Manon Slome

Manon Slome is co-founder and chief curator of No Longer Empty, an organization which engages audiences for contemporary art through site specific and community responsive exhibitions in non-traditional spaces throughout New York City. Since 2009, through some twenty-four exhibitions, the organization has harnessed the power of art to explore community narratives and key issues of social justice, collaborating and co-programming with local organizations, residents, and civic leaders to ensure relevance and highlight the cultural vibrancy and narratives of host neighborhoods. Manon recently co-curated Mel Chin’s 2018 project All Over the Place with Laura Raicovich, comprising an exhibition at the Queens Museum, public installations at Times Square and the Broadway-Lafayette Subway Station, and the downloadable Soundtrack.

Yasue Maetake

Born 1973 in Tokyo, Japan. Lives and works in Queens, New York.

2006 MFA, Columbia University School of the Arts, New York, New York.

"I am particularly drawn to the site specific nature of Yasue Maetake’s work as she investigates the properties of physical material. Maetake transforms raw material, such as industrial steel, resin, natural pulps, and wood, manipulating their breakdown and organic reconstitution. Drawing inspiration from a variety of traditions spanning Baroque sculpture to Mono-ha artists, Maetake’s forms depict the dynamics of life-like structures in relation to their surroundings. The paradoxes between freedom and physical boundary, levity and gravity, give Maetake’s work its potent strength."

Artwork Image: Easeled Idol II, 2017. Steel, animal bone. 36 x 12 x 18 in.

Arthur Huang

Born 1972 in Oakland, California. Lives and works in Tokyo, Japan.

2001 MFA, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island.

"I selected Arthur Huang’s work for its fine exploration of the everyday. Through photographs, lists, memory maps, and automatic drawings, Huang documents the ways in which his quotidian routine weaves into his unconscious memories. By honing in on the mundane activities that punctuate his daily life and our own - commutes, walks, grocery shopping, eating, and sleeping—the artist illuminates these often mindless meditations to reveal hidden perspectives on our lives as human beings that can give meaning in these troubling times."

Artwork Image: Daily Drawings Network, 2017. Ink, Paper, Acrylic. 114 x 259 x 275 in.

Joe Turpin

Born 1995 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.

2019 BFA Candidate, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

"Joe Turpin's work really resonates for me as someone with a history (albeit historical) of exile as he plumbs the depths of his personal history to inform his artistic practice. Reflecting on his family’s persecution as Jews in Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries and their subsequent migration to South Africa, the artist interrogates his own heritage and identity in relation to those of others. Turpin works across media to represent allegories, fables, and narratives born from the diverse environments in which he grew up, such as post-apartheid Johannesburg."

Artwork Image: The Piousness of Love in Immigration, 2018. Aerosol, oil stick, enamel on silk, ink on paper, lace, metal stands installation. 40 x 40 x 30 in.