home-coming & home-going

I’ve done a lot of returning this summer, reaching towards new homes, old homes, continued homes, places that let me hide in and places that hold new demands

home-coming & home-going

Thank you for being here

Image description: A black and white photograph of dark trees and palm fronds with glistening sunlight behind them and a light-gray sky.

The first part of this newsletter is a BULLETIN BOARD with upcoming and current shows, projects, book releases and events, that I hope you will come to and share with your communities.

And the second part is ROOTS, WEBS, NETS, and BRANCHES. A written offering, sharing of work, expansion & footnotes of what's going on in my studio, practice and brain. This part is paid and I invite you to support my work for $5 a month or $50 a year.

ROOTS WEBS NETS BRANCHES BULLETIN BOARDS is my practice, is labor, is my work.

Part 1. BULLETIN BOARD

I am honored be pulled back to a recent home of mine, New Mexico, to be in a group show in Santa Fe that feels like a weaving with some dearly beloveds,

Proximities

is on view from August 26- October 7, 2023 

Best Western Gallery, 4328 B Airport Rd., Santa Fe, NM 87507, USA

Best Western is pleased to announce Proximities, a five-person exhibition of work that explores the interconnected web of nearness and occurrences. Proximites includes the work of Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Amanda Curreri, Nick Larsen, Hilary Nelson, and J Rivera Pansa. The works in this exhibition are comprised of hand made paper, digital and traditional weaving techniques, stained glass, manipulated photographic collage, and regenerative sculpture. The artists share a speculative sense of discovery in reshaping how things could be. There is an intentionality that threads each artist’s practice. Along this thread are themes of anarchy, activism, romance and ecology that open into multitudes.

Best Western hours are Saturdays from 1pm to 4pm and otherwise open by appointment for the run of the exhibition. Please contact Shane Tolbert & James Sterling Pitt by email at office@westernbest.org with questions or to schedule an appointment.

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Looking ahead, in October, I will be in a group show in Massachusetts that honors and celebrates the legacy and influence of Corita Kent (a forever mentor in my studio practice and teaching work),

Always Be Around: Corita Kent, Community, and Pedagogy 

is on view from October 2- December 15, opening reception on Thursday, October 5, 5:30pm

The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross, One College Street

Worcester, Massachusetts 01610, Exit 15 (College Sq./Southbridge St.) off I-290

Corita Kent (1918-1986) also known as Sister Mary Corita, was a pop artist, educator and social justice advocate. The exhibition, Always Be Around: Corita Kent, Community and Pedagogy, demonstrates the importance and timeliness of Corita Kent’s art and teaching practice to this generation of artists.  Featuring Kent’s work and the work of contemporary artists Mary Banas and Breanne Trammell, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Roz Crews, Jen Delos Reyes, Christine Sun Kim, Jorge Lucero, Mary Lum, Maria del Carmen Montoya, Aaron Rose and Lee Walton, the exhibition presents a range of artistic approaches to teaching, close looking, social justice and collaboration.

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And continuing, a beloved show that is so close to my heart,

Don’t Mind if I Do

Is on view from July 7, 2023- January 7, 2024

Lewis Gallery, MOCA Cleveland, Cleveland, OH

Featuring work by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Pelenakeke Brown, Sky Cubacub, Emilia Louise Gossiaux, Felicia Griffin, Joselia Rebekah Hughes, Jeff Kasper and Finnegan Shannon.

Finnegan Shannon is a creator of loopholes. Their work is mischievous, methodically chipping away at traditional museum practices. By framing institutional change as artwork, the pace of possibility quickens. With Shannon at the helm, Don’t mind if I do is an experiment in more deeply collaborative exhibition-making, demonstrating  how even temporary changes in power structures create pathways of access for visitors, artists, and staff.

This project is the realization of my access fantasy !! 

​I’m disabled and I need to sit and I love to sit. I’ve been dreaming about an exhibition where instead of having to move from artwork to artwork, I could sit somewhere comfortable and have the artwork come to me. So voilà! A conveyor belt of artworks surrounded by a variety of seating options. 

When planning this project, a big question was: what artwork should the conveyor carry? The artists, writers, and thinkers featured nourish my life and practice, and I can’t resist a chance to share their work. Each of the objects presented asks for varied ways of interacting and opens up possibilities for how and what an artwork can convey.

​-Finnegan Shannon

Image description: A black and white photograph of a tiled wall catching sun and holding shadows from a neighboring tree.

Part 2. ROOTS, WEBS, NETS, and BRANCHES

Home as in a big web and long list, sanctuary, both a place that has been a net for leaning on and in, places i’ve lived and places i haven't, familial & chosen. Coming as returning, running towards, flying, the process of seeing again and greeting in new ways, a language that dances in your mouth, fitting in even though it’s been so long. Going as in far far away, similar to coming but different, the process of leaving one home to travel to another, a journey, a letting go, so many goodbyes and see you laters, we go to come back.