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Draft:Shoshanna Weinberger

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Shoshanna Weinberger is a Caribbean-American artist.

She has a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago (1995) and, 2003, an MFA from Yale School of Art (painting/printmaking). Sources: Bio and Yale Bulletin https://bulletin.yale.edu/sites/default/files/art-2002-2003.pdf In 2022, an exhibit and book, by Bonnie Clearwater, critiqued the lack of diversity in Yale's art program by featuring its graduates, including Weinberger, and their efforts to change the school.[1]

Her art deals with identity issues. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, she states: "“When I’m in Jamaica I’m not Jamaican enough, and when I’m in America I get exoticized. So there’s this constant peripheral identity. People don’t necessarily know what I am. If I don’t look Jamaican, then what are Jamaicans supposed to look like?”[2]

She has described herself as a "visual anthropologist" who pays attention to the "awkwardness of identity."[2]

Early years

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Weinberger's mother was an artist and her father a craftsman. After Jamaica, she lived in Montclair NJ, Brooklyn, and since 2006, in Newark.[2] 2006 confirmed here: https://shoshanna.info/?page_id=30

Exhibits

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In 2007, her exhibit "Zulu Jew" was shown at the Spertus Museum in Chicago.[3] Seven years later, she had another exhibit in Chicago, Potbelly Pin-Ups: Out of Many One. It played humorously with its social critique, as with pieces named “Muffin Top Banana Bottoms “ and "32AAA,” a reference to her mother's bra size.” This shown riffed off of pin-up models, but with multiple breasts, excess flesh, and, as one reviewer said, women who were "frightening and grotesque and desirable all at once, and that’s the point." [3]

Her 2018 exhibit, “Invisible fruit: stories of camouflage from the periphery” was intended to convey "invisible blackness and racial ambiguity."[2] The pieces show abstractions of women, outlined with African and Afro-Carribbean hairstyles. Weinberger's art is said to reveal women's experiences as well as their objectification. This exhibit also drew upon the ideas of Franz Fanon, while a series of images, evoking high school yearbooks, reflect "variations on the artist’s own American, Jewish and Jamaican identity." [4] (Note: Author per artist website.)

Her 2021 installation, Fragments of Perception, was created from laser-cut acrylic pieces, with mirrors on both sides, that from a distance look like plants with bright leaves but "upon closer inspection, also resemble stilettos — a nod to the “Strangefruit” female figure that recurs throughout the artist’s work." As such, it created an understated allusion to the author's personal history and identity.[5]

Reception

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Awards

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Carol Schlosberg Memorial Prize, 2003. https://bulletin.yale.edu/sites/default/files/art-2004-2005.pdf

Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, 2014. https://bulletin.yale.edu/sites/default/files/art-2015-2016.pdf

New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship, 2015. https://bulletin.yale.edu/sites/default/files/art-2016-2017.pdf

Dawn Scott Memorial Award, 2019, selected by Edward M. Gómez (art critic).[6]

Fellowship

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Jamaica Art Society, 2022. https://www.jamaicaartsociety.com/2022-in-focus-fellows


Dempster, Heike: Emerging… Shoshanna Weinberger, wonderlandmagazine.com, June 13, 2012

Arroyo, Eddie: Shoshanna Weinberger: Carol Jazzar, artisabout.com, April 30, 2012

Coussonnet, Clelia: 1st BIAC Martinique: Exclusive Interview of Shoshanna Weinberger, Jamaican-American artist, Uprising News Contemporary Caribbean Art, Dec. 7, 2013

References

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  1. ^ Reynolds, Emma (2023-03-27). "This New Book Profiles a Generation of BIPOC Artists Who've Shaped Contemporary Art". Robb Report. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
  2. ^ a b c d Anania, Billy. "Newark artist showing 'Strangefruit' at New Jersey City University". Asbury Park Press. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
  3. ^ a b Foumberg, Jason (May 29, 2014). "Artist to Watch: Shoshanna Weinberger". Chicago Magazine. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
  4. ^ Lambert, Audra (2018-05-10). "Raise Your Voice: In Praise of Artist Shoshanna Weinberger". ANTE arts magazine. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
  5. ^ Bury, Louis (2021-06-05). "Ecological Art Infused by Memoir and Identity". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
  6. ^ "Announcement: NGJ Summer Exhibition 2019 Recipients of the Dawn Scott Memorial Award". National Gallery of Jamaica. 2019-07-30. Retrieved 2024-10-15.





References

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