunday, February 27, 2005, which answers many of these questions. This exhibition combines both the historic aspect of this momentous figure with modern-day renditions from an all-female roster of artists (African, African-American, Latino, and Caucasian) who were invited to create new works based on this image. The powerful images of the Black Madonnas in this exhibit will be juxtaposed to the traditional, tender and helpless depiction of the Virgin Mary so commonly found in Western culture. The works will include: assemblage (paintings done with rocks and other found objects); ceramic reliefs; encaustics (mixture of oil and wax); installation; oil painting; video; and wall drawings. This exhibit is appropriate for children of all ages.

An opening reception for The Black Madonna will take place on December 5. The reception and exhibit are free and open to the public. The Castle Gallery is located at CNR’s Main Campus in New Rochelle, NY. Hours: Tuesday & Wednesdays, 10:00 am to 8:00 pm, Thursday & Friday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, Saturday and Sunday, 12 noon to 4:00 pm. The gallery is closed Mondays and major national holidays. Please call the Gallery for special holiday hours through January 3, 2005. For information, tours, and directions to the Castle Gallery at CNR, please call (914) 654-5423 or log on to www.cnr.edu/CNR/cnr-directions.html#NEWROCHELLE.

The artists invited to participate in this CNR exhibit are:

Afolake Latifat Adedayo, who was born in Nigeria in 1974, received a BS in Sociology from The University of Ilorin in Kwara, Nigeria. A self-taught painter, Adedayo’s studies in Sociology have helped her to understand people, events, and happenings, both visually and behaviorally, which has made her work more effective as an artist. Adedayo moved to the United States in 1998 and resides in Brooklyn, NY. (African)

Aisha Tandiwe Bell, who received both her BFA and her Masters of Science in Art and Design Education from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist. Bell will be exhibiting work that mixes paint, ceramic relief, and poetry, giving voice to her portrait-based personifications of her alter egos. Raised Bobo’ Shanti Rasta, Bell believes that the artist is a medium through which God speaks. Her art is an extension of her spirit and narrates her varied interests. Bell also performs as the only female member of the urban alternative spoken word group entitled “Second 2 Last.” (African-American)

Wilda Gonzalez, born and bred in the Bronx, NY, is a multimedia artist and painter of Caribbean heritage. She attended the High School of Art and Design and continued her studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design in New York City. Gonzalez has been working as a Visual Arts Educator for The Children’s Art Carnival since 1988. Her artistic inspiration is a testament to her Caribbean heritage. Her artwork embodies the environment and her family’s spirituality. (Latina)

Laura James, born and bred in Brooklyn, NY, is a self-taught painter of Antiguan heritage. She paints religious subjects and visual dramatizations of Bible stories using iconography found in Ethiopian Christian Art, one of the oldest forms of Christian and African art, which many believe has healing powers. James is an adept student of the Bible and one of the foremost experts on ancient Ethiopian Christian art in the United States. (African-American)

Rajkamal Kahlon, received her BA in Studio Art from the University of California, Davis and a Masters of Fine Art in painting from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1999. For this exhibit, Kahlon will create a series of paintings using Cassell's Illustrated History of India as a base, as she paints on the book’s actual pages.

Wangechi Mutu, was born and raised in Kenya and studied at the United World College of the Atlantic in Wales, UK, before receiving her BFA from Cooper Union in New York City and her Masters of Fine Arts from Yale University, School of Art Sculpture in New Haven, CT. A trained sculptor and anthropologist, Mutu's work has evolved from faux-artifact making (back when she favored sculpture) to a collage process that collides everyday images with mythological and historical narrative. This Kenyan raised, U.S. trained artist likes to trap her viewers with layers of visual metaphor, forcing them to question assumptions about race, gender, geography, history, and beauty. (African)

Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, who is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, a recipient of the 2001 Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO) Award, and a fellow of the Skowhegan School of Painting, will create an installation in the back room of the Castle Gallery especially for this CNR exhibition. Ortiz has grown from illustrator to interdisciplinary artist, crossing from painting and drawing to multimedia installation art, including performance and video art. She continues to live and work in the Bronx, NY. (Latina)

Roxa Smith was born in Caracas, Venezuela and studied German Studies at Freiburg University before receiving her BA in Art History and German from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME, and her Graduate Certificate in the Fine Arts from the University of California in Santa Cruz. She has worked and lived in New York City since 1990. In her recent paintings of interiors, she associates personal spaces to physical and psychological sanctuaries and the objects within these interiors as personal relics. By bringing the Black Virgin into a family environment, this powerful feminine icon is venerated in a more intimate and personal context. For this show, Roxa has created two paintings that depict the Black Madonna in intimate settings. (Latina)

Elaine Soto, is the only exception to this cast of artists, as she does not need to create new work for this show since she has been researching and painting the Black Madonna since 1990. Her body of work on this topic is extensive and honors and acknowledges the Divine Feminine in all her manifestations. Soto, a painter and clinical psychologist of Puerto Rican descent, grew up in New York City in the 1950s. She worked as an artist-in-residence at both Taller Boriqua in Spanish Harlem and El Museo del Barrio. She has said that as a psychologist and as an artist, her goal is to make the unconscious conscious.” Soto has recently relocated to Albuquerque, NM, where she continues to paint. (Latina)

Christine Simoneau Hales, received a Masters Degree in Art Therapy from CNR and a Masters Degree in painting and education from the Massachusetts College of Art. Her paintings focus on icons as sacred images which can be instrumental in inner healing and inner transformation. They are meant to be scripture in visual form and therefore appeal to our conscious and unconscious minds simultaneously.

Kathleen Sweeney, who holds a degree in French Literature from New York University and a Masters Degree in interdisciplinary arts from San Francisco State University, is an award-winning media artist. Sweeney’s additions to the show have evolved out of a solo exhibition she had last year at the Van Brunt Gallery in Beacon, New York entitled, Something About Mary. The pieces included in this show will include a digital video triptych that poetically reinterprets The Annunciation, The Adoration, and The Assumption in gestural video loops in addition to a second piece that includes footage of a Good Friday processional of the Mater Dolorosa in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. (Caucasian)

The Black Madonna is being curated by Jennifer Zazo, the Director of Castle Gallery at CNR. Marianne DiPalermo McCauley, Curator and Archivist from The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute is noted as a contributor to this exhibition. This exhibit marks Ms. Zazo’s curatorial debut.