2021

Monira Foundation 2021 wrap-up!

This year Monira Foundation has cemented its place with the Art Community through an extraordinary year of exhibitions, programs, and residencies. Some highlights from the year include:

Our first Open Call for 12 month artist residencies. Attracted 90+ applications and we welcomed five incredible artists into the program – Patricia Ayres, Andrew Moeller, Mara DeLuca, Kevin Quiles Bonilla, & Rowan Renee.
12 incredible exhibitions which included: Artist as Subject, in Beacon NY, Intertwined, in Chicago Illinois (supported through a grant from DCASE), My Home Your Home, Lower East Side, NY, Tales Told From Fold Out Chairs, HCCC Jersey City NJ.
An entire concert series performed by Pegasus the Orchestra on our virtual Stage.

We also moved into our own physical space in Suite 440 where we are now hosting two studios, an exhibition space and the Milcom Memorial Reading Room.

With your support, Monira will continue this good work in 2022. Click here to learn more and to make a secure and tax-deductible contribution.

Together, we can truly make a difference.

THANK YOU!

Monira Foundation

My Home Your Home, NY

Aug 1-31

In Partnership with HOME Gallery we presented a street view exhibition by Monira artists in residency: Lorenzo Brusci, Anne Muntges, Regina Parra and Rashad Wright. Home is an idea we tell ourselves about who we are and who and what we want to be. What can a home become when it is no longer a place but an idea of where we belong and what secures us in the world? Through a 4 week long installation, artists built a weekly changing exhibition, an exquisite corpse, looking to find meaning and connections between their works about what home is for themselves and others.

Open Archives, Jonas Mekas Studio

ongoing

A weekly glimpse into the personal archives of the late filmmaker and artist Jonas Mekas, who for over eight decades chronicled his life with typewriter and camera. Ranging from ephemera to video diaries, unseen letters to newly transferred reel-to-reel audio recordings, each week will focus on an item from the archives at its new home at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City.

Monira Fridays, NJ

Dec 3rd

A community program in the format of an open mic or film screening Hosted and Co-presented by ROQ Initiative.

Performance Residency with SMUSH, NJ

Nov & Dec

For November and December 2021, we are pleased to welcome SMUSH Gallery. SMUSH Gallery is a space for creative and community work in the Journal Square neighborhood of Jersey City. Since 2018, they have hosted vibrant, thought-provoking visual and performing art events alongside artist workshops, residencies, civic activations, and community conversations.

In Good Company, NJ

Dec 10

The Monira Foundation is pleased to partner with Mana Contemporary Chicago to present a group exhibition of works by current Mana Contemporary Chicago residents from December 10 – January 7, 2022. As an extension of our Open House Chicago, In Good Company presents recent works of artists in residence, hoping to open up conversation with the viewers regarding their practice and what it means to produce.

Ongoing

The Milcom Memorial Reading Room

An ESTAR(SER) series; part of the programming of the “Milcom Memorial Reading Room” at Mana Contemporary

Intertwined, Chicago

Sep 18

Intertwined, a public performance and exhibition, features artists Kio Zhu, Conrad Cheung, Jessica Katherine Tucker, Sal Moreno, Seamus Aloysius Carey, Yue Xu, Jung Ho Park, Mayte Gomez Molina, Ava Wanbli, Morgan Green, Cecilia Tyrrell, Bryan LeBeauf and special guest artists Yoshinojo Fujima aka Rika Lin (current High Concept Labs Resident Artist) and Fujima Ikunojo. September 18th from 1-6pm outdoors at Mana Contemporary, Chicago, Intertwined, will feature multiple performances and installations with focus on the intersection of art and technology.

Tales Told from Fold Out Chairs by Azikiwe Mohammed and in heaven’s wakanda by Rashad Wright, NJ

Feb 4 – Jun 4

An exhibition in partnership with the Hudson County Community College, featuring the works by resident artists: Azikiwe Mohammed and Rashad Wright

Monira Residencies Open Call

Jun 1-14

Monira Foundations Artist in Residence Program supports mid career artists who work in any visual arts media. Since 2011 the Monira Foundation (formerly Mana Residencies) has awarded rent-free, non-living studio space to artists for 12 months periods. Started by Karline Moeller and Ysabel Pinyol Blasi, this residency was through invitation only, but for the first time in the summer of 2021 we will be accepting artists through an open call. This residency is the gift of time, space, and community.

Holding Time, NY

Sep 11-17

On September 11, 2021, a group of artists who were children in proximity to the World Trade Center twenty years ago will present “Holding Time” at 412 W 13th st. The show examines the psychical afterlife of 9/11 as it has been mediated, consciously and unconsciously, in works that participants made in the intervening period, ranging from photographs taken on 9/11/01 to sculpture made in recent years. The self-organized show aims to challenge the bellicose narratives proffered by adults around 9/11, offering instead moments of open-endedness and intimacy in relation to events that are, in many ways, unfinished.

Longing For Something, NJ

Dec 2

Monira Foundation Presents Longing for Something is an exhibition of 21 artists united by work which contemplate moments of anticipation, yearning, and loss. Throughout the pandemic everyone experienced some form of aching for something better. Whether that was connection, family, health, safety, love, freedom, and/or divine intervention, we all experienced some form of longing. With the holidays fast approaching and the exhibit on view from November 13 to January 2, 2022, this show gives us the opportunity to confront this complex emotion that may also develop or re-emerge during the holidays. Curated by Cydney Williams.

Organizational Residency: Art LeadHER, NJ

Oct 15, 2021 – 2022

Designed to support our community better, artists are given a studio at Mana Contemporary and the opportunity to participate in Monira Foundation programming and work among a thriving community of professional artists. This year we have welcomed Mashonda Tifrere, director and founder of ArtleadHER. Mashonda will be leading monthly programs focused on professional development through powerful conversations with Art Leaders from across the country.