https://carinamartinez.cargo.site Carina Martinez Sun, 04 Jan 2026 23:00:03 +0000 https://carinamartinez.cargo.site en https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/Past-Exhibitions Sun, 04 Jan 2026 22:05:38 +0000 Carina Martinez https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/Past-Exhibitions Into the Valley of Despair, Pfizer Building, New York, NY, 2022 From Aqui, from Alla, MACP Project Space, Brooklyn NY, 2021 Do-Until Loop Parade, curated by 2022 MACP Cohort, 2021 https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/Ongoing-Projects Sun, 04 Jan 2026 22:13:18 +0000 Carina Martinez https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/Ongoing-Projects Whitney Biennial 2026, Whitney Museum of American Art, curated by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, New York, 2026 Taller Granny Square (The Granny Square Workshop), in partnership with James Cohan Gallery and Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid, 2024-ongoing https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/ITVOD Wed, 08 Dec 2021 13:53:50 +0000 Carina Martinez https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/ITVOD Into the Valley of DespairPfizer Building, Brooklyn, NY | April 14 - 17, 2022Anna Witt, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Julian Louis Phillips, Florian Aschka &amp; Larissa Knopp, Kim Kielhofner, Mia Raadik <img width="5775" height="3850" width_o="5775" height_o="3850" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0e747616da402dc958b88f2fb9c2c70d7466d763188cbc09ae0924b5e527a77d/DSCF5944.jpg" data-mid="148928728" border="0" alt="Installation view, Into the Valley of Despair, Pfizer Building, Brooklyn, NY, April 14-17, 2022." data-caption="Installation view, Into the Valley of Despair, Pfizer Building, Brooklyn, NY, April 14-17, 2022." src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0e747616da402dc958b88f2fb9c2c70d7466d763188cbc09ae0924b5e527a77d/DSCF5944.jpg" /> <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/41ca8d4b8aa0497e540aa328685bab3374505c258977754c8860e46d2506181d/DSCF5958.jpg" data-mid="148928738" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/41ca8d4b8aa0497e540aa328685bab3374505c258977754c8860e46d2506181d/DSCF5958.jpg" /> <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a9a21f271747b479ecc597d5ef613c9b60ef9deeee509e2fa74db51e86c58b7e/DSCF5930.jpg" data-mid="148928722" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a9a21f271747b479ecc597d5ef613c9b60ef9deeee509e2fa74db51e86c58b7e/DSCF5930.jpg" /> <img width="4000" height="6000" width_o="4000" height_o="6000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fbef4fa016f3484a1a03b5743250287f73914fab60b578c7e96632816ff627d2/DSCF5919.jpg" data-mid="148928714" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fbef4fa016f3484a1a03b5743250287f73914fab60b578c7e96632816ff627d2/DSCF5919.jpg" /> <img width="3629" height="5443" width_o="3629" height_o="5443" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4b7f3fae360a9a81405d2ebc9b645009f8c529ff0e2320881f0636ca9082ceac/DSCF5897.jpg" data-mid="148928709" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4b7f3fae360a9a81405d2ebc9b645009f8c529ff0e2320881f0636ca9082ceac/DSCF5897.jpg" /> <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9d81a4c2964494c071cfeb66bff634099cdb303f3797797be4a1b3eda5616beb/DSCF5951.jpg" data-mid="148928732" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9d81a4c2964494c071cfeb66bff634099cdb303f3797797be4a1b3eda5616beb/DSCF5951.jpg" /> <img width="5500" height="3667" width_o="5500" height_o="3667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/21bfcc3c8b0da90b8a51b152d275a22fa24f9d4aea680e8544f92e4f774ddb51/DSCF5900.jpg" data-mid="148928711" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/21bfcc3c8b0da90b8a51b152d275a22fa24f9d4aea680e8544f92e4f774ddb51/DSCF5900.jpg" /> <img width="5717" height="3811" width_o="5717" height_o="3811" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9041dc45cb40fa568c3be09be3f8aadf5625bd944fb11bc3b6001e0a93c95986/DSCF5873.jpg" data-mid="148928697" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9041dc45cb40fa568c3be09be3f8aadf5625bd944fb11bc3b6001e0a93c95986/DSCF5873.jpg" /> <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/622302353dc5338e70512137572ebf5614a3b02d771714237a28508389a45c6f/DSCF5924.jpg" data-mid="148928716" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/622302353dc5338e70512137572ebf5614a3b02d771714237a28508389a45c6f/DSCF5924.jpg" /> <img