Helina Metaferia. © Helina Metaferia
Helina Metaferia
Lives & works in New York City, United States
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Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship — Brown University, Providence, RI - 2020
SMFA Alumni Traveling Fellow - School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University, Boston, MA - 2018
Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship - Hamiltonian Gallery, Washington, DC - 2018
AICAD Teaching Fellowship - San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA - 2017
Emergency Grant - Foundation for Contemporary Art, New York, NY - 2016
Presentation of the artist
Helina Metaferia is a multidisciplinary artist working in performance, video, collage and assemblage. Her work questions the politics of the body in space, particularly with respect to notions of identity and citizenship.
Helina Metaferia is interested in using art as an excuse to have meaningful conversations about time, space, and belonging. A large part of her creative inquiry is devoted to asserting the black body into sites of systemic oppression — including institutional spaces, art history, gentrified communities, or land marked by historic trauma. Throughout her work, she is constantly reflecting on the notions of "home" and how our racial and gendered body complicates this. Formally, her art exists as an interdisciplinary synthesis of performance, video, installation, assemblage and mixed media collage. She often uses her own body in his practice, and sometimes work with the bodies of members of her community through participation and collaboration.
Helina's work is recognized by major institutions and has been exhibited in venues such as the Museum of the African Diaspora (San Francisco), the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Smack Mellon (New York), the Detroit Museum of Contemporary Art (Detroit) and the Gebre Kirtos Desta Center Museum of Modern Art (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia).
She received her MFA in 2015 from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and attended the School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan. Her artist residencies include the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, MASS MoCA and Triangle Arts Association. She has taught in BFA and MFA programs at the San Francisco Art Institute, Michigan State University and Parsons Fine Arts.
She is currently Andrew W. Mellon Fellow/Assistant Professor at Brown University and lives and works in New York City.
Nationality : United States
In connection with
Versant Sud, Marseille - France
CV
Born in
Education
2016
Participant, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
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2015
MFA - Interdisciplinary Art, Tufts University - School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
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2005
BA - Fine Art - Painting, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD
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2001
Course study, Temple University - Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Solo exhibitions & presentations
2020
Against A Sharp White Background, Gallery 360 - Northeastern University, Boston, MA
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2019
By Way of Revolution, SCENE Metrospace Gallery (with performance at MSU Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum) - Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
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2018
Refiguring the Canon, Hamiltonian Gallery, Washington, DC
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2017
Home/Free, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
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2015
Ancestral Honoring, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (solo performance)
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2014
Re-Collections, Mission Hill Gallery - School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
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2013
Great Migration, International African Studies Association Conference, Baltimore, MD
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2012
Helina Metaferia: Divine Feminine, River Views Artspace, Lynchburg, VA
CV
Group exhibitions & fairs
2020
The Art of Choosing Sides, Alabama Contemporary Art Center, Mobile, AL (forthcoming)
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2020
A Beautiful Struggle, Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI
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2020
Still Here, HUB-Robeson Gallery - Penn State University, University Park, PA
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2020
In/Flux: On Influence, Inspiration, Transformation, Ortega y Gasset Projects, Brooklyn, NY
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2020
Cold Hands, Warm Heart, Brentwood Arts Exchange, Brentwood, MD
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2019
Idol Worship, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY
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2019
Unboxing: Double Speak, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, MI
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2019
Addis Video Art Festival: Mutual Periphery, Modern Art Museum, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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2019
Love In the Time of Hysteria, Prizm Art, Miami, FL
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2019
Behind the Seen, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY
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2019
Still Here, Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
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2019
Look Us Over, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL
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2019
Artscape Performance Series, Baltimore Office of Promotion & Arts, Baltimore, MD
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2019
Overlooked, Greater Reston Arts Center, Reston, VA
CV
Publications & essays
2020
McQuaid, Cate. “The Ticket: What’s Happening in the Local Arts World,” The Boston Globe, February 6, 2020
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2019
Irwin, Shelly, “Ah-Fest.” WGVU Public Media, Muskegon, MI. October 17, 2019. Radio.
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2019
Jenkins, Mark. “In the Galleries: An exhibition that draws attention to overlooked issues,” The Washington Post, August 23, 2019.
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2019
Rems, Janet. “These are not walls, these are wounds.” Fairfax County Times, August 9, 2019.
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2019
Trouillot, Terence. “As Detroit’s Reputation for Emerging Artist Grows, Here Are the Most Striking Works at the Wildly Ambitious Detroit Art Week 2019,” Artnet News, July 30, 2019.
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2018
Ballin, Sofya. “5 Black Artists You Can’t Miss at Prizm Art Fair 2018,” OkayAfrica, December 3, 2018.
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2018
Soboleva, Ksenia M. “A Collective Gives Female Curators a Room of Their Own,” Hyperallergic, November 7, 2018.
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2018
Jenkins, Mark. “In the Galleries: The American Character, as Modeled by 11 Female Artists,” The Washington Post, September 7, 2018.
