Past Residents
Past Resident2012: Canada Council for the Arts
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay’s artistic work articulates itself chiefly through videos that combine singing, song lyrics and self-reflexive performance to contemplate the singing voice and the history of song, the rendering of love and emotion into words and the ways emotional expression is influenced by technology and popular culture. In recent years, his work has shifted focus towards the exploration of wordless, vocal calls and the vast possibilities of what vocal sounds can signify. Ramsay has also focused a renewed approach to the use and reinterpretation of found sonic and visual material, moving away from the banal discourses of pop music to the visionary wisdom of elders.
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay (born 1973, Montréal, Canada) is an artist and diarist. His work in video, sound, print and textile has exhibited across Canada, Europe and Asia, garnering prizes in festivals in Germany, Portugal, Poland and Canada. His work is represented in numerous private collections as well as the National Gallery of Canada.
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, Mayday, 2007, Choreography for solo dancer and video projection, 5 min. Courtesy of the artist.
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, The Burden, 2010, Sound with variable arrangement of mirrors, 7 min. Courtesy of the artist.
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, How Dare You Speak To Me This Way, 2010, Silk Habotai, 6 ft.
Residents from Canada
Past Resident2012: ACC - Asian Cultural Council
Mu Li
Mu Li works with video, photography, installation and performance art. His work transcends the boundaries of the artist by broadening his personal understanding of art through the works themselves. Everyday life also plays an important role in Li’s work, in which a relationship between the environment, the general public, and the artist is established. Often, the boundaries between art and life are questioned by the artist’s personal experiences portrayed in his work.
Mu Li (born 1974, Feng County, Jiangsu Province, China) lives and works in Shanghai. He graduated from the Suzhou School of Art and Design, Suzhou, 1995 and the Academy of Art of Tsinghua University, Beijing, 2001.
Events & Exhibitions
The Power to Host
June 15–July 29, 2011
Mu Li, Blued Books, 2008-2009, Photography, video, drawing, installations, and text. Courtesy of the artist.
Mu Li, New Job, 2010, Contract, photography, and interview. Courtesy of the artist.
Mu Li, Present, 2009, Photography, video, sound, and letters. Courtesy of the artist.
Mu Li, My Questions, 2010, Installation, video, and interviews. Courtesy of the artist.
Mu Li, Unfamiliar, 2009, Video installation. Courtesy of the artist.
Residents from China
Alchemyverse
Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Alice and Lawrence Weiner, New York City Council District 34, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Hartfield Foundation, Danna and Ed Ruscha, The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation
2023
Past Resident2012: The New York Community Trust’s Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund
Hector Arce-Espasas
Hector Arce-Espasas uses images that are inherent to the geographic and cultural milieu of the tropics. He appropriates and transfigures some of these images in order to transgress their current symbolic meaning in a sensuous play of conflicting alliances. The images lure and repel while playing with the idea of the pineapple as the easily attainable commercial fruit of ‘tropical paradise’.
Hector Arce-Espasas (born 1982, San Juan, Puerto Rico) completed an MFA at Hunter College, 2011. Following this, Arce-Espasas was nominated for the Rema Hort Mann Foundation. He has also participated in various exhibitions including the Swiss Institute’s Dark Fair, Museu da Cidade, Lisbon; Marvelli Gallery, New York; Contemporary Art Society; London; The Green Gallery, Milwaukee; and University Galleries at Illinois State University.
Hector Arce-Espasas, Welcome To Paradise, 2011, Mixed media, Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.
Hector Arce-Espasas, Pineapple Ewer, 2011, Ceramic with palladium glaze, Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.
Hector Arce-Espasas, P.D. Come Fly With Me, 2011, Inkjet on fabric and wood, 79 × 108 in. (200.66 × 274.32 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Hector Arce-Espasas, P.D. Come Fly With Me, 2011, Inkjet on fabric and wood, 79 × 108 in. (200.66 × 274.32 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Hector Arce-Espasas, Sheltering Sky, 2009, Fabric, mattress and acrylic on canvas, 60 × 72 × 40 in. (152.4 × 182.88 × 101.6 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
