Emily Oliveira: I Saw God and She Wasn’t Made of Money

About

EXHIBITION ON VIEW: Jan 21 - May 2, 2021
GALLERY HOURS: Wed - Sat, 11am - 6 pm
CURATED BY JENNY GEROW

In-person viewing at BRIC will be available during reduced hours, Wed-Sat 11am-6pm, and at reduced capacity. Visitors are encouraged to reserve a space 48 hours in advance by contacting BRIC. In-person viewing availability is subject to change, in accordance with city and state health authorities.

Queerness is not yet here. Queerness is an ideality. Put another way, we are not yet queer, but we can feel it as the warm illumination of a horizon imbued with potentiality.
-José Muñoz

Emily Oliveira’s artwork delves deep into Latinx queer, sci-fi utopia, using textiles to create a portal into an elasticized perception of a world that is and what could be. I Saw God and She Wasn’t Made of Money transforms BRIC’s Project Room into a devotional space using embroidery, quilting, beading, and rug tufting, one that is reminiscent of the Damanhur temple near Turin, Italy. Olivieira’s hand-dyed silks are layered, mythological narratives that are influenced by and celebratory of the many forms of contemporary marginalized utopian communities: the radical action and aesthetics of Chile’s Colectivo Arpilleras Memorarte; the world building narratives of Star Trek fan fiction zines; and the night-life community of Ginger’s, the last dyke bar in Brooklyn. Heavily reliant on allegory as a narrative tool, she embeds within her textiles stories of collective imagining and teaching for the present moment without the limiting boundaries of colonialism and the binary of heteronormativity. 

Emily Oliveira is a 2020-21 recipient of BRIC ArtFP, an open call for Brooklyn-based visual artists to exhibit at BRIC House.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Emily Oliveira is a multidisciplinary artist who work involves craft materials and processes including textiles, beadwork, and embroidery. She was a 2018 BRIClab resident and the winner of BRIC's ArtFP in 2020 with an exhibition opeing in January 2021. Oliveira received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. She has participated in group exhibitions at Brooklyn Brush Studios and the Space Heater Gallery, both in Brooklyn; and at SPRING/BREAK, SLEEPCENTER, and the Museum of Arts and Design, all in NY. She has been awarded residencies at the Museum of Arts and Design, WaveHill, and Ars Nova, all in NY; A.I.R Gallery, Governors Island, NY; and Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY.