The Wonder Women exhibition WW$: Money, Money, Money is opening March 13th TODAY at:

ABC No Rio
156 Rivington Street
(between Clinton & Suffolk)
NYC
212.254.3697

Opening reception on Friday, March 13th from 7-10pm.
Please mark your calendars and join us!

*****

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WW$: MoneyMoneyMoney!!

A Wonder Women Project presented by _gaia and hosted by ABC No Rio
March 13 – April 2, 2009

ABC No Rio
156 Rivington Street NYC NY 10002
Opening Reception– Friday, March 13th 7-10 pm
Gallery Hours: Wednesdays and Thursdays 4-7pm and Sundays 1-3pm

Artists: Pollie Barden, Mary Button, Andrea Callard, Geraldine Juarez, Sarah Julig, Christina Kelly, Michelle Loughlin, Melissa MacAlpin, Holly Pitre and Hanna Von Goeler

Curated by Doris Caçoilo and Vandana Jain

ABC No Rio is pleased to host WW$: MoneyMoneyMoney!!, the culminating exhibition of the Wonder Women Residency Project presented by _gaia. The six-week residency brings together ten emerging artists to engage in discussions about their work, the economy, feminism, and personal relationships to money.

The projects that have developed over the course of the residency are diverse in form and concept. Some of the artists are documenting their relationship to money, such as Andrea Callard in her sound piece “Comfort with Money,” or Sarah Juligin her visualization of her income and spending as a grid of collected and found baubles. Pollie Barden charts the financial and ecological impact of the Cobb salad, depending on what season it is eaten.

Other artists are inspired by the idea of personal and/or domestic currencies. Hanna Von Goeler takes money and transforming it into currency by handpainting or otherwise working domestic and foreign money. Holly Pitre attempts to quantify the “value” of the members of her nuclear family by painting their portraits on recycled tea bags filled with different Cajun spices. Geraldine Juarez becomes even more lyrical, charting her “loves and deaths” in an emotional stock market programmed in Processing.

The current state of economic recession also informs several works. Michelle Loughlin is embroidering atop images of foreclosed homes in her neighborhood, rendering the new bank owner’s in cross-stitch. Mary Button has created a board game where you buy and sell resources in an effort to rebuild society. More whimsically, Melissa MacAlpin takes the loaded image of a house on fire, and turns it into kitschy sculptures.

In an attempt re-establish the value of our money, Christina Kelly has taken shredded American currency to use as the brown matter in a worm compost bin, wondering what the transformation of paper money into valuable dirt could symbolize, and perhaps, how it can guide the rebuilding of our economy.

**********************************************************************************

WW$ coincides with The Feminist Art Project (TFAP.) The purpose of The Feminist Art Project is to bring public attention to the significant and continuing impact of women and their art on all aspects of contemporary art practice, highlighting their international influence, and guaranteeing their inclusion in the cultural record, past, present, and future.

_gaia is a collective of women, for women, for the making of textiles, clothing, printmaking, painting, architecture, music, film, photography, science, the performing arts, writing, environmental, social and political activism: all things which color the lives of the women involved. We actively promote and support the work of local women artists while developing programming to reach out to and help emerging artists in need of studio space, facilities and resources. In our pursuit of awareness we also concentrate on activism, from issues in the local community to global issues affecting the lives of women.

This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council of the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Exhibition funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Dedalus Foundation.

Upon request, information will be made available in alternative formats such as Braille, large print, audiotape and/or computer disc. Please contact 201.386.0486 or info@gaiastudio.org

PRESS CONTACT: Doris Caçoilo info@gaiastudio.org 201-386-0486