width="5680" height="3787" width_o="5680" height_o="3787" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/28b5cc7cbead4245285363b7dfd3e4677e1a5026e16e4e70dab389aaf48ce9f5/DSCF5963.jpg" data-mid="148928740" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/28b5cc7cbead4245285363b7dfd3e4677e1a5026e16e4e70dab389aaf48ce9f5/DSCF5963.jpg" /> Into the Valley of Despair stages a conversation between broad artistic works and practices that contemplate the role discomfort plays in art and processes of learning. The project highlights artists’ attempts to capture what fundamentally lies outside of conceivability, challenging themselves or their audiences to remain vulnerable in approaching the unknown. In surveying the overlapping territories of discomfort and truth-seeking, this curatorial project seeks the points where new understandings of the world destabilize previous worlds. Into the Valley of Despair argues that embracing discomfort is not only healthy and necessary for (un)learning, but also for perceiving a more just world through art. Irit Rogoff’s essay “The Expanded Field” argues that today’s shifting landscapes of art, culture, and knowledge production necessitate that “each idea or concept we take up be subjected to pressures from other modes of knowledge and of knowing—it cannot simply stay within its own comfortable paradigm and celebrate itself and its achievements.” The solution lies not in just including underrepresented perspectives through the language of multiplicity and diversity; rather, it is in reconsidering the situation entirely as a series of enactments of what Rogoff calls “an epistemological crisis”— an “exiting from previous definitions, refusing moral inscription… risking a capacity for misunderstanding.” Arguably at the core of contemporary art’s—and society’s—needs is an intentional rappelling into the contradictions, injustices, and enclosures of the past and present, which begins with us making peace with their coexistence. Into the Valley of Despair takes as a point of departure the common feeling of discomfort that arises when we adopt new ideas that challenge what has previously been understood or indubitably accepted. In 1999, psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger collected data across four studies that measured participants’ skills through tests of grammar and logic, and found that those who scored in the bottom percentile consistently believed they scored much higher. However, as those participants improved their skills, their metacognitive competence increased and they were better able to recognize the limitations of their abilities. Dunning and Kruger developed a graph to represent this phenomenon: Plotted on a y-axis labeled “Confidence” and an x-axis labeled “Competence,” a line sharply plummets from its highest point to its lowest, the “Valley of Despair.” Although the descending stretch between these points goes unnamed, it is comparable to the notion of collective disorientation that artist and cultural theorist Hito Steyerl discusses in her essay “In Free Fall: A Thought Experiment on Vertical Perspective.” Using linear perspective as a metaphor for dominant, colonially rooted paradigms of seeing, Steyerl hypothesizes that contemporary societies are increasingly witnessing the collapse of the illusion of a stable horizon line, leaving us in a collective state of free fall. Caught in the crossfire of contradicting ideas, one must choose to sink or swim (or sync and swim) alongside them. To survive and remain open to what these transformations entail for individual and collective growth means to slow down and feel out the curves of the valley, a zone of perpetual remapping where uncertainty and radical possibility live like neighbors. The works featured in Into the Valley of Despair suggest that, rather than wince and turn away from the destabilizing truth of one’s limited purview, embarking on a winding journey through the valley with openness—waiting, listening, experimenting—might be the most sustainable path that one could take in pursuit of transformative justice. Seven participating artists attempt to highlight that which