Ascendancy: The Self in Contemporary Art

Ascendancy: The Self in Contemporary Art serves as an outlet of artistic exploration and a platform for the reclaiming of personal agency. Guest curator Camilo Alvarez brings together more than 100 contemporary paintings, prints, photographs, textiles, sculpture, and more that dismantle stereotypes and redefine ideas of identity within the contexts of historical and current social structures. By replacing recycled depictions of passive iconography with images of active agency, these artists create space for new perspectives on the ascendant, fluid nature of internal life and personal narratives.

Artists in the exhibition: 

Ann Agee  | Laura Aguilar  | Elia Alba  | Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili  | Beth Ann Altomonte  | Janine Antoni  | Elizabeth Atterbury  | Colleen Barry  | Creighton Baxter  | Anna Betbeze  | April Bey  | Katherine Bradford  | Anne Buckwalter  | María Magdalena Campos-Pons  | Caitlin Cherry  | Nicole Cherubini  | Namwon Choi  | Jaina Cipriano  | Yanira Collado  | Anne Collier  | Ryan Cosbert  | Ann Craven  | Taína H. Cruz  | Kim Dacres  | Lalla Essaydi  | Tory Fair  | Nona Faustine  | fierce pussy (Nancy Brooks Brody, Joy Episalla, Zoe Leonard, and Carrie Yamaoka)  | Dana Frankfort  | Regina José Galindo  | Iliana Emilia García  | larí garcía  | Scherezade García  | Alex Gingrow  | Iva Gueorguieva  | Ivy Haldeman  | Anthea Hamilton  | Rachel Harrison  | Rose Hartman  | Mona Hatoum  | Clarity Haynes  | Alicia Henry  |  Juliana Huxtable  | Paloma Izquierdo  | Cheyenne Julien  | Baseera Khan  | Arghavan Khosravi  | Lucy Kim  | Autumn Knight  | Annette Lemieux  | Ellen Lesperance & Jeanine Oleson  | Maud Madsen  | Vivian Maier  | Anina Major  | Malerie Marder  | Delita Martin  | Quintessa Matranga  | Suzanne McClelland  | Ana Mendieta  | Helina Metaferia  | Joiri Minaya  | Yvette Molina  | Azita Moradkhani  | Rebecca Morris  | Samantha Nye  | Toyin Ojih Odutola  | Paola Oxoa  | Chloe Piene  | Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki-Olivo)  | Magali Reus  | Carissa Rodriguez  | Mika Rottenberg  | Heather Rowe  | Carolee Schneemann  | Beverly Semmes  | Lorna Simpson  | Suzannah Sinclair  | Karina Aguilera Skvirsky  | Tabitha Soren  | Vivian Springford  | Elizabeth King Stanton  | Brooke Stewart  | Stephanie Syjuco  | Dannielle Tegeder  | Kaari Upson  | Sara VanDerBeek  | Gelsy Verna  | Marnie Weber  | Summer Wheat  | Philemona Williamson  | Deborah Willis  | Qualeasha Wood  | Francesca Woodman  | Saya Woolfalk  | Huidi Xiang  | Kennedy Yanko  | Leyla Yenirce  | Anicka Yi 

About the Curator:

Camilo Alvarez is a curator, owner, director and preparator at Samsøñ, formerly Samson Projects, founded in 2004. He has worked at art organizations across the region from Exit Art, Socrates Sculpture Park, and the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in New York, and MIT’s List Visual Art Center in Massachusetts. He sits on multiple Advisory Board’s including for the List Visual Art Center at MIT, the National Advisory Council for Skidmore College’s Tang Teaching Museum and the Advisory Board for Tufts University Art Galleries. He also serves as Chair of the Advisory Board at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.

He has given solo exhibitions to Jeffrey Gibson, Magdalena Campos-Pons, William Pope.L, Rebecca Morris, Kader Attia, and Beverly Semmes among many. Samsøn’s programs and exhibitions have been reviewed by the New York Times, ArtForum, the Boston Globe and Flash Art. In 2010, Samsøñ commenced sübsamsøn, a form of artist’s residency. More information can be found at samsonprojects.com.