Star 87 (detail), 2024, graphite, conté and charcoal on paper, 42x30 inches
Alma Star: Love is All Things
January 4 – February 2, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 4, 6 – 9pm
Live channeling session: Saturday, February 2, 3 –4pm
BROOKLYN, NY – Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York is pleased to present Alma Star: Love is All Things, the inaugural New York solo exhibition for this Pocono-based artist. All works shown embody Star’s identity as incarnate death. She began to recognize this role after experiencing loss and grief, which began a process of healing and self-realization. All works that she makes are extensions of this. Death for some is a frightening word, however through the works in this exhibition, viewers are invited to consider and see this concept not as negative. Rather, death can be peace, relief, transition, and change. She hopes to be seen as a friend in times of turmoil.
Star regularly collaborates with a consciousness who is her soul kin and represents death as eternal, Azrael. The works in this presented reflect these collaborations, other transcendent connections and experiences of the artist, sacred language and sacred space. Drawings, writings, audio documentation of spirit communication, touchable soft sculpture, garments and a recreation of an altar-like installation from the artist’s personal space are included in this exhibition. Red light bathes the gallery and defines it as a spiritual environment. Touch, hearing and sight, what the artist describes as “selective psychic senses,” emphasize the human body’s physical instincts to connect and initiate soul communication. Artifacts included in the installation create a sense of intimacy. Some of these objects come from generational relationships and others the artist collected in Peru, Philadelphia and the Poconos, PA.
During the live channeling session on the last day of the show, Star will, as she describes, “tune in” with Azrael as they invite the audience to engage with them on creativity, eternity, the soul, and collective histories. Sessions often conclude with the reminder that, “love is all things.”
Alma Star is of Peruvian indigenous ancestry and maintains a unique relationship with the dead and lives an unusual life with spirit. Star’s work focuses on documenting the personal encounters and discussions she collects from her experiences. She achieved her MFA in Fine Arts in 2016 from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and has lead workshops at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine arts in Philadelphia. She currently teaches art at Northampton Community College and Muhlenberg College.
Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York
1329 Willoughby Ave, #2A Brooklyn, NY 11237
(347) 746-8041
newyork@tigerstrikesasteroid.com
www.tigerstrikesasteroid.com
Artist Alma Star leads a live channeling session in February at TSA gallery in Bushwick. (photo Aaron Short/Hyperallergic)
ALMA STAR
Light Names
2024/ mixed media work channeled by spirit to reveal soul names
40" x 20"
ALT TXT
ONLINE EXHIBITION
Curated by Angelica Aranda and Tereza Chanaki
Online Companion Show to Alt TXT
Featuring:
Danielle Alhassid, Becky Brown, Sair Goetz, Jasmine Gutbrod & Reilly Blum, Darci Hanna, Lu Heintz, Gabrielle Odowichuk & Kenzie Housego, Jenny B Kowalski, Ana Mendes, Sarah Peoples, Libby Prosser, Anne Riesenberg, Mariah Cameron Scee, Hanna Sheehan, Alma Star, Cayetana Suzuki, Meghan Udell
About the Show
The idea behind Alt TXT came from a conversation the two curators had the first day they met. Sitting next to each other at work, Chanaki shared a dream exhibition topic, and Aranda, immediately understanding the vision, said “Let’s make it happen.” Now having developed a friendship rooted in the arts, Aranda and Chanaki have pulled together a variety of mediums that represent the varying interpretations of alternative text. Alt TXT includes work that directly engages with standard idea of alternative text, as with Andy slater’s “Invisible Ink,” and work that takes the idea of alt text at face value, defecting from the westernized version of text as with Luz Ticona’s “Cruz Con Quipu.” Included in the show are a variety of pieces that challenge the relationship between speech and text, standardized text and what we remember, and the physical act of interacting with text.
This show is based on the following prompts posed by Aranda and Chanaki regarding interpretations of alternative text via an open call:
For Alt TXt, Aranda is looking for work that takes the title at face value. Our perception of text is widely based on the Western ableist canon. Historically, text has been altered for different needs, like braille and text-to-speech devices. Inca Quipu developed to document with the use of knots, rather than what we perceive as written text. What is an alternative text in the modern world to you?
Chanaki wishes to extend and complement Aranda’s approach, looking for text as an alternative.The subtext of information drives narratives and holds soft power often stronger than the content itself. How do personal biases come through when one writes out an alternative text to an image? What about when they wish to translate not just words but smells, images, sounds and cultures between alphabets that hold nothing in common? When we alter Western traditional text, what do we lose and what do we gain?
About the Curators:
Angelica Aranda is a book artist and curator based in Queen, NY. Having received her B.A. in Studio Arts and Political Science from the University of Rochester, being a Creatives Rebuild New York grant recipient, and a curator at Field Projects Gallery her interests lie in book arts. Currently working at the Berg Collection of English and American Literature while obtaining a Masters in Library and Information Science, Aranda looks to preserve, create, and uplift books as works of art.
Tereza Chanaki is an exhibition planner, curator and artist studio assistant, born and raised in Greece. Currently working in a public library, she is interested in how we exhibit information to reveal stories and inspire art, while always keeping accessibility in mind. Through additional curatorial projects and initiatives, as well as studio work with contemporary artists, Chanaki is interested in non-traditional media, such as data, zines and craft. She holds an MSc in Museums and Digital Culture from the Pratt Institute and a BA in English and History from the University of Nottingham, UK.
http://www.fieldprojectsgallery.com/alt-txt-online
Field Projects
526 W 26th Street, #807
NY, NY 10001
www.fieldprojectsgallery.com
info@fieldprojectsgallery.com