fundamentally lies outside of sight lines by challenging themselves, their subjects, or their audiences to remain vulnerable in considering new perceptions, roles, and realms. The works also share elements of documentation, each capturing moments of social exchange that involve the complicating of private and public, intrapersonal and interpersonal, subjective and objective.Read the full exhibitiion catalog essay here. Featured Artworks Kim Kielhofner, Third Reading, 2017, from the Reading Patterns series, video, 11 min. Anna Witt, Radical Thinking, 2021, two-channel installation, looped video installation with two monitors on podiums. Anna Witt, Body in Progress, 2018, 5-channel video installation.Larissa Kopp and Florian Aschka, Private Property, 2021, two embroidered textile fabric flags and site-specific photo documentation, approx. 60 x 84 in. each. Chun Hua Catherine Dong, I Have Been There, 2015-ongoing, performance-based photograph series, 40 × 32 in. each, documenting 35 cities; virtual reality-rendered video element.Mia Raadik, Autoportrait, 2020, interactive installation. Mia Raadik, Self Care, 2020, sculpture, 10 bowls overflowing with shaving foam. Julian Louis Phillips, The Strategic Response Group (TSRG), 2022, live performance. https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/Taller-Granny-Square Sun, 29 Dec 2024 19:27:40 +0000 Carina Martinez https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/Taller-Granny-Square Taller Granny Square (The Granny Square Workshop) <img width="2550" height="2550" width_o="2550" height_o="2550" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b05efd839cb3e16752a7320f21e01d1786a8003b6fc31bf42c44e7712a206437/GSW-handout_square-crochet-thing_Page_1.jpg" data-mid="223918605" border="0" alt="Portraits of 2024 workshop cohort. Courtesy the participants. Photo by Carina Martinez; Granny Squares for Asylum Seekers Benefit Party event. Photo courtesy of Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid, NYC, 2024." data-caption="Portraits of 2024 workshop cohort. Courtesy the participants. Photo by Carina Martinez; Granny Squares for Asylum Seekers Benefit Party event. Photo courtesy of Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid, NYC, 2024." src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b05efd839cb3e16752a7320f21e01d1786a8003b6fc31bf42c44e7712a206437/GSW-handout_square-crochet-thing_Page_1.jpg" /> <img width="1344" height="896" width_o="1344" height_o="896" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3824c1842a00cedf908535d63c96a3c0c9756b96260cf6923d535ad225b6a883/Granny-Square-benefit-party.gif" data-mid="223918603" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3824c1842a00cedf908535d63c96a3c0c9756b96260cf6923d535ad225b6a883/Granny-Square-benefit-party.gif" /> Taller Granny Square (The Granny Square Workshop) is an ongoing community project cofounded by Jim Cohan and Carina Martinez in partnership with Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid NYC (VIA), a Manhattan-based non-profit committed to helping Latin American asylum-seekers establish healthy and stable lives. The Granny Square Workshop, a biweekly crochet class that gives newly arrived migrants from Latin America a safe space to learn a creative skill, was designed to empower VIA’s community through relationship- and skill-building practices. The participants, many of whom were complete crochet beginners, have learned the “Granny Square” technique and how to apply it to create various wares. Not only does this versatile skill open new avenues of income for the participants and their families, but it also presents a chance to forge new friendships while engaging in a therapeutic activity. During each two-hour session, participants are provided crochet materials, step-by-step lessons by experienced instructors, and coffee and snacks. At the end of each session, each crocheter is compensated $20 for their time plus a $6 stipend to cover commuting costs. The first cycle of sessions took place from March to May, and the second ran from June to August. From September to November, a batch of participants and the program’s three instructors worked together to produce a set of nine blankets, which were exhibited and available for purchase at the Granny Squares for Asylum Seekers Benefit Party, which took place on Wednesday, November 20, 2024. 