The Immigrant Artist Biennial Announces 48 Artists to Participate in ‘23 “Contact Zone”

Erika DeFreitas. Her body is full of light (often, very often, and in floods). 04:22 minutes single-channel video. 2016. Image courtesy of the artist and Christie Contemporary.

By CLARE GEMIMA, July 2023

The Immigrant Artist Biennial 2023: Contact Zone running September - December this year, will present the work of 48 immigrant artists, set to be displayed across seven venues throughout New York and New Jersey. With a special highlight on DACA recipients and undocumented artists including United States-based and international immigrants, artists living in exile, and second generation diasporic artists, The Immigrant Artist Biennial 2023 is set to celebrate some of the most under-represented artist communities in the world. Curated by the artist-curator Bianca Abdi-Boragi, curator Katherine Adams, currently at EMPAC, and independent curator and design historian Anna Mikaela Ekstrand, this year’s selected artists reign from over 35 countries across the globe.

With a considerable amount of unspoken, misconstrued, and stereotypical obstacles faced by immigrant artist communities from every corner of the world, TIAB 2023’s programming explores how storytelling, embodied memory, and projections of diasporic futures can be strategies for navigating conflict, and straddling different political terrains from an international perspective. With intentions to leverage immigrant voices in order to build solidarity and share important knowledge across all communities, the biennial will present Contact Zones: a collective of exhibitions showing painting, sculpture, video, and photography, Field Work: a programmed series of panel discussions, Arena: where performances and screenings will take place, and a Field Guide catalog, which will include essays by Thomas Keenan, Professor of Comparative Literature; Director, Human Rights Program at Bard College and Valeria Schiller, a Berlin-based Ukrainian curator and art historian, among others.   

Slinko. Everything Must Go, 2019-present. 4K video and sound. Courtesy of The Immigrant Artist Biennial and the artist.

Whitehot is lucky to officially announce The Immigrant Artist Biennial 2023’s artists, congratulations to the following artists:

Erika DeFreitas, Pritika Chowdhry, Neema Githere, Maria Kulikovska, Rafael Yaluff, Golnar Adili, Keli Safia Maksud, Mila Panic, Jovencio de la Paz, Marcelo Brodsky, Young Joo Lee, Slinko, Emilio Rojas, Kathie Halfin, Francesco Simeti, Carlos Franco, Masha Vlasova, Umber Majeed, Keren Anavy, Sanié Bokharie, Sa’dia Rehman, Magdalena Dukiewicz, Jonathan Ojekunle, Bonam Kim, Mia Enell, Coralina Rodriguez-Meyer, Ala Dehghan, Felipe Baeza, Alexander Si, Nida Sinnokrot, Raul de Lara, Joiri Minaya, Selva Aparicio, Lilian Shtereva, Nyugen Smith, Anina Major, Tariku Shiferaw, Dominique Duroseau, Anna Ting Möller, Linnéa Gad, Maya Hayuk, Leila Seyedzadeh, Nicholas Oh & Ayoung, Justine Yu, Jamie Martinez, Juna Skënderi, Christopher Unpezverde Núñez, and Ana Armengod.  

The Immigrant Artist Biennial 2023’s group exhibitions and public programming will take place at EFA Project Space, NARS Foundation, Accent Sisters, and Alchemy Gallery. 

Solo presentations will take place at the Artists Alliance and Accent Sisters. Public programs will take place at Brooklyn Museum and Wendy's Subway. The artist-run blogazine Artspiel will return as the TIAB’s media partner, alongside Cultbytes who is partnering for the first time.  

The Immigrant Artist Biennial 2023: Contact Zone is supported by Brooklyn Arts Council, American Immigration Council, Define American, The Immigrant Artist Biennial’s Patron Circle, host partners, and through donations with fiscal sponsorship from New York Foundation for the Arts.

Stay tuned for further information including dates, events, programming schedules, and artist highlights with Clare Gemima as they announce more exciting news in the lead up to The Immigrant Artist Biennial 2023: Contact Zone. WM