Curated by Juana Valdes & Nhadya Lawes
Augusta Savage Gallery
February 7 – May 10, 2024
Opening Reception: February 22, 5 – 7pm
As We Move Forward honors the work and legacy of American sculptor and educator Augusta Savage (1892-1962), who paved the way for future generations of Black artists. Co-curators Juana Valdes and Nhadya Lawes have chosen the works of seventeen Black, Latinx, and Afro-Indigenous women artists from Savage’s home state of Florida. The exhibition combines printmaking, photography, sculpture, architecture, ceramics, and other mixed media to create a space of celebration and growth for these emerging artists.
In her life, Augusta Savage was a catalyst for what an inclusive art world could be. Her perseverance, advocacy, and mentorship paved the way for future generations of black artists, and she is a testament to the significance of supporting young Black women artists early in their careers. In doing so, we can construct a more level playing field as well as a diverse, equitable, and inclusive world.
By presenting this exhibition at Augusta Savage Gallery, these artists pay tribute to her life. In addition, As We Move Forward highlights a broader conversation on representation and material practice unfolding in contemporary art and introduces these new talented artistic voices to the Pioneer Valley.
This show seeks to build upon the energy and conversations that took place at the Still Here symposium at the University of Miami Center for Global Black Studies in September 2023, and to further canonize these women artists from Miami and their relationships to the intersectionality of race, place, labor, and gender in the arts. Participating artists include: Lauren Baccus, Adrienne Chadwick, Yanira Collado, Diana Eusebio, Chris Friday, GeoVanna Gonzalez, Faren Humes, Loni Johnson, Rhea Leonard, Kandy G Lopez, Sydney Rose Maubert, Arsimmer McCoy, Najja Moon, Michelle Lisa Polissaint, Chire “VantaBlack” Regans, Monica Sorelle, and Symone Titania.
CURATORIAL TEAM
Juana Valdes uses printmaking, photography, sculpture, ceramics, and site-specific installations to explore issues of race, transnationalism, gender, labor, and class. Functioning as an archive, Valdes’s work analyzes and decodes experiences of migration as a person of Afro-Caribbean heritage. Born in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, Valdes came to the United States in 1971. She received her BFA in Sculpture from the Parsons School of Design (1991), her MFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts (1993), and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture (1995). She is currently an Associate Professor in the Art Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Nhadya Lawes is an interdisciplinary scholar and arts professional in pursuit of the practical and the poetic in the cultural sector. Lawes is a University of Miami graduate with a bachelor’s in English literature and minors in sociology, art history, and Africana studies. She was born and raised in south Florida — her parents are Jamaican immigrants — and is a champion for arts of social practice and placemaking.