100% of the crochet ware profits go to their makers and 100% of the Benefit Party ticket sales have gone to the funding of a 2025 cycle of workshops. https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/FAFA Wed, 08 Dec 2021 13:53:55 +0000 Carina Martinez https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/FAFA From Aqui, from Alla MACP Project Space, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY |&nbsp;March 25 - April 5, 2021 Albany Andaluz, Estelle Maisonett, Aida Lizalde <img width="5782" height="3855" width_o="5782" height_o="3855" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c0526310b4f61aa7d9d3d7a3003963971fdd97f2f9a75430a97dc7073c0fb77d/110.jpg" data-mid="126835373" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c0526310b4f61aa7d9d3d7a3003963971fdd97f2f9a75430a97dc7073c0fb77d/110.jpg" /> <img width="5763" height="3842" width_o="5763" height_o="3842" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c7c107cf9d09fd7f8b1bc156806ceb512d3b5e48db970f32664f99f1a6b4ecb8/111.jpg" data-mid="126835371" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c7c107cf9d09fd7f8b1bc156806ceb512d3b5e48db970f32664f99f1a6b4ecb8/111.jpg" /> <img width="5543" height="3695" width_o="5543" height_o="3695" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2db79f62d94d225552d21576a39327254d9bf460151089865bee9289be82e709/112.jpg" data-mid="126835369" border="0" alt="Installation view, From Aqui, from Alla, " data-caption="Installation view, From Aqui, from Alla, " src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2db79f62d94d225552d21576a39327254d9bf460151089865bee9289be82e709/112.jpg" /> <img width="5458" height="3639" width_o="5458" height_o="3639" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fb1e2a406badf37bf19bfbeb0ad840a0fffb67c39f3686985d2d7c50aca62fab/113.jpg" data-mid="126835366" border="0" alt="Installation view, From Aqui, from Alla, MACP Project Space, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, March 25 - April 5, 2021." data-caption="Installation view, From Aqui, from Alla, MACP Project Space, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, March 25 - April 5, 2021." src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fb1e2a406badf37bf19bfbeb0ad840a0fffb67c39f3686985d2d7c50aca62fab/113.jpg" /> <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/48c66dc16b9fa49650a2c28c6f3638bbd15f2e6fe3723045d0dac9956bb55751/114.jpg" data-mid="126835364" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/48c66dc16b9fa49650a2c28c6f3638bbd15f2e6fe3723045d0dac9956bb55751/114.jpg" /> <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/af256211a84a8f39ba919cc6972a0b9cdc14254a0c781d196069aeffd4dd742b/115-1.jpg" data-mid="126835352" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/af256211a84a8f39ba919cc6972a0b9cdc14254a0c781d196069aeffd4dd742b/115-1.jpg" /> <img width="5651" height="3767" width_o="5651" height_o="3767" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/25880de2233ed25e9d3a2e4c659310487d286e3e1c3739c053ce0d95904f59be/117.jpg" data-mid="126835361" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/25880de2233ed25e9d3a2e4c659310487d286e3e1c3739c053ce0d95904f59be/117.jpg" /> <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1ccf2bf4b5e209c172445fcf7e8328cb315df5ed89271dd88bb6c6c3434aa3c0/131.jpg" data-mid="126835340" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1ccf2bf4b5e209c172445fcf7e8328cb315df5ed89271dd88bb6c6c3434aa3c0/131.jpg" /> <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6ad1352936754c5873b656c6b068f77a872eaa115c1b682aaa43d56834e4b890/130.jpg" data-mid="126835344" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6ad1352936754c5873b656c6b068f77a872eaa115c1b682aaa43d56834e4b890/130.jpg" /> <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/19d2c8dbdaf9a318df43f23373ee4b5ba0ebfdfdfed90284d3e3e62e188ab05b/118.jpg" data-mid="126835360" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/19d2c8dbdaf9a318df43f23373ee4b5ba0ebfdfdfed90284d3e3e62e188ab05b/118.jpg" /> <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6fbd90cec71912d63f38a506ac1a9cefcbc2a251557bac6c0744c2f765cbcb52/116.jpg" data-mid="126835362" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6fbd90cec71912d63f38a506ac1a9cefcbc2a251557bac6c0744c2f765cbcb52/116.jpg" /> For many people