Substance

This exhibition was on view September 27–October 30, 2021

Pace University Art Gallery presents the in-person exhibition, Substance, which brings together four abstract artists—Diego Anaya, Liz Atz, Linda Ekstrom, and Alberto Lule—who express meaning via their materials rather than through representational imagery. The digital version of the exhibit which opened in March also includes work by Adebunmi Gbadebo. The physical exhibit will be on public view through October 30, 2021. During the exhibit period, artists will also lead a hybrid or zoom lectures or workshops. An in-person reception will be held on Friday, October 22 from 5:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. Please note that for COVID safety, no food or drink will be served and proof of vaccination and face coverings will be required.

Diego Anaya

Diego Anaya’s work is minimalist in imagery, yet he celebrates his Mexican heritage through the use of ground corn, corn ash, and sand with which he creates rough and uneven surfaces. The texture compels the viewer to examine the work closely and even to want to touch and smell the granular surface, creating an immediate and intimate connection between the viewer and the artist.

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Liz Atz

Liz Atz will re-install create a large-scale window installation she created during a March artist residency on-site. Made of mushroom-based, fully biodegradable plastics she casts herself, Atz’s bright, immersive installations critique commercialism, materialism, and consumption. During the residency Atz will experiment with further with chitosan—by casting, adding pigment, and laser cutting. She will offer an in-class bio-plastic workshop for Pace students.

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Linda Ekstrom

Linda Ekstrom’s works from her Word series use text from religious sources as a form of inspiration and commentary. Many of her artworks are made from altered pages of the Bible, which is representative of how Ekstrom explores feminist issues, particularly within the role of Jewish and Christian religious history and tradition. Her work addresses the suppressed stories of women both in the Bible and throughout art history via the process of disassembling and then reassembling this book which has been used to inspire, divide, and control readers. She will offer an online zine-making workshop on Thursday, October 28 at 9:00 a.m. ET.

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Alberto Lule

Alberto Lule who critiques and exposes the prison industrial complex in America as a form of modern slavery. His Investigation series offers insight to his experience as a formerly incarcerated person by using fingerprint powder--a tool used by police to prove someone was at the scene of a crime--as his drawing material. Thereby, Lule reclaims his past, present, and future, stating that he isn’t at the mercy of the corrupt American prison system any longer. He will give a hybrid artist talk, co-sponsored by the Criminal Justice Society, on Monday, October 25 at 12:10 p.m. as part of Pace’s Social Justice Week in honor of D.J. Henry. Please note that this hybrid event will be available to Pace Students, staff and faculty in-person, and to the public via a synchronous Zoom.

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Also included in the digital version of the Substance exhibit is artist Adebunmi Gbadebo who represents identity and history in Blues People by incorporating prints of historical documents onto paper embedded with Black hair. For the artist, Black hair is “a material and a history in which to root my own work that positions the people who looked like me as central to my practice.” In so doing, she exposes the grim history of American slavery that has been erased by white-centric narratives and materials. She will give an online artist talk on Monday, October 18 at 11:00 a.m.

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The Substance exhibit, which was originally scheduled for February and then re-imagined in a hybrid format including an artist residency, was curated by Sarah Cunningham, Art Gallery Director/Assistant Clinical Professor, with Samantha L. Smith, ‘21, Gallery Intern/Research Fellow. To support their work, they received the Provost’s Academic Year 2020-2021 Student-Faculty Undergraduate Research Award through the Center for Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE) at Pace.

Installation photographs in gallery by Adam Reich.

Artists' Biographies

Diego Anaya

Diego Anaya is a Mexican artist who works in New York. His works reflect his heritage and tell stories that speak to one’s roots. Through the use of ground corn, corn ash, and sand, Anaya creates rough and uneven surfaces that compel the viewer to examine the work closely and even to want to touch and smell the granular surface, creating an immediate and intimate connection between the viewer and the artist. He has had solo exhibitions at Proyecto Caimán in Mexico, Museo de Arte Moderno in Ecuador, and ALAS Atelier Artspace in Germany. He has also been exhibited at group shows at The Clemente Art Center in New York, Museo de la Ciudad in Ecuador, Museo El Cuartel in Ecuador, The Border Gallery in New York, Spectrum Artfair in Miami, the Bienal Nomade in Ecuador, and at Site Brooklyn Gallery in New York. Anaya was awarded the ALAS Residency at ALAS Atelier Artspace in Frankfurt, Germany, the Immigrant Artist Program at NYFA in New York, and the EL Ganzo Residency at Hotel el Ganzo in Los Cabos, Mexico.

