in the whirlwind or in the storm

About

Moving between nostalgic longings for place and a desire to archive lived experiences and familiar objects, the works in this exhibition play with time, memory, and visibility; conjuring up past, present, and future imaginings. 

This exhibition showcases new work by Abrons’ 2023–24 Visual Artist AIRspace residents at the culmination of their residency, focused on the theme of sanctuary. 

The title of the show is from a speech written and delivered by Marcus Garvey in Harlem, New York City, c. 1924.

About the Artists

Alexander Si is a multidisciplinary artist whose projects survey subjects in American popular culture that expose invisible labor, class and racial disparity from a queer immigrant perspective. Si has exhibited with institutions and galleries like SPACES, Untitled Art Fair, Home Gallery, Tutu Gallery, and Chinatown Soup; and has been reviewed and written up by Art in America, Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, BOMB, Artnet, and The Art Newspaper. He has been an artist-in-resident at institutions like Abrons Art Center, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and SPACES, and has received awards from the Foundation of Contemporary Arts. Si holds an MFA degree in Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts, and two BA degrees with honors in Architecture and Media Studies at the University of Toronto.

Oji Haynes is a cultural practitioner with a focus in photography and installation. He attended The City College of New York along with courses at the International Center of Photography. He was awarded the CCNY Dean’s Prize in Art and is the recipient of the 2022 NADA Miracle Seltzer Grant prize. He has also participated in the New York Times Portfolio Review and has been shortlisted for the annual Palm* Photo Prize which allowed his work to be included in a group show at 1014 Gallery (London, UK). His work has been featured in Oce Magazine, Feminist, Boooooom, and Nowness.

Cielo Félix-Hernández (b.1998, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto-Rican transdisciplinary artist, living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Working primarily in oil paint, Félix-Hernández depicts figures who author their own narratives, constructed out of familiar Boricua and Caribbean iconographies. Félix-Hernández received her BFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA. Recent group exhibitions include Ojos del Perro Azul, Marinaro, New York, NY (2022); Nine Lives, Fortnight Institute, New York, NY (2021); Visions and Nightmares, Simone Subal Gallery, curated by Baseera Khan, New York, NY (2021); Flame Tree, REGULARNORMAL, curated by Bony Ramirez, New York, NY (2021); I’ll Make You Sorry, curated by LaNia Sproles, Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (2020); documento, Embajada, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2020); My Flannel Knickers Sargent’s Daughters, New York, NY (2020); and Dynasty, curated by Amy Goldrich, Christopher K. Ho, Omar Lopez-Chahoud, and Sara Reisman at PS122 Gallery, New York, NY (2019). She had her first New York solo exhibition nieta at Sargent’s Daughters in January 2022, which was reviewed by Artnet, Artsy and Platform Art. Félix-Hernández’s first museum group exhibition, DOMESTICANX was on view at El Museo del Barrio (New York, NY) was reviewed by The New Yorker, LATINA, and W Mag, amongst others. Sargent’s Daughters presented a solo booth of new works by Félix-Hernández at NADA Miami 2022. She is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the Silver Arts Projects, New York, NY. She is represented by Sargent’s Daughters.

About the Partners

Abrons Arts Center is a home for contemporary interdisciplinary arts in Manhattan’s Lower East Side neighborhood. A core program of the Henry Street Settlement, Abrons believes that access to the arts is essential to a free and healthy society. Through performance presentations, exhibitions, education programs, and residencies, Abrons mobilizes communities with the transformative power of art. The Visual Artist AIRspace Residency annually supports 4 New York City-based visual artists. Visual Artist AIRspace Residents receive an artist fee and a semi-private studio for nine months at Abrons Arts Center. Throughout the residency cycle, studio visits are arranged with critics, curators, artists and other arts professionals to foster critical and professional development. Abrons’ Curatorial AIRspace Residency, presented in partnership with Artists Alliance Inc (AAI), will provide one New York City-based curator with an honorarium, production budget, materials budget, and office space to support the curation of one exhibition responding to the 2025 curatorial focus.

Artists Alliance Inc fosters the forward-thinking and experimental practices of emerging and underrepresented artists and curators with funded residencies and paid exhibition opportunities. Through artist-centered programming, AAI provides a free and accessible platform to produce, experience, and understand contemporary art in the Lower East Side–a longstanding epicenter for creative experimentation and cultural diversity–and advocates for art-making that challenges how we experience ourselves and our communities.

As an advocate of affordability and sustainability for NY-based artists and the enduring community benefits of free and accessible contemporary art, AAI offers programs within larger institutions that hold vital social and cultural significance on the Lower East Side of New York City. Cuchifritos Gallery in Essex Market and the LES Studio Program in The Clemente are strategically located to improve art access and distribution while serving emerging artists, curators, NYC’s creative communities, and the art world in general. Established as alternatives to the limitations of a commerce-oriented art world, AAI offers a professional framework for career development, self-representation, and experimental production.