of Latin American descent who were born or raised in the United States, fluency in the Spanish language is often perceived as an indicator of cultural authenticity and authority. Likewise, those who immigrate to the U.S. often feel pressured to become proficient in English or otherwise risk cultural and social isolation. The role that language plays in the Latinx context is one that could either unite or further alienate an individual from their cultural orientation. From Aqui, from Alla is an exhibition that contemplates the complex relationship between language and multicultural identity formation by investigating how Latinx artists Albany Andaluz, Estelle Maisonett, and Aida Lizalde each utilize language—English, Spanish, written, spoken, visual, and otherwise—to navigate and negotiate their hybridized selves.The exhibition’s title is inspired by the popular 1970 folk song called No Soy de Aquí Ni Soy de Allá (I Am Not from Here, Nor Am I from There) written by the late Argentine singer-songwriter Facundo Cabral. The lyric has since been borrowed and stretched by a variety of&nbsp;writers, musicians, and artists to describe the notion of in-betweenness that is broadly characteristic of the Latinx experience. Here, it is playfully rewritten in Spanglish, a blend of English and Spanish widely spoken among Latinx communities across the nation, and grammatically altered to reflect an attitude of acceptance and ownership of the multiple inherited environments, ideologies, and sayings that make us who we are. The exhibition features an interactive element that allows viewers to select any of over 50 musical covers of Cabral’s song to demonstrate the breadth and diversity of this shared experience. From Aqui, from Alla aims to stage a conversation among the practices of three artists who each imaginatively perceive written, spatial, and material languages as extensions of their Latinx identities in such a way that transcends the simple bifurcation of speaking only Spanish or English. Rather than mourn what is often deemed “lost” when one lives at the crossroads of two&nbsp;or more cultural landscapes, this exhibition aims to celebrate the beauty in existing as a breathing collage of several legacies. <img width="3797" height="5696" width_o="3797" height_o="5696" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9f0fedd2a5e82768edb7eb70161e4d6d1b4028195df16eb56e7115342501e13f/115-2.jpg" data-mid="126835354" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9f0fedd2a5e82768edb7eb70161e4d6d1b4028195df16eb56e7115342501e13f/115-2.jpg" /> <img width="4000" height="6000" width_o="4000" height_o="6000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/754dc16cf3ee2bc1d8de7330459015358f55d32bbc1edead23dca7eb55618398/120.jpg" data-mid="126835358" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/754dc16cf3ee2bc1d8de7330459015358f55d32bbc1edead23dca7eb55618398/120.jpg" /> <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8df04e1805b72783598fabd24c460928f9b55f10fb62d6b3cda7a1dba35a3f9e/124.jpg" data-mid="126835355" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8df04e1805b72783598fabd24c460928f9b55f10fb62d6b3cda7a1dba35a3f9e/124.jpg" /> Multidisciplinary artist Albany Andaluz incorporates collected objects into mixed-media works that are expressive of her split upbringing between New York and the Dominican Republic, as well as her interest in meshing together high- and low-brow visual cultures. In her piece titled pley (2020) (left), Andaluz paints the texture of a city sidewalk marked with hopscotch numbers onto recycled fabrics passed onto her by a family member. The title wittily connects the meaning of the word “play” as it is used in the Dominican Republic to describe baseball and its use in a US context to describe neighborhood games.