Axis 15th National Juried Exhibition – Juror: Marcela Pardo Ariza

Back in early February, I was honored to be invited by the AXIS gallery team as a juror for their 15th National Exhibition. I proposed an exhibition on touch, intimacy and unintentional solitude in a time of oversaturated digital interaction. Our circumstances have drastically shifted; we are in the midst of a massive and poorly managed health crisis and facing historic uprisings against police brutality, needed structural change and Black Liberation. This time makes us reconsider who we are, where we are and how we want to be in relation to ourselves and others. It makes us question how we care for each other, and how to organize collectively to insist on urgent and long overdue individual and systemic changes. We invite you into this space to hold a moment for you to think about how you want to redirect this moment and energy moving forward. What does this collective moment mean to you? How can you empower and uplift others? How should this moment be represented in history?

The artists in the exhibition bring us to some of the places we are currently experiencing physically, emotionally, individually and collectively. We go from touch and intimacy, or lack thereof, reconsiderations of the body in domestic and public spaces. The work of Zachary-Jordan Angeles honors the Black Lives Matter movement and LGBTQAI+ communities, through tender portraits of touch and tenderness. Elizabeth Bennett reminds us of the often unspoken gratitude of daily interactions and moments of care from strangers, this gesture takes particular importance as we honor folks who are doing visible and invisible labor in the front lines. Jennifer Buehner-Varley calls attention to domestic aesthetics and the importance of consent, particularly in a time of ongoing shelter-in-place. Carmel Dor depicts the symbiotic relationship with the natural world through delicate gestures and interaction with other species. Jim Jacobs' work reminds us of the potential of quotidian objects and their anthropomorphic qualities. Robert Nunez’s work reveals our now acute awareness of physical distance between each other. 

There is nostalgia for touch, physical gestures of care, collective spaces and a recognition of our own positionality. With that, this is an invitation to dive into the relatability of some of those feelings and the urgent need for change towards a future that is inclusive and caring of every single body. I am grateful to the artists, as always, for being vulnerable and sharing their work publicly, during this time. We must continue to create, and use these tools to understand even the most unprecedented times. Let’s continue to show up for each other fiercely and sometimes also tenderly. Let’s not ever forget the importance and the politics of care for one another.

By Marcela Pardo Ariza

Marcela Pardo Ariza (b. Bogotá, Colombia) is a visual artist and curator that explores transhistorical and intergenerational kinship, alternate forms of representation through photography and site-specific installations. Marcela has organized public programs and exhibitions at Southern Exposure, CTRL SHFT Collective, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Noroof Gallery, Knockdown Center and Root Division. Ariza is the recipient of the Tosa Studio Award 2017, an Alternative Exposure grant (2019, 2020), a Murphy & Cadogan Contemporary Art Award, a finalist for the 2017 San Francisco Artist Award and an Alternative Exposure grantee (2018, 2019). Ariza holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, is a co-founder of Art Handlxrs and a former member of the Curatorial Council at Southern Exposure.