Juanli Carrion

Vaimoana Esculenta, 2015

Color pencil on paper

Edition: 1/1 + AP

54 x 32"

Value: $2500

This series of drawings connect with the public art installation comissioned by NYC Parks Outer Seed Shadow #01, which used Manhattan's immigration and geographical shape as geopolitical parameters to create the garden. The collection of 35 hand made drawings question the text of the USA Immigration and Nationality Act by coloring individually its 148,123 characters to create botanical illustrations of the thirty five plants selected by the immigrants interviewed for the creation of the garden.

*This piece will be available for fair market value.

Artist Bio:

Juanli Carrión is an artist, researcher and activist whose work over the past decade has unfolded in the research, development and education of community engaged artistic practices focused on social and environmental justice. Through participatory and collaborative processes, his artistic practice responds to the social, political and cultural history of the places where he works. He is currently expanding his practice beyond the art realm to work that becomes policies, non-profit organizations, associations, groups, or other sustainable social or political structures with the aim of translating the results into artistic, pedagogical and community strategies.

In 2017 he founded OSS Project Inc. a non-profit organization whose mission is to connect communities with artists to create gardens as places to empower, celebrate and reclaim identity and knowledge, using urban farming, storytelling, educational programming and community building as means to dismantle systemic and structural issues of social inequity.
His work has been exhibited in venues such as the Art Institute of Chicago, Art in General, Abrons Arts Center, BRIC, Y Gallery or BAM in the US; ARTIUM, La Casa Encendida, La Panera Art Center, MUSAC, or CentroCentro in Spain; Ex-Teresa Museum and MUPO in Mexico; Museum of Contemporary Art in Peru or National Gallery of Modern Art in India among others.

Carrión is a faculty member at The New School, where he teaches Sustainable Design and Creative Community Development. His work and research have been presented publicly at Columbia University, Open Engagement at Carnegie Mellon University, SVA, Pratt Institute, SUNY, NYU, AIA New York, Fordham Graduate School for Social Service, National Academy of Sciences, Wavehill and Apexart.