&nbsp; <img width="5277" height="3518" width_o="5277" height_o="3518" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f2bde3847e68ae0fa5f5067d708c37e5c186cc1dc1116da8100c63c38cf8c69d/DSCF5611.jpg" data-mid="126852334" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f2bde3847e68ae0fa5f5067d708c37e5c186cc1dc1116da8100c63c38cf8c69d/DSCF5611.jpg" /> <img width="4000" height="6000" width_o="4000" height_o="6000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ba40cb60d60314b224b12a5659fe88881787aca736430231432270d6a4711861/125.jpg" data-mid="126835351" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ba40cb60d60314b224b12a5659fe88881787aca736430231432270d6a4711861/125.jpg" /> <img width="3575" height="5363" width_o="3575" height_o="5363" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/237692a4eeaa15618d7b21e5ce29f19284d4d626dd4f98281a748877f63ff733/114-1.jpg" data-mid="126835342" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/237692a4eeaa15618d7b21e5ce29f19284d4d626dd4f98281a748877f63ff733/114-1.jpg" /> Estelle Maisonett is a Bronx-based Mexican-Puerto Rican artist whose practice investigates how personal ties to objects and built surroundings inform preconceived notions of identity by incorporating found materials into collage. This mixed-media work (left) was created on a deteriorated US flag and in Spanish reads: “We Are Americans, We Are Mexicans, and Together, We Are Human.” The piece is a meditation on the common requirement in US public schools to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, despite the irony that “liberty and justice for all” does not reflect the reality of innumerous immigrants. Alluding to the word “indivisible,” Maisonett’s declaration defies grammar rules by pairing the plural verb Somos (We Are) with the singular noun Human (You Are), and suggests the playful reimagining of language as a tool for embracing one’s hybrid identity. <img width="4000" height="6000" width_o="4000" height_o="6000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ead37064bc958d370ad14ab5ebe006171dfbf75321f3f8ceb9fbb033acde4581/DSCF5607.jpg" data-mid="126852336" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ead37064bc958d370ad14ab5ebe006171dfbf75321f3f8ceb9fbb033acde4581/DSCF5607.jpg" /> <img width="3978" height="5967" width_o="3978" height_o="5967" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8bfca75794f92b4d055061e656db868fb100584f8f825105a0d7f36b8630627c/121.jpg" data-mid="126835357" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8bfca75794f92b4d055061e656db868fb100584f8f825105a0d7f36b8630627c/121.jpg" /> Aida Lizalde is a Mexican-American artist who draws upon childhood experiences of living as an undocumented immigrant to create works that explore themes of identity, decolonization, and multiculturalism. In the sculptural work titled Binomial (2019) (left), the artist grapples with being of both European and indigenous descent by combining ancient and modern systems of language. Stringing together ceramic beads &nbsp;etched with the Mayan number symbols for one and zero, Lizalde writes in binary code a sentence in Spanish that translates in English as: “I am not indigenous I am.” This declaration of self stands as a rejection to identify as only one part of her ancestry, as well as an affirmation of her existence as a mix of cross-racial blood, as herself in all her pieces. https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/DULP Wed, 08 Dec 2021 13:53:52 +0000 Carina Martinez https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/DULP Do-Until Loop Parade: An Exhibition in a BoxCo-curated exhibition hosted by School of Visual Arts MA Curatorial Practice Program | Spring 2021 Hyemi Kim, Po Han Huang, Fernando Sancho, Weihan Zhou, Yi Hsuan Lai, Jinglin Wang, Lingfei Ren <img width="5041" height="5041" width_o="5041" height_o="5041" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/71bb24e2f82b9a9106f79c6853703192d0eda73c4f1059a3010a8b7d3c15bd60/DULP-2-copy.jpg" data-mid="126837701" border="0" data-scale="70" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/71bb24e2f82b9a9106f79c6853703192d0eda73c4f1059a3010a8b7d3c15bd60/DULP-2-copy.jpg" /> <img width="4976" height="4976" width_o="4976" height_o="4976" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e26c8fbf9c6fadbd471de56cca3482c3a197f1e1a40a6c41bc3fccaaa2263d2c/DULP-12-copy.jpg" data-mid="126837691" border="0" data-scale="66" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e26c8fbf9c6fadbd471de56cca3482c3a197f1e1a40a6c41bc3fccaaa2263d2c/DULP-12-copy.jpg" /> <img width="6000" height="6000" width_o="6000" height_o="6000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/04c10dfedd034e40daa4ba0d442c224a317886166b564eacfb8170dd4913536a/DULP-9-copy.jpg" data-mid="126837694" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/04c10dfedd034e40daa4ba0d442c224a317886166b564eacfb8170dd4913536a/DULP-9-copy.jpg" /> <img