Materials For The Arts Hosts Artist Talk For FEARED & REVERED By Nicole Awai

Materials for the Arts will present an artist talk for Feared & Revered, a solo exhibition of multi-media works by MFTA Artist-in-Residence Nicole Awai on Wednesday, September 14, 2022 at 6:30pm.

As part of the reception, MFTA Gallery Director John Cloud Kaiser will host a conversation with Awai, exploring her experience working in MFTA's 35,000-square-foot warehouse of supplies and her artistic practice. Kaiser calls Feared & Revered a "delicate and dynamic poetry of materials," as Awai's works were crafted from an array of repurposed materials, including vintage frames, plexiglass, fabric, beads, buttons, acrylic paints, decorative ironwork, photo filter film, and repurposed photographs.

"Feared & Revered" is Awai's exploration of a powerful female Caribbean folklore entity - Soucouyant, who at night sheds her skin and transforms into a blood-sucking ball of fire. Amazed by the force of this figure since she was a little girl, Awai is inspired to examine the historical and yet ongoing suppression, distortion, and commodification of the people and culture of African descent, and particularly the resistance of women in the Americas. These works are the artist's meditation and visualization on this mythical being's state and stages of transformation through a process of abstraction. Feared & Revered opened on June 30, 2022 and is on view at the Materials for the Arts Gallery through October 20, 2022.

Artist Talk & Reception
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
6:30pm - 8:30pm (The artist talk will begin at 7:00pm.)

Materials for the Arts
33-00 Northern Blvd, 3rd Floor
Long Island City, NY 11101

RSVP: https://www.materialsforthearts.org/events/artist-talk-and-closing-reception-feared-revered-by-nicole-awai/