Unpacking the 21st Century
Artists Engaging the World

PATRICIA DAHLMAN Freedom

Five mid-career artists: Aliza Augustine, Aileen Bassis, Patricia Cazorla, Patricia Dahlman, Nancy Saleme address current social and political issues in a variety of forms and media, including photography, sculpture and printmaking. Curated by Aileen Bassis.

Aliza Augustine’s digitally manipulated photographs are about the children of Holocaust survivors. Although the Holocaust may seem be receding into history, trauma remains and has been passed down into the next generation. She contacted groups of survivor’s children and traveled around the USA, photographing them for this project.

Aileen Bassis is a printmaker and photographer. Her series, “Homilies for 99%” is about income inequality, an issue that’s currently central to our politcally fraught time. Her mixed media work combines prints of people on NYC streets with fragments of text and images from novels by nineteenth century author, Horatio Alger.

Patricia Cazorla and Nancy Saleme, both from Venezuela, work collaboratively on murals and sculptures. This work brings attention to issues of undocumented workers: child labor and immigrant integration into urban environments. Saleme’s mixed media work, Reasonable Suspicious is about the Arizona law permitting the warrentless arrest of anyone suspected of being undocumented.

Patricia Dahlman’s fabric sculpture “Shelter” addresses the world-wide immigrant crisis. Her sculptures and hand-stitched images include work about health care, gun violence, war, and marriage equality.

SPECIAL EVENTS WITH THE EXHIBIT

Sunday, June 5, 3-5 pm Special Viewing for Children of Holocaust Survivors and Families with artist Aliza Augustine
RSVP mizaliza@gmail.com

Wednesday, June 8, 7 – 9 pm Prose, Poetry and Performance: Readings by poets Bhisham Bhwerani, Terese Svoboda and Perfomance, “E” as in Event” by dancer Luis Lara Malvacias with spoken words by poet Judah Levenson

Saturday, June 18 3 pm Artist Talk with Aliza Augustine, Aileen Bassis, Patricia Cazorla, Patricia Dahlman and Nancy Saleme

Artists’Bios

Aliza Augustine studied photography at Rhode Island School of Design. Her solo exhibitions include The Human Rights Institute Gallery at Kean University, The Bernstein Gallery, Woodrow Wilson Institute, Princeton University, The Dana Women Artist Series, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. She was awarded The Julia Cameron Award For Women Photographers and will be featured in the Berlin Foto Biennale 2016. www.alizaaugustine.com

Aileen Bassis is a graduate of SUNY at Binghamton and Hunter College. She received a Fellowship in Photography from the NJ State Council on the Arts and a Dodge Foundation Fellowship. Her solo shows include Chashama266 and Ceres Project Room in NYC, University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers University, Newark. Her artists books are in several public collections including Yale University, Dartmouth and Wellesley Colleges. She has curated exhibitions at the Printmaking Center of NJ and CityLife Gallery in Jersey City. www.aileenbassis.com

Patricia Cazorla and Nancy Saleme, both from Venezuela and living in the USA since 1995 , work collaboratively on large scale sculptures and murals. Patricia Cazorla works in performance, video, installation, painting, drawing and printmaking. They were awarded a NFA Artist/Ensemble Project Grant by National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC) for a mural at the Port Authority of NY& NJ Bus Terminal. Exhibitions included the Bronx Community College, Hall of Fame Gallery and a public art mural at Taller Puertorriqueño, Philadelphia.

Cazorla studied art at Universidad Central de Venezuela and Cristóbal Rojas School of Visual Arts in Caracas,Venezuela and the Art Students League and Pratt Institute in NYC. patcazorla.wix.com/patricia-cazorla-art

Nancy Saleme studied at University of Fine Arts in Poland, National School of Fine Arts of Peru, Cristóbal Rojas School of Visual Arts of Caracas, Venezuela, and The Arts Students League of New York. http://nancysaleme.wix.com/nancy-saleme-art

Patricia Dahlman studied art at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio and Yale University Summer School of Art and Music in Norfolk, Connecticut. She has received a New Jersey Printmaking Fellowship to Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper and a Dodge Foundation Fellowship. Her solo exhibits include The Dana Women Artist Series, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, and the NY Public Library Mid-Manhattan. www.patriciadahlman.com