width="4864" height="4865" width_o="4864" height_o="4865" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/aaaecf8452c8b0ba5d4b4a1597603851e3a2c426b3948ee99fc8dda8fe84196e/DULP-15-copy.jpg" data-mid="126837689" border="0" data-scale="88" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/aaaecf8452c8b0ba5d4b4a1597603851e3a2c426b3948ee99fc8dda8fe84196e/DULP-15-copy.jpg" /> <img width="4227" height="4227" width_o="4227" height_o="4227" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0f3b6e87e0942bda6721bf7e381cdaaed63a713a9a69f960bfdbd1f0af9c0f7c/DULP-1.jpg" data-mid="126837702" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0f3b6e87e0942bda6721bf7e381cdaaed63a713a9a69f960bfdbd1f0af9c0f7c/DULP-1.jpg" /> <img width="4332" height="3107" width_o="4332" height_o="3107" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8496611c7d3860f41e783a8368d05241c92bf51c20af98f078291ccb6d85a385/DULP-4-copy.jpg" data-mid="126837699" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8496611c7d3860f41e783a8368d05241c92bf51c20af98f078291ccb6d85a385/DULP-4-copy.jpg" /> <img width="4327" height="3218" width_o="4327" height_o="3218" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cbd9ad413a8c0509cd37c7314a87cfdbd988cdac47cdfda7466ac00353d1f036/DULP-7-copy.jpg" data-mid="126837696" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cbd9ad413a8c0509cd37c7314a87cfdbd988cdac47cdfda7466ac00353d1f036/DULP-7-copy.jpg" /> <img width="4326" height="3098" width_o="4326" height_o="3098" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4d513c1a158a196d8e73fd54d627e55a3a6c73173b0c9d363fbabb3e0f5fd144/DULP-5-copy.jpg" data-mid="126837698" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4d513c1a158a196d8e73fd54d627e55a3a6c73173b0c9d363fbabb3e0f5fd144/DULP-5-copy.jpg" /> Do-Until Loop Parade is an exhibition in a box inspired by Duchamp’s Boîte en Valise (1935- 41). Artworks featured in this show hint at the existence of “loops” that have long dictated our psychological, socioeconomic, and political freedoms. These loops are constructs — systems of control — but their origins and logics are obscured. Nonetheless, their effects on our lives are palpable. The exhibition brings together selected works from the 2020 SVA MFA Photography and Video program’s graduating class, which have been selected by their relevance to ideas of cyclicality and isolation.&nbsp; Catalog Essay: Introduction by Carina Martinez We’re living in strange times today—today, time itself has become strange. Perhaps it’s been like this for a while now. Stuck in perpetual motion, we have just begun to wonder whether we are actually moving forward. We seem to live in loops. A structure whose end melds with its beginning, a loop is the snake biting its own tail, the infinity symbol tattoo. It is the anxious doodle of a circle on the back of scrap paper and the continuous replay of a marked memory, a favorite TikTok video, a .gif file streamed on a billion screens. The loop is your favorite meal and drink, your job, your laundry, your Zoom meetings. It is also your inherited legacies and generational baggage, the places you have lived and cannot return to due to cycles of political violence, the hostility sensed from the place you must now call home, and the frequency with which you recall the reasons why you are you. With the quality of our lives measured by the quantity of coordinate points bunched on a number line, society appears to run on linear time. In order to immigrate, obtain a federal loan, expunge a criminal charge, seek justice in a court of law, or receive basic women’s reproductive healthcare in the United States, millions of people must undergo long and winding bureaucratic processes. The front of the line is promised as a mark of both an end and a fresh beginning, yet it always snakes just around the corner. Time starts to resemble less a one-way progression and more a contrived spiral controlled by something monstrous and perpetually out of reach.