Liz Atz

Elizabeth Atzberger, aka Liz Atz, is an artist, curator, and educator who teaches at Pace University, Pratt, and SUNY Old Westbury. Atz uses traditional art materials as well as those of consumer culture, low fashion, industrial castoffs and simple science experiments in her paintings, installations, and photographs.For the& Substance exhibit at Pace University, Atz will create a site-specific installation in the window over the course of a 3-week residency, exploring the possibilities of chitosan bio-plastics as a replacement for petroleum-based plastics in art, design and material science applications. Born in Columbus Ohio, Atz currently lives and works in Brooklyn NY. She has a BFA in Painting from the Ohio State University, and an MFA in Painting from the Tyler School of Art. From 2011-2014, she was a co-director and co-curator of AIRPLANE gallery in Bushwick. She has had solo exhibitions at R. Jampol Projects (NY) and Solos Project House (NJ) and also been included in many solo exhibitions at venues including Momenta Art (NY), 56 Mixtape (NY), and Outpost Artist Resources (NY).

Linda Ekstrom

Linda Ekstrom’s works from her Word series use text from religious sources as a form of inspiration and commentary. Many of her artworks are made from altered pages of the Bible, which is representative of how Ekstrom explores feminist issues, particularly within the role of Jewish and Christian religious history and tradition. She completed her MFA in Studio Art at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she teaches in the College of Creative Studies. Her works have been exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions nationwide including, Jane Deering Gallery in Santa Barbara, California, Frumkin Gallery, in Santa Monica, Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Calvin College in Grand Rapids and many more. From 1998-2000, she served on the committee to select art for the exterior and interior of the new cathedral in Los Angeles, Our Lady of the Angels, designed by Raphael Moneo. Ekstrom has presented lectures on the subject of religion and contemporary art at several venues, including the Faith and Forum Conference for Sacred Architecture in Los Angeles and at Yale Divinity School in Yale University. Ekstrom has also received several awards, grants, and residencies including the Professional Development Grant at UCSB, Summer Artist Residencies at Westmont College, and Artist in Residence at the Center for the Study of Religion, UCSB, among others.

Alberto Lule

Alberto Lule uses readymades, mixed media installations, and tools used by agencies of authority to examine and critique mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex in the United States, particularly the California prison system. Using his own experiences, he aims to tie the prison industrial complex to other American political issues such as immigration, homelessness, drug addiction, and mental health. He holds a BA in Art from the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture. His work was recently included in We Live, Memories of Resistance at the Oxy Arts Gallery at Occidental College and Language Games at the Fullerton College Art Gallery. In 2020, he was also the recipient of the Kay Nielsen Memorial Award from the Hammer Museum and a residency from Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles.

Adebunmi Gbadebo

Adebunmi Gbadebo is a visual artist who creates sculptures, paintings, prints, and paper using human hair sourced from people of the African diaspora. Rejecting traditional art materials, Gbadebo sees hair as a means to center her people and their histories as principal to the narratives in her work. She earned a BFA at the School of Visual Arts, NY in 2017. Gbadebo’s work is included in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gbadebo’s work has been presented in numerous exhibitions in the United States, Asia, and Europe, including Bangladesh, London, and Miami, amongst others. She has been written about in publications such as the New York Times, Hyperallergic, The Australian Sydney Morning Herald, Artspace, Ocula, Hypebeast, and Afropunk. Gbadebo’s residencies include Clay Studio, Philadelphia, and the Vermont Studio Center. She has been broadcasted on BBC Newsday and Talke TV (Nigeria) and has given talks at the Museum of the African Diaspora, Spence School, and the Newark Museum.