September 2019
Creators often work in silos, which can have a twofold effect on their practice: On the one hand, they’re able to refine their message undiluted by a broad public opinion; on the other hand, the process can be lonely, riddled with self-doubt and an inability to see the larger context of their work. The September cohort of artists - Sebastian Villamil and Chemu Ng’ok - had the unusual benefit of sharing the residency with an independent curator, Leslie Moody Castro. The pairing inevitably allowed these artists, both at important inflection points in their careers, to consider how they might enter into the art world from a place of empowerment.
“It’s always been a very valuable experience for curators and artists to take part in a residency together,” notes Fountainhead director Kathryn Mikesell.
“I realized there was a lot I didn’t know,” notes Ng’ok, who joined the residency from Kenya. “By speaking with Leslie, I got a better sense of how curators wish to stay in contact, and understanding her process helped me reconsider how I might engage with curators and gallerists alike.”
During their time at the residency, the artists expanded new and existing projects while emphasizing their ability to make lasting connections with Miami’s art scene. “For me, I saw Miami as a really strategic place from which to think about the direction of my work, but ultimately the networking I was able to carry out was also incredibly important for my growth as an artist,” says Villamil.
Benefitting from their close encounter, the September cohort informed one another’s trajectory while establishing a friendship that brought the many facets of the art world closer together.
Sebastián Villamil
Sebastián Villamil scours the world of digital and physical marketplaces in search of unique objects that act as both muses and material extensions of his work. His art draws inspiration from a never-ending inventory of pirated and inauthentic objects. Distorted Disney princesses, inflatable plastic animals, fake flowers and plants, black market clothing, postcards and pop culture memorabilia reflect a world of endless stimuli and an overabundance of superficial visual information and imagery.
Through photography, drawing, and video installation, Villamil builds a visual language that re-contextualizes the imagery and questions the messaging of his found objects. With a tangible sense of humor and a playful aesthetic, he examines the ways in which imagery undergoes a metamorphosis of translation, re-interpretation, and appropriation once they have exited their cultural origins. His work acts as a mirror, reflecting the artificial world of modern consumption, the disconnect between recreations and the images and environments they are meant to reflect, and the aesthetics and ethics that the market injects into these objects, asking his viewers to question the culture of consumption that we all live in.
Miami proved an interesting entry point from which Villamil could consider his work. “On a surface level, people think of Miami as a consumerist place, where the culture is all about shopping,” he says. “The first look is always about this superficiality, but in reality Miami has a lot of culture -- it’s just not what the tourism industry sells you here.”
While at the Fountainhead, Villamil created a series of installation and digital works, building upon the city’s relationship to tourism by drawing a connection between the objects and the way the city is presented. Finding playing cards and plastic souvenirs decorated with images of seaside objects, Villamil was intrigued by how plastic products represent nature to a broad set of travelers.
Back in his native Bogotá, Colombia, he is the co-founder of the art collective Villamil & Villamil, which he runs alongside his brother Felipe, and a member of the artist-run studio space, MIAMI.
Chemu Ng’ok
Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Ng’ok currently resides in her hometown, but previously lived in South Africa, where she received her Master’s in Painting at the Rhodes University in the city of Makhanda. Driven by a pursuit towards knowledge and self-reflection, Chemu Ng’ok uses her paintbrush to better understand the human psyche and the dichotomies that exist within our humanity and the societal structures we live within.
“It gives me freedom because there’s a lot I can do with paint,” she says. “In my paintings, I can take a close look at relationships - those that are public and private, or exist between genders, or even the relationship one has to their own body.”
Ng’ok pushes herself into her own frame, examining the intersectionality of her existence. Her work philosophizes on the paradox of the conflict between being the self and the ‘other,’ examining how human relationships inherently creates this paradigm. Among other topics, she explores the confines of the patriarchy and the role of women as well as the structures of a post-colonial, post-apartheid society. She examines the power dynamics of the interpersonal and the political. Her work ultimately contemplates the riots that live within us. Working without sketches, she places her brush directly to the canvas and paints images that represent a controlled chaos.
Through her studies of the human form, and insightful use of color and shape, her work is energetic, tactile and full of loud, visceral movement, allowing her viewers to question both the physical and metaphysical structures that confine us and rebuild our understandings of them. In Miami, Ng’ok pushed deeper into this realm, continuing to work in her characteristic process format - Ng’ok never sketches her paintings before she brings the brush to the canvas, preferring instead a more process-driven practice.
Leslie Moody Castro
As a curator, Leslie Moody Castro is interested in communicating with her viewers. She believes that the ultimate goal of an exhibition is to reach out to the audience in a way that can potentially alter their perception around a singular topic or theme. “I try and find moments that can trigger communication among my audience,” says Castro, who works independently and splits her time between Mexico City and Austin.
Curators do attend Fountainhead from time to time, and the experience is often most illuminating for the artists -- most of whom capitalize on the intimacy of their quarters to glean insights on what drives curatorial perspectives.
“I tried to demystify my process as a curator, because I don’t want to be inaccessible,” says Castro. “Talking with artists and doing studio visits is really important. I always tells people that, just like artists, curators have their methods, process and research. At the residency, we would come home every evening and sit with a gin and tonic, and talk about the art scene.”
During her time in Miami, Castro conducted dozens of studio visits, hoping to launch an exhibition in the future. Following her notion that Miami is unique because it inherently functions as a border town -- a point of entry for hundreds of cultures and experiences that can be communicated through the type of work being made locally - Castro hopes to present Miami’s thriving art community in an exhibition here in the city. “Fountainhead Residency was there to connect me in ways that are healthy and allowed me to come back home and reflect on what a positive exhibition can look like,” says Castro. She credits the residency’s singular ability to act as facilitator among artists, curators and gallerists. “I got a real sense of what the community looks like, which is important for me to present,” she says.