&nbsp;What keeps us from breaking free from time’s causal chains? In computer programming, the structure of the loop manifests as a deterministic function. “Do...Until Loop” is a command used to initiate the repetition of a set of statements so long as the input conditions remain false. The programmer will code this command to keep data outcomes in an endless if-then ricochet. The statements rely on falsehoods, on logical dead ends to reach execution, and only exit the loop when the condition becomes true. The opposite of this command, the “Do...While Loop,’’ is widely used in video-game programming. It performs the set if the conditions remain true and breaks the loop when they are false. It is the programmer’s job to design every bit of the game so that it maintains its integrity, sustaining each detail and mechanism to keep the gamer captive. Small keys, few and far between, are hidden across the virtual landscape, anomalies in the game’s structure that allow the player to “advance” in its preset world.Whereas the architects of the game see the loop as Do-While, the gamer operates in Do-Until mode. Her sole aim is to break through the impasses o each level and continue toward winning the game by uncovering truths that lead her further along its upward path. But these truths exist only insofar as the programmer fabricated and planted them to be found. Without their discovery, the gamer is destined to travel the same loops, endlessly roaming the creator’s playhouse. This presents the need to devise unwritten routes. In the essay “A Tank on a Pedestal: Museums in an Age of Planetary&nbsp;Civil War,” filmmaker and theorist Hito Steyerl explores&nbsp;the analogous&nbsp;relationship between the loops that are found in gaming and the loops that are integral to the historical function of museums and institutions. She contends, “On the one hand, play is about rules, which must be mastered if one is to proceed. On the other, play is also about the improvised creation of new, common rules. So reenactment is scrapped in favor of gaming moving towards play, which may or may not be another form of acting.” In order for new futures to be born into a predetermined world, history-as-repetition cannot be the only value inserted into the present. Improvisation, then, holds the key to unpredicted paths, because “to play is to re-actualize the rules as one goes along. . . to create rules that demand new actualization every time,” Steyerl states. “There is a continuum between games and play. Both need rules. On one end of the spectrum there is a looped form. On the other, an open one.” Despite the omnipresence of the closed system that entrap the player and necessitate her very survival, there persist possible loopholes through which she may interject her own free will. To play the game is to participate, despite and in light of all fairness that is involved. Whether one chooses to reenact or reimagine the rules is up to the participant. Read the full catalogue essay here. https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/Artist-Interviews-1 Sun, 04 Jan 2026 22:22:49 +0000 Carina Martinez https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/Artist-Interviews-1 “In the Studio: Eric-Paul Riege makes and unmakes in perpetuity,” Art21 READ, 2025 “In the Studio: Carolina Fusilier hears the invisible,” Art21 READ, 2024 “In the Studio: Michael Rakowitz renders lost artifacts into ghostly new forms,” Art 21 READ, 2023 https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/Catalogues-and-Publications Sun, 04 Jan 2026 22:38:14 +0000 Carina Martinez https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/Catalogues-and-Publications Whitney Biennial 2026, exhibition catalogue, published by the Whitney Museum of American Art, designed by STUDIO LHOOQ, March 2026 (release forthcoming) Artists and the Unknown: Art21 Interviews with Artists, co-published by Art21 and Gregory R. Miller &amp; Co, designed by Practice, 2025 https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/Reviews Sun, 04 Jan 2026 22:32:15 +0000 Carina Martinez https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/Reviews “Armando Guadalupe Cortés,” Sculpture Magazine, December 9, 2025 https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/Press Sun, 04 Jan 2026 23:00:03 +0000 Carina Martinez https://carinamartinez.cargo.site/Press Nicholas Frank, “Two Texas-Born Artists Included in 2026 Whitney Biennial,” Glasstire, December 17, 2025 Maxwell Rabb, “Whitney Biennial announces artists for its 2026 edition,” Artsy, December 15, 2025 The Latinx Project, “Carina Martinez: Curating Accessible Art Experiences,” Intervenxions, March 4, 2025