“elsewhere, within here” | Exhibition Closing Reception

Closing reception and curatorial remarks for the School of Art student exhibition “elsewhere, within here”

CURATED BY
Xinan Helen Ran (BFA Fine Arts, Drawing ‘17)
Sharmistha Ray (MFA Fine Arts, Painting / MS Theory, Criticism, and History of Art, Design, and Architecture ‘05)

PRESENTED BY
School of Art
Department of Exhibitions

SUPPORTED BY
Center for Equity & Inclusion
Alumni Relations

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Jimin Baek (MFA Fine Arts, Painting & Drawing ‘23)
Matthew Celis Del Carmen (BFA Fine Arts, Drawing ‘23)
Yonkyung Choi (BFA Fine Arts, Painting ‘23)
Jeff Deng (AOS Graphic Design ‘23)
Mengyu Han (MFA Fine Arts, Integrated Practices ‘23)
Nuohan Jiang (Nuo) (BFA Fine Arts, Painting ‘24)
Yeri Jun (MFA Digital Arts, Interactive Arts ‘24)
Hannah Kim (BFA Photography ‘23)
Seungheon Lee (MFA Fine Arts, Painting & Drawing ‘24)
Yooyeon Nam (BFA Fine Arts, Painting ‘23)
Tino Park (BFA Fine Arts, Painting ‘23)
Arno Reyes Baetz (BFA Photography ‘25)
Jiahong Wang (BFA Photography ‘24)
Xiangjie Rebecca Wu (MFA Fine Arts, Painting & Drawing ‘24)
Chang Zhang (MFA Fine Arts, Sculpture ‘24)
Shiyu Zhang (MFA Fine Arts, Painting ‘23)
Jianhao Zheng (BFA Digital Arts, Interactive Arts ‘24)
Lands of Trust: Alexandra Anisman, Sage Callen, Jingyang Luo, Jamie Kyung Min Oh, Rishinandini Kumari Singh, Keiko Taniguchi (MPS Arts & Cultural Management ‘23)

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Pratt School of Art Dean Jorge Oliver invited Pratt alumni Xinan Helen Ran and Sharmistha Ray to curate this exhibition of Pratt School of Art students who identify with Asian, Pacific Islander, South Asian, Southeast Asian, or Asian American identities, experiences, regions, or diasporas. School of Art associate degree students, undergraduate and graduate students, and members of the graduating class of 2023 who met these criteria were encouraged to submit their work for consideration. The resulting exhibition, elsewhere, within here, celebrates the accomplishments of a diverse group of students and poses questions about the formation of cultural identity. The students in the exhibition have connections to countries including China, Guam, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Singapore. Their work involves painting, installation, photography, video, illustration, and sculpture. This is the second School of Art student exhibition in partnership with Pratt’s Department of Exhibitions exploring how identity is reflected in students’ creative expression. Last year’s exhibition, Corpus: Landscapes and Memories of External Sprouting, focused on artwork by students who identify with the Hispanic/Latinx community.

In selecting work for this year’s exhibition, the curators were inspired by the filmmaker and theorist Trinh T. Minh-ha’s perspective on identity—how geography intersects with lived experiences and embodied histories. As their curatorial statement explains, “The purpose of this group exhibition is to present a perspective on identity that goes beyond political labels and focuses on individual narratives. In other words, we aim to explore how we define ourselves rather than how we are perceived.”

MEET THE CURATORS

Sharmistha Ray is an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Their work has been exhibited in New York, Singapore, Mumbai, and New Delhi. Solo exhibitions include: we are all islands (Nine Fish, Mumbai & Mill Hall, Kochi, India, 2016-2017), Reflections & Transformations (Aicon, New York, 2013), and hidden geographies (Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai, India, 2012). In 2020, they co-founded the feminist artist collective Hilma’s Ghost, a participatory and collaborative model for research, exhibitions, and pedagogy. Their writings have been published in Art Asia Pacific, Hyperallergic, Artcritical, Ocula, Art India, and the India editions of Vogue and Elle. Reviews of their work have appeared in The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, Artnet, Hyperallergic, Art India, and TimeOut Mumbai. They received an MFA in Fine Arts and an MS in Theory, Criticism, and History of Art, Design, and Architecture from Pratt in 2005 and a BA from Williams College in 2001.

Xinan Helen Ran is the Program Manager at Franklin Furnace Archive. She has exhibited nationally and internationally. Solo exhibitions include 7000SEEDS (Essex Flowers, New York, 2023), Very Sweet (Tutu Gallery, New York, 2023), and The mountains to your right (Schein Space, Hangzhou, China, 2021). Public projects include Tree Chuang (Governors Island, New York, 2022) and Sandbox For All (Clover Nature, Shanghai, China, 2021). She has participated in the New York Foundation for the Arts Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program (2023) and was a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Arts Center resident (2022). Her work has garnered attention in Cultbytes, New York Magazine, and The New York Times. She received an MFA in Painting from Hunter College in 2022 and a BFA in Fine Arts from Pratt in 2017.