Artist in Residence

The Institute for Art, Religion, and Social Justice announces
Carlos Motta as artist in residence for Spring 2013.

The Institute for Art, Religion, and Social Justice has invited artist Carlos Motta as an artist-in-residence for the spring semester.

Carlos Motta is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work draws upon political history in an attempt to suggest counter narratives that recognize the inclusion of suppressed histories, communities, and identities.

Motta’s work has been presented internationally in venues such as The New Museum, The Guggenheim Museum and MoMA/PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Museo de Arte del Banco de la República, Bogotá; Serralves Museum, Porto; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens; CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson; San Francisco Art Institute and Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin; among many others.

Motta is currently organizing a symposium and performance (with Matthias Sperling) co-commissioned by Electra and Tate Modern Film, which will premiere on February 2013 at Tate Modern’s The Tanks in London. He is also preparing a Façade Project for the Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros in Mexico City in the spring 2013 and a solo exhibition at Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon in May 2013.

Motta is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program, he was named a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow in 2008 and received grants from Art Matters in 2008, NYSCA in 2010 and the Creative Capital Foundation in 2012. He was recently  awarded the "Makers Muse Award" from the Kindle Project.

Motta is part of the faculty at Parsons The New School of Design, The School of Visual Arts, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College, the International Center of Photography and The Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Artist’s Statement about Institute Residency

“I have been studying texts and speeches by Spanish and Portuguese priests from the 15th century who attempted to protect indigenous populations from the destructive forces of the Spanish and Portuguese Crowns in complicity with the Catholic Church (de las Casas, Montesinos, Vieira...) I am interested in investigating how these priests may have influenced liberation theologians and how their discourse is an early example of progressive politics concerned with social justice. I'd be interested in researching that time period (the Conquest) to produce a video work that reflects on these issues. Access to Union's library and Professors would be very valuable. In addition, I will be convening a one-day symposium in the late spring with theologians, artists, academicians, and others to discuss queer and feminist theologies.”

Inquiries or comments should be addressed to Kathryn Reklis, Co-Director of the Institute for Art, Religion, and Social Justice at kathryn.reklis@gmail.com. 

Photos:  Top left, video still from 'Deus Pobre: Modern Sermons of Communal Lament,' 2011; bottom right, Carlos Motta, photo by Ben Leon, 2012