Twelve Gates Arts is excited to present the latest group exhibition, ZABARDUST (Urdu for “fabulous, awesome”), from curator Jasmine Wahi. The title is a homage to fabulous and unconventional women with an undercurrent of female empowerment and self-ownership in the conceptual and real space of life. The exhibition is a somewhat abstract or ethereal follow-up on Wahi’s 2013 show The Least Orthodox Goddess, which exhibited at Gallery 151 in New York City and was a narrative about how a consciously empowered feminine energy would be and look. In that light, ZABARDUST can be seen as a sort of celebration of the experience of that kind of energy.
Maria Berrio is a Brooklyn-based mixed-media artist who was born in Bogota, Colombia. She earned a BFA from Parsons School of Design and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Since 2002, she has been exhibiting work across the United States, and internationally in Toronto, Seoul and Delhi. In 2014, she was awarded a residency by the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, and she has upcoming exhibitions scheduled at Praxis International and Museo del Barrio in New York City.
Anjali Bhargava is a Brooklyn-based photographer who was born in Toronto. She earned a BS in Photography and International Relations from Syracuse University in 1999. She specializes in portraiture and has exhibited her work throughout the New York City area, as well as in Toronto, Beijing and Delhi. Her work in this show is a collaboration with Swati Khurana.
Angela Fraleigh earned a BFA in Painting from Boston University and an MFA in Painting/ Printmaking from Yale University. She has been exhibiting work widely across the United States since 1998. She lives and works in New York City and Allentown, PA and her work will soon be on view also at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA.
Leila Lal is a self-taught artist from Pakistan who spent time growing up also in Africa. She currently resides in New York City, and she has exhibited work on the east coast of the United States, and in Delhi and Dubai. She studied contemporary western feminism and gradually applied technique and conceptual understanding to her mixed-media and performance based practice.
Rachel Mason is a Queens-based sculptor and performance artist. She attended UCLA for undergraduate work and earned an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University. Since 2001 she has been increasingly prolific across a range of genres and media, and she is listed in the Best of 2014 in Artforum. She is also a musician and her band is called Little Band of Sailors.
Karlito Miller is a painter and street artist who has participated in the revolutionizing of mural arts projects in Baltimore and Jersey City. His work was on view in Ready or Not 2014 New Jersey Arts Annual at the Newark Museum.