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Art Exhibit: “On Immigration and Labor’
September 4, 2022 – December 31, 2022 EDT
American Labor Museum
83 Norwood Street
Haledon, New Jersey 07508
On Immigration and Labor features original contemporary mixed technique artworks by robin holder. robin holder is a recipient of a Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation: Artist as Catalyst Grant. Her artwork is in the collections of the Library of Congress and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
About the Immigration artworks, robin holder observes “I was able to reflect upon the question : “What is An American?” while developing Behind Each Window, A Voice. This series was initiated when I received a Brooklyn Arts Council Individual Visual Artist Grant. The project provided an opportunity to interview a number of first and second generation immigrant neighbors from a range of countries: Hungary, Russia, Ecuador, Ireland, Columbia, The African Diaspora and India. I experimented with extended approaches to printmaking. These works were created by collaging of painting, collage and printmaking techniques, photograpahic lithography, Xerox litho, monoprinting with relief inked stencils, photo silkscreen, archival inkjet printing and photo silkscreen. The works feature portraits that highlight diverse experiences and challenges. I use the elements of doors and windows to signify the foundation of identity, home, neighborhood, community and society.”
The Labor artworks feature robin holder’s pandemic First Responders. robin holder explains, “We’re in it together, but COVID-19 impacts Black and Brown communities disproportionately. We depend on our First Responders and Healthcare Workers to keep our society functioning. Yet many of these heroes are people of color, who are not receiving adequate wages, healthcare, child care, benefits of pension plans.” Construction workers are featured in other artworks, created a decade ago, with the expanding definition of “essential workers.” And, Labor Day, from robin holder’s Our Social Skin series, created in the shape of a stockbroker’s vest, is displayed. Our Social Skin is composed of artist books that question assumptions of cultural, social and racial identity as referenced in the ten official holidays of the United States. They reveal historic institutional conflicts of our communal identity.
This program is made possible in part by a grant administered by the Passaic County Cultural and Heritage Council from funds granted by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
On Immigration and Labor exhibit by robin holder will be on view at the Museum through December 31st, 2022.
More information at www.labormuseum.net