“Peregrination” at The Border Gallery

Participating artists: Elisa Pritzker, Nyugen E. Smith, and Lina Puerta

Curated by Jamie Martinez

Nov 2 – Dec 2, 2018

The Border is pleased to announce the opening of the group exhibition “Peregrination” on Friday, November 2, 2018. As its title suggests, the exhibition represents a wandering journey through time and place that culminates with an overarching shamanistic spirit.

Like the mission of the project space itself, Peregrination brings together rich cultural traditions from the world over, making a statement about who we are as a people. Scattered across a blank palette created by an island of white stones on the floor are works by Elisa Pritzker, Lina Puerta, and Nyugen E. Smith, with each artist contributing a unique and powerful voice.

Works from Smith’s Spirit Carrier series float throughout the space. Drawing upon Yoruba crowns for inspiration, and structured like steampunk hot air balloons of sorts, Smith envisions his works as literal spirit carriers: vessels that will protect and transport the spirits of the deceased, specifically those of the unarmed black victims of police brutality. Each layer of the work adds deeper meaning, creating an overall aura of solemnity.  Smith’s works are joined by Puerta’s mixed media tapestries, inspired by Renaissance tradition and modernized with aspects of contemporary culture. Through the elaborate detailing of Puerta’s works, one can catch a glimpse of the decay of our present society both morally and politically, a parallel to messages we can take from European history.

Centering the spirit of the exhibition is Pritzker’s work, Magic of the Shamans, a monumental ceremonial circle covering the floor of the exhibition. Through this project, Pritzker revives the shamanistic ideals of the now-extinct Selknam people, a native group of hunter-gatherers once based in Argentina and Chile. Implicit in the work is an allegiance to community, nature, and one’s spiritual life; together with Puerta and Smith’s works, offering a gentle reminder about the very core of our humanity.

Elisa Pritzker has exhibited at MoMA, Queens Museum and Dorsky Museum in group exhibits. She has participated at the Affordable Art Fair NYC & London UK, London Biennale-Creative Village Media party in Berlin Germany, Pinta Fair NYC, Fountain Art Fair and EGGO-Cordoba Art Fair andarteBA in Argentina. She was selected the US artist for The Pyramids of Naxos, Greece during the Olympics for an environmental project The Pyramid of Naxos. From 2004 to 2012, she exhibited with the Franklin 54 Gallery, Chelsea NYC.  Among many other venues: Dumbo Arts Center & Nurture Art, Brooklyn. Others in the Hudson Valley: Kingston Museum of Contemporary Arts [KMOCA] and Hudson Valley MOCA[former HVCCA], Peekskill. In 2012 she presented a solo-installation at the prestigious Galeria Arte x Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Other exhibits were at Galerie Taste Modern Berlin in Berlin Germany and Auditorium-Centro Provincial de las Artes, Argentina.

Nyugen E. Smith (b. 1976, Jersey City, NJ) is a Caribbean-American interdisciplinary artist and educator who lives and works in Jersey City, NJ. His practice consists of found object sculpture, installation, writing, video and performance and is influenced by the conflation of African cultural practices and the remnants of European colonial rule in the Black diaspora. Nyugen holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is a recipient Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Performing and Visual Arts and the 2018 Franklin Furnace Fund. Recent and upcoming exhibitions include, Museum of Latin American Art, Columbia University, Museum of Cultural History, Oslo, Norway, and Perez Museum, Miami.

Lina Puerta was born in NJ, raised in Colombia and lives and works in New York City. She earned and MS in Art Education from Queens College and is the recipient of several residencies and grants including: the 2017 NYFA Fellowship, 2016 Dieu Donné Workspace Residency, Artprize-8 Sustainability Award, 2015 Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant, 2015 Kohler Arts Industry Residency (WI), 2013-14 Smack Mellon Art Studio Program, 2014 Materials for the Arts, 2013 Wave Hill Winter Workspace and the 2010 Emerging Artist Fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park in New York. Exhibition venues include: 21C Museum Hotels, Bentonville AR; Richmond Center for Visual Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; The Museum of Biblical Art, El Museo del Barrio, Socrates Sculpture Park, The 8th Floor, Wave Hill, Geary Contemporary, NYC; Pi-Artworks, London and H-Gallery, Paris. Puerta’s work has been featured in Hyperallergic, The New York Times, Wilder Quarterly, Sculpture Magazine and Artnet News among other