As the weather gets gloomy, here’s something to look forward to: everything the 2020 Accelerator artists are working on. Including their Accelerator projects. While one is finished installing, most of the 2020 Public Art Accelerator projects are yet to come. We caught up with every member of the cohort — local artists Ang Li, Shaka Dendy, Gabriel Sosa, Yu-Wen Wu, Andrew Mowbray, and Karthik Pandian — to see what they’re up to.
Ang Li
N+T: How’s your Accelerator project going?
Ang: I have been doing some exciting research into sites and materials and looking forward to sharing more on the project soon.
N+T: Anything else you’re working on?
Ang: I am working on developing another site-specific installation in Columbus, Indiana for Exhibit Columbus. The piece will be open this fall and will explore the city’s modernist architectural legacy through questions around maintenance and material shelf lives.
Follow Ang on IG and check out her website.
Gabriel Sosa
N+T: We know your Accelerator project, No es fácil/It ain’t easy, had its last billboard go up in Egleston Square this month. How’s that been going?
Gabriel: Great! I’ve been in touch with the Director of Egleston Main Streets, Denise Delgado, and she said that the response from the community has been so positive. Also, as you know, I've been holding virtual writing workshops with artist + writer Sara Rivera where participants respond to a series of prompts, and as a group we decide which phrases will appear on a series of printed postcards. Each participant has received a pack of the postcards, with stamps, that they can mail out as they like. I will also be publishing a small catalog that documents No es fácil/It ain't easy as a whole. Most recently, I spoke about the project in the Boston Art Review, as part of a piece I wrote together with artist Danielle Abrams.
N+T: Got anything new cooking?
Gabriel: Right now I am working on a project with the Art Lab at the ICA. It will be a public art piece featured in March as part of the food boxes distributed in East Boston. I'm in the midst of a residency at Urbano, and I have a few exhibitions coming up. I’ll be collaborating with Evelyn Rydz for a show at the Brookline Arts Center organized by Camilo Álvarez, and I’ll also be participating in another at BostonCyberArts organized by Jameson Johnson. I'm really looking forward to all of it.
N+T: We have to ask… what’s been getting you through 2021 so far?
Gabriel: My wife and I have made it a point to go outside a lot during the winter, so we've been soaking up as much vitamin D as possible on long walks in the Arnold Arboretum.
Keep up with Gabriel via IG and his website.
Shaka Dendy
N+T: What’s next for you in 2021? Any new projects coming?
Shaka: There’s new Camp Blood on the horizon. I also plan to put out solo music this year, some less aggressive stuff. I like singing love songs.
N+T: What about resolutions for the new year?
Shaka: Recalibrating my ideas around productivity — I’m working on saying no more frequently. I want to make things that are more direct, and more personally meaningful, even if I don't ever show or share with anybody else. Refreshing.
N+T: Have you listened to or looked at anything good lately?
Shaka: My standouts this year have been Judd at MoMA and Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red. Also revisiting the MF DOOM discography. RIP to The Villain.
Follow Camp Blood on Instagram.
Andrew Mowbray
N+T: What’re you working on?
Andrew: I have a group exhibition — Piecework: Resistance and Healing in Contemporary Fiber Art, on view starting April 2021 — at the Fruitlands Museum. Also currently in process and production for the Fruitlands is a series of wooden milk crates, made in response to the historic Transcendentalist and Shaker buildings.
N+T: Anything you’re thinking about in general?
Andrew: I have been thinking about spring and birds, specifically nesting boxes.
N+T: What’s the best — or favorite — art you’ve seen lately?
Andrew: When I am out on my bike, the Sister Corita Kent gas tank never gets old, I love to see it in different weather and light. It’s also really inspiring to see on Instagram the in-process work of so many friends and artists working from home or in their studios.
Check out Andrew’s website and Instagram.
Yu-Wen Wu
N+T: How was 2020 for you?
Yu-Wen: I’m grateful to have had a busy year in spite of its many challenges. In the Boston area, the outdoor public art work Lantern Stories commissioned by the Greenway Conservancy was tremendously rewarding, the drive-in screening of Crossings at Area Code Art Fair was a lot of fun. Many thanks to Boston Art Review for the particularly thoughtful article about my practice in the spring/summer 2020 issue. The Leavings/Belongings installation in the exhibition Displaced: Contemporary Artists Confront the Global Refugee Crises at SITE Santa Fe (NM) just came down but the conversation about migration will always be relevant.
N+T: What’s happening for you in 2021?
Yu-Wen: My work is currently in an exhibition titled Imagining Data, a virtual exhibition at the Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco.
I've been in the studio working on recent commissions. I've also been sketching and experimenting with ideas and materials towards the upcoming N+T public art piece. Exciting!
Stay tuned for more on Yu-Wen’s website.
Karthik Pandian
N+T: What projects are in the pipeline?
Karthik: I’ll be releasing a series of 6 new videos in collaboration with Andros Zins-Browne and Zakaria Almoutlak for the Unknown States issue of Triple Canopy this Spring.
It’s not announced yet, but I’m also working on a new public artwork in conjunction with my N+T commission, for the Twin Cities. I’m interested in making a connection between the toppling of Columbus monuments that happened almost simultaneously in the Twin Cities and in Boston.
N+T: Thanks for sharing! We’ll keep the folks updated as developments happen. Any art that’s been helping you get through 2021?
Karthik: Someone made this compilation of monuments being toppled...but set to Enya.
N+T: *retweets.*
Follow Karthik on Twitter.