Opening: Saturday, September 14, 2024 | 11am – 5pm
On view: Fridays through Sundays, September 13 – 22, 2024 | 11am – 5pm
Location: RU House at Colonels Row, Building #404B on Governors Island
Ferry information | Video directions | Map to RU House
The House of Confluence
Art residencies are like confluences – people from different places travel, gather, and work for some time, and various ideas, approaches, and practices flow with each other. NYC, a unique urban confluence, has bodies of water flowing around, and where some of them confluence, there is a historically layered island – once referred to as Paggank (meaning nut island) by the native Lenape, later reserved for colonial governors, then used as a military base that was decommissioned in the 1990s. Governors Island is now open to the public, art, culture, and education. The row of former houses has a new function now – every year from May to October, various organizations become temporary hosts with activities through the “Organizations in Residence” program of Governors Island Arts. Residency Unlimited (RU), a renowned international art residency program in NYC, is an organization in residence at one of these houses. For some time in 2024, this becomes “The House of Confluence” where various approaches coalesce through exhibitions and open studio events.
Living Room Portfolio
In September 2024, “The House of Confluence” presents a group exhibition and open studio event “Living Room Portfolio.” It showcases the works of five artists currently in the residency program of RU: Hila Amram, Alexandra Jonscher, Paula Malinowska, Noa Renert-Domniz and Muhammad Toukhy. This exhibition is curated by RU Curator Data Chigholashvili.
“Living Room Portfolio” is conceived as an experimental exhibition, which reflects on residencies and incorporates the open studio format. It takes place as part of “The House of Confluence” at the RU house on Governors Island, where artists have studios, as well as exhibitions, open studios, and other events take place – creating possibilities of meetings and exchanges, discovering the works of international artists, and learning about art scenes in different parts of the world. The living rooms of this former house are now often used as exhibition spaces, while artists’ studios are in various parts of the building. In this experimental format, studios extend through the exhibition spaces, and selected materials of resident artists are presented in the “living room areas.” On Saturdays (Sept. 14 and 21), selected participating artists will be the hosts in the space – while their works will be on display in the exhibition, visitors will have additional possibilities to view the artists’ portfolios, which will unfold throughout the exhibition setting itself and create possibilities for engagement and discussions.
Host artists
Saturday, September 14
Hila Amram, Alexandra Jonscher, Noa Renert-Domniz, Muhammad Toukhy
Saturday, September 21
Alexandra Jonscher, Paula Malinowska, Noa Renert-Domniz, Muhammad Toukhy
About
Hila Amram is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans sculpture, video, and mixed media, where she intricately explores and challenges the concepts within natural forms and scientific fields such as biology and archaeology. Hila’s artistic inquiry addresses the profound impact of human activities on the natural world, often provoking ethical considerations surrounding scientific progress. Her art has been featuring in significant exhibitions like Glasstress 2015 Gotika at the Fondazione Berengo in Venice, and her contributions to the art world have been acknowledged with several prestigious awards, including the Sharett Foundation Award.
Alexandra Jonscher is an artist, creative producer and curator who practices in painting and new media. She studied Painting at Sydney College of the Arts and was awarded the ‘Zelda Stedman Young Artist Scholarship’ in 2019. She has shown in regional galleries including Bankstown Art Centre and Gosford Regional Galleries and has been a selected finalist in the ‘Fisher’s Ghost Art Award (Open Category)’ at Campbelltown Art Centre. In 2023, she curated and co-produced a temporary public art project for Sydney WorldPride called the ReVITALise Rainbow Tunnels Project commissioned by Transport for NSW. The project ‘SlipStream’ was acclaimed by the Asia Pacific Place Leaders award as the best Small Scale Place Project in 2024. Alexandra is currently represented by DARLINGS and has works held in private collections in Australia, the Asia-Pacific and the USA.
Paula Malinowska is a digital artist and photographer whose artistic practice includes CGI audiovisual works, 3D graphics, animation and 3D printing techniques. Her artistic research is based on studies in the field of biology, climatology or the development of digital technologies. Working with elements of fantasy and fiction, her work explores the mutual relationship between science and myth, the rational and the intuitive, in the hope of connecting them. In 2022, Paula became the winner of an Secondary Archive open call for female artists from the V4 countries (Platform for female artists from Central and Eastern Europe). In 2023, she was one of the artists in residency in MuseumsQuartier in Vienna, Austria. Paula Malinowska is one of the 2024 laureates of the Oskar Čepan Award for contemporary art in Slovakia.
Noa Renert-Domniz explores the nature of vulnerability and addresses what it means to be “at home”, both in the physical architectural space and in one’s body. Noa’s interest in the concept of home stems from her having resided in three different continents and having moved often throughout her life. In exploring the subtlety of “home”, the artist continuously question what makes the physical space around one’s body a home. She works with the domestic and mundane, taking interest in moments of contemplation, reflection, sleep, and solitude. Working mainly with India ink, oil paint, oil paint sticks and lithography printmaking, she grounds her work in a heavily analog processes, incorporating visibly hand-made attributes, in order to remain close to the human experiences.
Muhammad Toukhy is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice revolves around themes of history, trauma, and esotericism. Muhammad’s works delve into collective memory through personal experience. His works combine personal and mundane narratives with moments of fantasy, serving as a method to facilitate a cathartic reimagining of traumatic memory. Muhammad has participated in various solo and group exhibitions in recent years, locally and internationally, some of which were at the Kupferman Collection House, Lohamei HaGetaot (2023), Umm al-Fahm Art Gallery (2022), Ta’ar Gallery in Tel Aviv (2023), Crypt Gallery in London (2024), CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo (2024) and Wannsee Contemporary in Berlin-Wannsee (2023).
This program is supported by the Trust for Mutual Understanding, The Neighborhood: An Urban Center for Jewish Life and Artis.
RU is grateful for the partnership with Governors Island Arts.
