Of the Place

Amber Robles-Gordon, artist 

Larry Ossei-Mensah, curator

Pablo Guardiola, artist and co-director of Beta-Local

Mikhaile Solomon, founding director of Prizm Art Fair

Thursday, October 7 at 6p

Please register for this event here.

https://american.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUocOmqqTIpGNZCeMcFvZVYsEjgSWBigeZ5

The MFA Studio Art program at American University is pleased to present 

Of the Place, a series of conversations that center the artists, art organizations, art activators, and culture producers who have deep connections to their locale.  

The theme reflects the times that we are living in – many of us have had to stay in place over the last year. The global pandemic, politics, and the cultural circumstances of our contemporary world have necessitated a change in our social and work patterns. We are looking within our own communities to share resources and support. 

Join us as our guests discuss place, community, diasporic narratives, and how these shape their respective practices as artists, curators, and cultural organizers.

Participant Bios:

Amber Robles Gordon ​​https://www.amberroblesgordon.com

Amber Robles-Gordon, has over fifteen years of exhibiting, art education, and exhibition coordinating experience. She received a Bachelor of Science, Business Administration in 2005 at Trinity University, and subsequently a Master’s in Fine Arts (Painting) in 2011 from Howard University, Washington, DC. At Howard University she received annual awards and accolades for her artwork. She has exhibited nationally and in Germany, Italy, Malaysia, London, and Spain. Robles-Gordon is proficient in American Sign-Language and has traveled throughout the US, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Northern Africa, and Southeast Asia. Her exhibitions and artwork has been reviewed and/or featured in the Washington Post, Washington City Paper, Washington Informer, Examiner, WAMU American University Radio, WPFW 89.3, MSNBC the grio, Hyperallergic, Ebony.com, Houston Chronicle, Miami Herald, Huffington Post, Bmore Art Magazine, Callaloo Art & Culture in the African Diaspora and Sugarcane Magazine, Support Black Art and other various publications. In fall 2021, solo exhibition, Successions, at American University, Katzen Art Center.

Larry Ossei-Mensah https://www.artnoir.co

Larry Ossei-Mensah uses contemporary art as a vehicle to redefine how we see ourselves and the world around us. The Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic has organized exhibitions and programs at commercial and nonprofit spaces around the globe from New York City to Rome featuring artists such as Firelei Baez, Allison Janae Hamilton, Brendan Fernades, Ebony G. Patterson, Modou Dieng, Glenn Kaino, Joiri Minaya, and Stanley Whitney to name a few. Moreover, Ossei-Mensah has actively documented cultural happenings featuring the most dynamic visual artists working today such as Derrick Adams, Mickalene Thomas, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Federico Solmi, and Kehinde Wiley. Ossei-Mensah is also the Co-Founder of ARTNOIR, a global collective of culturalists who design multimodal experiences aimed to engage this generation’s dynamic and diverse creative class. ARTNOIR serves as a tangible extension of Ossei-Mensah’s curatorial vision of “bridging gaps.”. Ossei-Mensah is the former Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at MOCAD in Detroit. Ossei-Mensah currently serves as Curator-at-Large at BAM, where he curated the NY Times heralded the exhibition Let Free Ring in January 2021. Ossei-Mensah recently co-curated the 7th Athens Biennial - ECLIPSE with OMSK Social Club on view until November 28th.

He also collaborated with fellow panelist Amber Robles-Gordon on her solo exhibition Successions: Traversing US Colonialism at the American University Museum at the Katzen Center on view until December 12th. Follow him on Instagram at @larryosseimensah and Twitter at @youngglobal.

Mikhaile Solomon https://www.prizm.art

Mikhaile Solomon was born and raised in Miami, Florida and is of Caribbean heritage. Her parents are from the island of St. Kitts – Nevis. She is a graduate of Florida International University’s Graduate program in Architecture and completed her undergraduate degree in Theatre Arts at the University of South Florida. With her varied professional experience comes many years of developmental work in design, education, curatorial practice, arts advocacy and community development. In 2013, Mikhaile founded and currently serves as Director of Prizm Art Fair, a cutting-edge art fair that expands the spectrum of exhibiting international artists from the global African Diaspora and Emerging Markets during Miami Art Week. Since 2013, Prizm has grown from exhibiting 25 contemporary artists to developing a hybrid Fair program with 40 – 60 individual artists annually, and a burgeoning gallery program. Mikhaile is currently actively involved in a number of leadership organizations that give her the capacity to emphasize the importance the arts play in the shaping of holistic communities. Mikhaile is a recent graduate of the Goldman Sach’s 10,000 Small Businesses Program, and member of Leadership Florida and Miami’s Next Leaders.

Mikhaile’s hope is to support continued strengthening of Miami’s cultural offerings and to participate in the creation of more creative opportunities for its residents.

Pablo Guardiola https://betalocal.org

Pablo Guardiola is a visual artist who works mainly with objects, photography, and writing, and editorial /curatorial projects. His work focuses on the production of varied modes of reading and narration, as well as how they are perceived and interpreted. He has a BA in History from the University of Puerto Rico (Río Piedras) and an MFA from the San Francisco Arts Institute. He has exhibited his work in the little tree gallery, Galería de la Raza, Romer Young Gallery, San Francisco Arts Commission, Embajada, El lobi, among others. His work has been reviewed in Artforum, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Bay Guardian, among others. He co-founded and co-edits Set to Signal, an arts and culture bulletin concerning the future. Recently he started the project The Lecturers, a series of commissioned online seminars in English and Spanish primarily focusing on the production and consumption of knowledge through the visual arts. Since 2013, he co-directs Beta-Local in San Juan, Puerto Rico.