| The Amelie A. Wallace Gallery at SUNY College at Old Westbury is pleased to announce the opening of Reimagined, a group exhibition of works by four new adjunct faculty members of the Visual Arts Department at SUNY Old Westbury. The title of the exhibition loosely connects the underlying methods and purposes shared by these artists. Leeanna Chipana, a painter whose artistic practice revolves around her identity through her Quechua-Peruvian history and culture, creates reimagined portraits in an uncolonized contemporary world. Matthew Cronin digitally repurposed 1970s commercial photographs taken for the national retail chain JCPenny, inventing a new kind of image that reveals the artificiality underlying American middle class aspirational consumerism. Cronin reimagines these pre-existing images in order to explore the hidden function of commercially produced photographs. Through montage, multiple exposure, and in-camera manipulation, he creates new pictures that reveal what was both literally and figuratively hidden. Ramon Gil, Filipino-American designer and comic book artist and writer, shaped images of diverse communities through his wide ranging design work, helping, among many others, healthcare and education groups to use effective communication and create positive public images. His commitment to multi-culturalism is coupled with his sense of humor. Ed Malone, an Irish actor who trained under the mystic teacher Philippe Gaulier in France, brings his philosophy of direct engagement with the audience through genuine fun and pleasure like child’s play. His reimagining harks back to the pure imagination of the child within us all. As the daughter of an immigrant Quechua-Peruvian father and an American mother, Leeanna Chipana has been on a journey of exploration of indigenous identity and representation. Her work features contemporary Central and South American indigenous women within imaginary uncolonized environments. Many of her paintings feature apus, mountain spirits that embolden and protect her figures. Inspired by ancient warriors and nobility depicted on Peruvian Moche Portrait Vessels, Chipana brings ancient faces to life in her portraits. In “Portrait of Avimael,” she juxtaposes Avimael “El Cocho” Martinez, a Mexican deportee from the U.S. who set up an underground passage through the Tijuana sewage canal, with an image of nobility painted from a Moche Portrait vessel. Chipana’s portrait brings dignity to these migrants whose aspiration for a better life across the border was cut short, returning them to a destitute reality. Deploying motifs such as alpacas and potatoes, her paintings reference Incan civilization. Chipana earned her MFA in Figure Painting from the New York Academy of Art, and studied classical atelier painting at the Grand Central Atelier. Her work has been featured in the NY Times, and she has exhibited throughout the U.S. Chipana is based in Central Islip, Long Island and Brooklyn. She teaches Drawing and Introduction to Creative Thinking at SUNY Old Westbury. Matthew Cronin presents his recent photographic series Dwelling (2018–19), which appropriates found photographs originally commissioned by J.C. Penney during the 1970s for their catalogs. Through montage and multiple exposures, Cronin creates new, speculative interiors that explore the relationship between comfort, class, and tradition. Each photograph is a fabrication, as one may observe that objects cast no shadows and existing shadows no longer correspond to nearby objects. Patterns spill off fabrics and onto adjacent surfaces. Walls, furniture, fixtures, and plants lose their materiality, bleeding into one another. Once intended to entice the consumer, these digitally manipulated interiors are so saturated and garish that they become a critique of advertisements that promoted middle-class comfort and ready-made fantasies of suburban aspiration. Cronin holds an MFA in Studio Art from University of Texas at Austin, as well as a BFA in Photography from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the United States and Canada, including at The Visual Arts Center, Austin; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Back Gallery Project, Vancouver, and the NARS Foundation, Brooklyn. Cronin’s work can be found in the Ogden Museum of Southern Art’s permanent collection, and in the archives of the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona. Cronin teaches Introduction to Photography and Graphic Design 1 at SUNY Old Westbury. Ramon Gil presents a diverse body of design work that helped shape the images of the Asian American community as well as sectors of commercial and not-for-profit organizations. From branding logos to poster works, Gil’s designs have served multi-cultural organizations and businesses, effectively communicating the essence of their subjects. Gil has over twenty years’ experience in marketing and advertising, and has been honored by such organizations as The National Minority Business Council, The Workshop in Business Opportunities, and The New York Theatre Association, and has been featured in business publications such as Crain’s New York Business, Entrepreneur Magazine, Business Matters, Creme Magazine, The Artists & Graphic Designer’s Market, The Perfect Digital Portfolio, and Smart Networking. In 2006, Gil launched the multicultural marketing company Fresh Concentrate, which services clients that include the New York City Mayor’s Office, Lord Abbett & Co., The World Series of Baseball, Atlantic Yards, Artists for the Cure. In 2015, Gil helped launch LabFinder.com, a healthcare technology start-up. He is the founder of the Asian-American Entrepreneurs Network, has served on the board of directors of the National Minority Business Council, the American Marketing Association, and is a former ambassador for the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. Gil earned a BA from California State University, Long Beach, and an MFA in Illustration at FIT. Gil has also taught at Parsons School of Design. An instructor of digital media at Old Westbury and the Fashion Institute of Technology, Gil teaches Interactive Web Design and Digital Imaging at SUNY OW. The New York Times described Ed Malone as "a deft physical comedian." Malone is an actor, clown, writer, director, and teacher based in New York City. He trained at Ecole Jacques Lecoq, and with Philiippe Gaulier at Ecole Philippe Gaulier. His training with the mystical teacher Gaulier in particular had an impact on Malone’s adopting Gaulier’s approach to having fun as a child does and connecting directly with an audience. As an actor, Malone has appeared on HBO, NBC, and FX, and in several Off-Broadway productions, most notably with the Irish Repertory Theatre and Theatre for a New Audience. The Irish Times called Ed "a unique voice" and his first one-man show, The Self Obsessed Tragedy of Ed Malone "a theatrical highlight" of 2006. Time Out New York said of his follow up solo show The Three Irish Widows Versus The Rest of the World: "It blows the walls off the theater!" Directing credits include shows at The Peoples Improv Theater (PIT) and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Students of Ed's clown class have appeared on Saturday Night Live and shows on NBC, CBS, HBO, FX, Comedy Central, Adult Swim, MTV, and RT, as well as in major comedy venues throughout New York City, including Caroline’s on Broadway, Gotham Comedy Club, and the New York Comedy Club. Ed teaches Clown at SUNY Purchase College. At SUNY Old Westbury, he teaches Acting classes. Public Events:
About the Amelie A. Wallace Gallery: For more information, contact: Curator & Director: Hyewon Yi, PhD (516) 876-2709. Gallery Hours: Location: Directions: |