ERIN CURRIER
Freedom Writers
Erin Currier, whose art has long been concerned with issues of human rights, devotes her new work to portraits of a number of persecuted women heroes of independent media abroad, and one of a noted advocate for honest journalism here in the States. Journalistas Unembedded, an exhibition of Currier’s new series, opens June 12 at Parks Gallery in Taos, NM.“Being a journalist these days is one of the most courageous -- and often revolutionary -- things a person could possibly do,” Currier says. “For some, like Rozanna al Yami from Saudi Arabia, being a woman journalist is a fearless act. She was jailed and sentenced to 60 lashes, just because she worked for a television station that reported on extramarital sex. Another, Lubna Ahmed al Hussein of Sudan, was sentenced to 50 lashes and imprisoned for 2 months for wearing pants.” Currier has depicted them as the Tara, a deity believed to be the Hindu “Mother of Liberation.”
The largest piece in the show pays homage to Amy Goodman and her radio program Democracy Now which, according to Currier, “is one of the few news outlets in the U.S. that actually holds power accountable, and with moral authority and intellectual honesty tries to disseminate knowledge compassionately from a wide range of viewpoints.
According to a United Nation’s report, 71 journalists were killed around the world in 2009, the largest number in the 30 years that the U.N. has been keeping track. The U.N.’s Committee to Protect Journalists reports that various governments had an additional 136 reporters in jail at the end of the year.
Currier’s work, which has been devoted to issues ranging from heroes of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. to the corrosive effects of consumerism on school children around the world, is rendered with a distinctive combination of painting, drawing, and paper trash collage. Currier, who is 35 years old and lives in Santa Fe, travels widely in third world countries where she gathers the subjects and materials that speak forcefully of her own political and moral convictions.
As noted Taos author and activist John Nichols (The Milagro Beanfield War) writes: “Erin Currier’s work reflects a conscience in touch with humanity. She does not separate her artistic vision from a compassionate yearning (and demand) for social equality. Her latest collection of portraits is luminous and inspiring, and possessed of a beautiful soul.
Journalistas Unembedded will be on view from June 12 to July 12, with a reception for the artist on June 12 from 4 to 6 pm.
Artist Bio →
The following pieces are available for resale.
Parks Gallery Resale Director: Steve Storz
email: resale@parksgallery.com
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BIOGRAPHY
Artist's Statement:
What began as a natural integration of my sociopolitical beliefs with a sheer joy of art-making, has since developed into a full-fledged artistic praxis by which I integrate the human realm I come in contact with in the course of my travels- its individuals, cultures, and struggles- with its refuse, in order to comment on and participate in the issues I feel most passionate about. I have travelled to 35 countries, immersing myself, to the best of my abilities, in the daily life of countries like Nepal and Nicaragua, cities such as Istanbul and Caracas, studying languages, getting around on foot or by bus, sketching, documenting extensively, making friends, and collecting disinherited commercial “waste”, after which I return to my studio to create series of works. Aesthetically, Latin American Muralist traditions, Eastern Spiritual Iconography, and Social Realism inform my work. In addition to drawing its subjects from the so-called developing world, my work often draws its aesthetic from the “Global South”, as well as its philosophical influence, in the form of Paolo Freire, Eduardo Galeano, Augusto Sandino, and Edward Said.
The more I travel, the greater my sense of urgency as an artist to address social inequality and economic disparity through my work. Above all, I am a humanist artist, politically active and unapologetically narrative in my repertoire of practices, and for whom art and the social world are inseparable.
Erin Currier
Born: 1975, Haverhill, MA
Home: Santa Fe, NM
Education: College of Santa Fe, BFA Costume Design
Resume
Selected One Person Exhibitions:
2010: "Journalistas Unembedded," Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
2009: “Schoolyards,” Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
2009: “Schoolgirls and Schoolboys” Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
2009: “Portenas,” Masottatorres Contemporanea, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2008: “Miss World,” Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
2007: “America Below,” Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
2007: “In Solidarity,” Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Embassy, Washington D.C.
2006: “From Vietnam to Venezuela, Bandits and Beauty Queens,” Parks Gallery, Taos
2005: “Mothers and Martyrs,” Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
2005: “Small Works,” Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
2004: “The Other America,” Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
2004: “Selected Works,” TOPS Gallery, Malibu, CA
2003: “Liberation Series,” College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
2003: “Liberation Series,” Parks Gallery, Taos, NM
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2009: “Salvo”, Jack Fischer Gallery, San Fransisco, CA
2007-08: Masottatorres Contemporanea, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2008: “FOCA Show,” Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
2007-08: “Originals,” National Museum of Women in the Arts, Harwood Museum, NM
2007: “Lifting the Veil: New Mexico Women and the Tricultural Myth,” Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, NM
2005-08: MJ Higgins Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2005: “Heroes,” Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
2005: “La Madre Poderosa,” Harwood Museum, Taos, NM
2003: “FOCA Exhibition,” Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
2003: “El Corazon,” Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, NM
2002: “El Dia de la Muerte,” Martinez Hacienda, Taos, NM
1999-2006 Tops Gallery, Malibu, CA
Selected Books and Publications:
Women Artists Datebook 2010, Syracuse Cultural Workers, 2009
Peter McLaren, Education, adn the Struggle for Liberation, Mustafa Yunus Eryman, Hampton, 2009
100 Artists of the Southwest, Douglas Bullis, Schiffer, 2006
Pedagogy and Praxis in the Age of Empire, Peter McLaren, Nathalia Jaramillo, Rowman and Littlefield, 2006
Capitalists and Conquerors, Peter McLaren, Rowman and Littlefield, 2005
Teaching Against Global Capitalism, Peter McLaren, Rowman and Littlefield, 2005
Buenos Aires Herald, 2009
Pagina 12, Argentina, 2009
Paseante Extranerjero, Argentina, 2009
Raw Guide, Argentina, 2009
THE Magazine, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2004, 2003, 1999
Santa Fean Magazine, 2009, 2007, 2004, 2003
Welt der Frau Magazine, Austria, 2008
Washington Post, 2007
Tele Sur, 2007
Pacifica Radio, 2007
Bottom Line, 2006
Malibu Magazine, 2005
Art News, 2004
Atomica, 2004
American Style Magazine, 2003
Utne Reader, 2002
National Public Radio, 2002, 2000
New Mexico Magazine, 2002
Su Casa Magazine, 2001
Selected Collections
Bernardo Bertolucci
Sherilynn Bevel
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Embassy
Lisa Bonet
President Hugo Chavez
John Cusack
Joan Cusack
Whoopi Goldberg
Mr. & Mrs. Mel Gibson
Linda Hamilton
Coretta Scott King
Julia Roberts
Mr. & Mrs. Carlos Santana
Martin Sheen
Dean Stockwell
Town of Taos Hall