Crossing Cultures: Family, Memory and Displacement

Crossing Cultures: Family, Memory and Displacement

October 3 – 31, 2019
Kathryn Schultz Gallery
Curated by Claudia Ruiz Gustafson
Featuring artwork by Astrid Reischwitz, Claudia Ruiz Gustafson, Nilou Moochhala & Vivian Poey


Reception | October 3, 6-8pm RSVP

  • Live music by Datev Gevorkian, performing on the oud
  • Food and beverages provided by the artists from their own countries including German beer, Peruvian causa, Samosas, and more.
  • Child & adult friendly activities will include a mini-suitcase/box activity led by artist, Nilou Moochhala’s daughter, and an origami boat activity led by artist, Vivian Poey’s daughter.

Artist Talk | October 26, 1-2pm RSVP
Exhibition Dates | October 3 – 31, 2019


Click here to download the  Crossing Cultures Press Release


About | Crossing Cultures: Family, Memory and Displacement is a photo based art exhibit about family, memory, displacement and identity from the point of view of four visual artists with roots in four continents: Europe (Germany), Asia (India), South America (Peru) and North America and the Caribbean (Mexico and Cuba). Through the use of vintage family photographs, and the use of different mediums: photography, mixed media and video, these artists uncover their family stories and create complex, multidimensional narratives to reflect upon what they have left behind while shifting countries and at the same time honoring and remembering family traditions and vanishing ways of life. We are a nation of people who have come from around the globe and have experienced loss and transformation as we make our way in a new place. A place where diverse backgrounds, political beliefs, faiths, identities, and ideas come together to create something new. This exhibition embodies and celebrates this ongoing transformation in what it means to find home at a time where migration across the world is at an all-time high.


About Astrid | Astrid Reischwitz is a Boston-based photographer whose work explores the possibilities of storytelling from a personal perspective. Her projects include intimate views of private spaces and reflections on her own history and values. Using keepsakes from family life, old photographs and storytelling strategies, she builds a visual world of memory, identity, place, and home.

Reischwitz has exhibited at national museums and galleries including solo shows at The Center for Fine Arts Photography, Danforth Art Museum, Griffin Museum of Photography, Providence Center for Photographic Arts, 555 Gallery, Davis Orton Gallery, and Soho Photo Gallery. Her portfolios were also shown in exhibitions at the Photographic Resource Center and Sohn Fine Art Gallery. In 2018, her work was included in the exhibition Domestic Affairs at Newport Art Museum.

Reischwitz began her study of photography at the International Center of Photography in New York soon after moving to the United States from Germany. She continued her education at the New England School of Photography, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Lesley University, and the Griffin Museum of Photography. She is a graduate of the Technical University Braunschweig, Germany, with a PhD in Chemistry, and holds a Certificate in Arts Administration from New York University.

In addition to making her own photographs, Reischwitz enjoys curating art exhibitions at the Bedford MA Free Public Library.

 

Visit Astrid’s website here: www.reischwitzphotography.com


About Claudia | Originally from Lima, Perú, Claudia Ruiz Gustafson is a fine art photographer based in Massachusetts. Her work is mainly autobiographical and self-reflective; each image relies on visual codes and symbolism often portraying themes of femininity, memory, dreams and personal mythology. She regards image making as a powerful medium for exploring her own inner world.

Claudia currently runs her own portrait photography business and teaches Creative Photo Portraiture and Mindful Photography in the Boston area. Her fine art work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the US and abroad at venues including the Griffin Museum of Photography, Danforth Art Museum, Sohn Fine Art Gallery and A Smith Gallery.

She holds a BA in Communications from Universidad de Lima, and a Professional Photography Certificate from Kodak Interamericana de Perú. In Lima, she worked as a freelance photographer for a cultural magazine and as a photojournalist for a regional newspaper.

 

Visit Claudia’s website here: www.claudiafineart.com


About Nilou | Nilou Moochhala’s visual practice (art & design) has been channeled into examining issues of cross-cultural change and transformation through collaging and assemblage techniques. Originally from Mumbai, she has been inspired to juxtapose found objects, memorabilia, and use of language to create social and political narratives, be it in public street spaces or private art galleries.

Moochhala has exhibited in numerous gallery spaces such as Beacon Gallery (Boston), Mosesian Center for the Arts (Watertown), Bose Pacia (New York) and Swallow Gallery (Brooklyn). In contrast, her public art project “I Am Arlington” involved speaking with local residents and cataloging the impact of change on their urban environment through a series of postcards. “Storefront Stories,” was based on interviews with local storefront owners that evolved into larger-than-life wheatpaste murals as well as a tabloid zine; which celebrated the independent stores lining East Arlington. Her installation “Rhetoric of Opposites” on the Minuteman Bikeway (that connects Cambridge to Bedford) used street typography to juxtapose 25 pairs of opposing words that highlighted the divisive political narrative that exists today.

Nilou has served as a member of Arlington Public Art and the Arlington Cultural Council. She has been an award recipient of numerous grants including the Massachusetts Cultural Council and New England Foundation for the Arts, among others. Her work has appeared in publications such as the Boston Globe, Print, India New England, Arlington Advocate, and Big, Red & Shiny.

Moochhala received her Masters of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the Yale University School of Art. Prior to that, she was awarded her Bachelor’s in Studio Art from Mount Holyoke College.

 

Visit Nilou’s website here: www.niloumakes.com


About Vivian | Vivian Poey is a photographer and educator in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her work examines a number of issues ranging from migration and cultural assimilation to the passing of time. She is American, born in Mexico of Cuban parents and lived in Guatemala and Colombia before moving to the U.S. This complicated trajectory informs all of her art, which serves as a method of investigation, and includes photography, installation and performance.

Poey earned an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and has exhibited her work across the country and in Florence, Italy. In addition to traditional exhibition spaces Poey works to reach multiple communities by exhibiting in educational settings including the Boston Arts Academy, and Lesley University, and has spoken about her work to students of various ages such as the Sumner Elementary school in Boston and at the Crimson Program for public high school students at Harvard University.

Vivian Poey teaches Photography and Integrated Studies at the Lesley College of Art + Design.