IMMIGRATION IS THE NATION

Ridgewood, New York - From visual artists, to performers, designers, and filmmakers; foreign-born artists and creative professionals constitute an essential component of the fabric of American culture. Since World War II, the United States (especially cities like New York) has become a hub for foreign artists. Painters like Piet Mondrian, designers like Oscar de la Renta, or musicians like David Bowie, among thousand of other well-known artists, chose to make the U.S. their home.

“The United States is a country of immigrants and immigrant artists have made, and continue making, a great contribution to the diversity in the arts and culture of America. This exhibition aims to give a little insight of the vast diversity of nationalities, cultures, and disciplines that compose immigrant art and creativity currently being made in U.S.,” says Kika Espejo, director of Cargo Project Gallery (CPG), an artist-run art space located on the border of Bushwick and Ridgewood.

Cargo Project Gallery opened its doors in July of 2019 to give space to underexposed and underrepresented artists in the New York art and creative scene. “We wanted to create a space to exhibit not only visual arts but also other kinds of creative practices that are less likely to be seen on a wall. Our intention is to show work that engages on personal, political, social, or environmental commentaries; that transcend a mere aesthetic purpose and look to change, or at least bring awareness about, what it means to be living in this very moment in history.” 

The show is sponsored by The Espejo Organization for the Arts (EOarts) and Us for the Arts (UsArts), both New York-based arts management organizations that give support to international artists and creative professionals. “It is important to understand the value of diversity. The incredible things that happen, especially to art, when different cultures and backgrounds meet: They create hybrids and crossbreed to give birth to multilayered and rich new meanings in art. That is why we need to support immigrant artists. They hold keys to great new visions.“ says Unue Perez, director of UsArts.

The exhibition will present works of immigrant artists and creative professionals that currently live and work in the US, including Amaia Marzabal (Spain), Hera Haesoo Kim (South Korea), Kuldeep Singh (India), Maksym Kazarin (Ukraine), Gaspar Marquez (Mexico), Aida Miro (Spain), Erica Reade (Canada), Mensur Bojda (North Macedonia), Hadieh Afshani (Iran/Australia), Aline Decat (Belgium), Natalie Burlustkaya (Russia), Naoshi (Japan), Eliza Hatch (UK), Izabella Demavlys (Sweden), Elham Azar (Iran), Subin Yang (South Korea), Rosie Chococake (Argentina), Nutthawut Siridejchai (Thailand), Iris Lei (China), Till Lauer (Switzerland), Niege Borges (Brazil), Sena Kwon (South Korea), Sarah Esmoingt (France), Shuya Iida (Japan), Penny Chu (Hong Kong), and Joseph Chun (South Korea).

“We are looking forward to [getting] people to visit and hopefully buy some of the pieces to support immigrant artists and creators.” says Perez. “For each piece sold, 20% of the profits will be donated to the International Rescue Committee that is currently developing programs to help migrant children and their families at the US border.”