Sacrum
January 19 — February 11, 2023
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Poetry Reading by Emelihter Kihleng - during the opening reception on January 19
Potluck - January 26 at 6pm
Curatorial Talk with Jenny Nagashima - February 2, from 6:30-7:30pm
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Rough Gems is Union Hall’s annual open call and collaborative curatorial program. Each year we select three teams to showcase a pop-up exhibition in our gallery. Sacrum is the first exhibition in the 2023 Rough Gems series. With Rough Gems, Union Hall hopes to impact the lives of emerging artists and curators with a platform for exhibition that is inclusive, supportive, and committed to the artists we serve by paying them for exhibitions and performances.
Curated by Jenny Nagashima, Sacrum unravels the layers of intimacy surrounding the universal yet unnamable sensations experienced in the womb and the complications that arise in the pursuit of recreating those feelings in our daily lives.
About the Artists + Curator
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Ariella Asher
(she/her) A diverse mosaic-like identity can be seen in her work. With an American mother, and Iraqi-Jewish father who immigrated from Jerusalem, Israel/Palestine, much of Ariella’s work touches on Post/Neo-Colonial theory, globalization, pop culture, isolationism, art history, and various other Contemporary social topics. Currently, Ariella is working on a series of larger-than-life ‘Photomosaics’, where thousands of small images come together to create one giant picture.
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Emily Zeek
(she/her) is a transmedia artist working across the mediums of sculpture, photography, performance and writing. A recent graduate of University of Colorado, Denver, in Transmedia Sculpture, Emily also has a BS in Engineering Physics from the Colorado School of Mines. Sculpturally, Emily's processes include oxyacetylene bending and welding steel metal rods into a variety of configurations that fit a conceptual narrative around diversity, feminism and existentialism.
Her work can be seen on the Auraria Campus and has been shown at Emmanuel Gallery, Edge Gallery, Pirate Contemporary Art, and most recently at the Tactile Arts Exhibition at the Colorado Gallery of the Arts. A winner of the Chalk Art Photography Contest, she has performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and independent venues around Denver.
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Jenna Annunziato
(she/her) is an oil painter based in Denver, Colorado. Since receiving a BFA in Painting and Drawing from SUNY New Paltz, NY, she has shown work in selected galleries across the Hudson Valley and Denver, Colorado. Notable exhibitions include Hudson Valley New Folk curated by Anna Conlan at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, and the Kingston Annual showcase of Hudson Valley artists at the Kingston Art Society, both in 2020. In Colorado, she has had a number of solo exhibitions including Forest of the Forgotten at Bell Projects in the Rino Arts District, and Transitions at the Foothills Art Center in Golden, CO. In 2023, she will participate in her first residency with Mission Street Arts in Jimenez Springs, NM. She is currently a member of Redline Contemporary Art Center's satellite studio program and works out of the Evans School in the Golden Triangle in Denver.
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Jess Díaz
(she/her) is a graphic designer and mixed-media visual artist who moved to Denver in 2016 from Chattanooga, TN. She graduated from CU Denver with a BFA in Digital Design in 2020 and has been using human-centered design principles to guide her creative practice since. Her artwork has been exhibited in several locations around the Auraria Campus between 2019-2020. She interned at the Emmanuel Gallery during her final semester at CU where she curated a group exhibition surrounding representations of intersectional sustainability. As a freelance designer she has created websites and brand graphics for several Southwestern U.S. nonprofits and small businesses. Jess has been the Gallery & Marketing Manager of Union Hall since January 2021.
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Kimberley Bianca
(she/her) is an Australian media artist, designer and community organizer. Bianca is a PhD candidate in Critical Media Practices at CU Boulder where she is doing design research on platforms for DIY citizenship. Bianca has been making interactive art and video projections with grassroots initiatives in Australia, across Europe, and the US since 2010. Bianca is currently focussed on making media art and contributing to citizen science to generate dialogue on environmental issues, create spaces for alternate modes of media-making, and to reflect on our connection to ecosystems.
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Summer Jean King
(she/they) is a mixed media artist working in painting, found object sculpture, installation, and video art. Her work explores themes of domesticity, feminism, and nostalgia. Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, King earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Practices degree from the University of Colorado Denver. King has had work displayed in a public art installation on Auraria campus, and in a juried show at the Emmanuel gallery, as well as at Pirate Contemporary Art.
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Jenny Nagashima
CURATOR
(she/her) In her time served as director of Visions West Contemporary in Livingston, MT, Jenny featured site-specific exhibitions addressing topics unique to the American West. Her curatorial vision seeks to provide counter narratives to hegemonic cultural philosophies that have shaped our perception of humanity. She aims to compassionately unravel the threads of inequity that pervades contemporary society.