Patricia Miranda

Patricia Miranda, Dreaming Awake, 2020, nightdress, cochineal dyes, plaster,

2020

Patricia Miranda's work includes interdisciplinary installation, textile, paper and books. The textiles incorporated in these new pieces are vintage linens from her Italian and Irish grandmothers and sourced from friends and strangers around the country. Each donation is documented and integrated into the work. Textile as a form that wraps the body from cradle to grave. The role of lacemaking in the lives of women both economically and historically is packed with metaphorical potential. The relationship of craft and women’s work (re)appropriated by artists today to environmental and social issues is integral to the artist's research. Her work is process oriented; materials are submerged in natural dyes from oak gall wasp nests, cochineal insects, turmeric, indigo, and clay. She forages for raw materials, cook dyes, grind pigments, ecofeminist actions that consider environmental impacts of objects. The process is left visible as dyestuff is unfiltered in the vat and finished work. Sewn into larger works, Miranda incorporates hair, pearls, bone beads, Milagros, cast plaster. The distinct genetics and environmental and cultural history of each material asserts its voice as collaborator rather than medium. The lace inserts a visceral femininity into the pristine gallery, and exerts a ghostly trace of the history of domestic labor. The combination of earth and lace references human and environmental devastation and the conflation of nature and women’s bodies as justifications for exploitation. Mournful and solastalgic, they are lamentations to the violence against women and the earth. Patricia Miranda is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, educator, and founder of The Crit Lab, graduate-level critique seminars and Residency for artists, and MAPSpace project space. She has been Visiting Artist at Vermont Studio Center, the Heckscher Museum, and University of Utah; and been awarded residencies at I-Park, Weir Farm, Vermont Studio Center, and Julio Valdez Printmaking Studio. She received an Anonymous Was a Woman Covid19 Artist Relief Grant, an artist grant from ArtsWestchester/New York State Council on the Arts, and was part of a year-long NEA grant working with homeless youth. Miranda currently teaches graduate curatorial studies at Western Colorado University, and develops programs for K-12, museums, and institutions such as Franklin Furnace. Her work has been exhibited at ODETTA, NYC; ABC No Rio, NYC; Alexey von...

Patricia Miranda's work includes interdisciplinary installation, textile, paper and books. The textiles incorporated in these new pieces are vintage linens from her Italian and Irish grandmothers and sourced from friends and strangers around the country. Each donation is documented and integrated into the work. Textile as a form that wraps the body from cradle to grave. The role of lacemaking in the lives of women both economically and historically is packed with metaphorical potential. The relationship of craft and women’s work (re)appropriated by artists today to environmental and social issues is integral to the artist's research. Her work is process oriented; materials are submerged in natural dyes from oak gall wasp nests, cochineal insects, turmeric, indigo, and clay. She forages for raw materials, cook dyes, grind pigments, ecofeminist actions that consider environmental impacts of objects. The process is left visible as dyestuff is unfiltered in the vat and finished work. Sewn into larger works, Miranda incorporates hair, pearls, bone beads, Milagros, cast plaster. The distinct genetics and environmental and cultural history of each material asserts its voice as collaborator rather than medium. The lace inserts a visceral femininity into the pristine gallery, and exerts a ghostly trace of the history of domestic labor. The combination of earth and lace references human and environmental devastation and the conflation of nature and women’s bodies as justifications for exploitation. Mournful and solastalgic, they are lamentations to the violence against women and the earth. Patricia Miranda is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, educator, and founder of The Crit Lab, graduate-level critique seminars and Residency for artists, and MAPSpace project space. She has been Visiting Artist at Vermont Studio Center, the Heckscher Museum, and University of Utah; and been awarded residencies at I-Park, Weir Farm, Vermont Studio Center, and Julio Valdez Printmaking Studio. She received an Anonymous Was a Woman Covid19 Artist Relief Grant, an artist grant from ArtsWestchester/New York State Council on the Arts, and was part of a year-long NEA grant working with homeless youth. Miranda currently teaches graduate curatorial studies at Western Colorado University, and develops programs for K-12, museums, and institutions such as Franklin Furnace. Her work has been exhibited at ODETTA, NYC; ABC No Rio, NYC; Alexey von...

"Sweet Dreams" mixed media, 68 1/2 x 24 1/4 x 8, 2012. This mixed media textile wall sculpture was done by American fiber artist, Norma Minkowitz (b....

The artist says of her work... Arrested Symphony is an exhibition incorporating sculptures, reliefs, drawings and hanging works that explore the theme of injustice that is at the roots of the predatory gem and mineral excavation industry. While at a residency in Knoxville, Tennessee, I discovered that Oakridge was only 30 miles away. Oakridge played a key role in the development of the Atom Bomb and the Manhattan Project. I began an exploration and comparison of Uranium and Emeralds. These minerals look very much alike, beautiful but dangerous on their effect on civil conflict. Colombia my birthplace, has the finest Emeralds in the world. The mining of Emeralds was an important element in the continued colonization of the region. Emeralds have helped to fund the more than 60-year conflict which has taken over 450,000 lives and displaced about 5.7 million people. Uranium has brought destruction to a level which altered the future of warfare. The developments made during the Manhattan Project led to the death of about 700,000 people and its effects are still felt around the world. I use Colombia as an example, however this situation is repeating itself in many parts of the world. Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo are all involved in brutal civil conflicts fueled by Blood Diamonds. This project will make visual the human cost extracted with these minerals, once exposed to the light of day they can never be unearthed. My practice is an ongoing object-based exploration through which I create artworks which are organic and improvisational constructions that are infused with hope and renewal. The hand-crafted artworks are poetically and intricately crafted, creating an intimate repository for the individual and collective memory and implement the human body as a symbol and expression of nature, vulnerability and power. The work encourages viewers to reconsider social and historical narratives especially when dealing with the aftermath of Colonialism and raises critical questions about the politics of erasure and exclusion. ESPERANZA CORTÉS is a Colombian born contemporary multidisciplinary artist based in New York City. Cortés has exhibited in the United States in solo and group exhibitions in venues including Smack Mellon Gallery, Neuberger Museum of Art, Bronx Museum of Art, Queens Museum, El Museo Del Barrio, MoMA PS1, Socrates Sculpture Park and White-box Gallery in New York City. Nationally Cortes exhibitions include Cleveland Art Museum, OH, CSU Galleries at Cleveland University, OH, Helen Day Art Center, VT and The Lorenzo Homar...