“Call & Response” Artist Talk: Anna McNeary, Jungil Hong, Donnabelle Casis & Cicely Carew

Join us for the fourth in our series of “Call & Response” conversations with Senior Curator Francine Weiss and exhibiting artists, a glimpse into the Museum’s permanent collection through the fresh eyes of regional artists working in an array of media, and learn more about their selections and evocative responses.

Joining us for this talk are artists Anna McNeary, Jungil Hong, Donnabelle Casis and Cicely Carew. Each artist in this group has in some way been inspired by artists whose work speaks to our private lives, stories and activities. A view into a young woman’s bedroom, lovingly made heirloom quilts, the collaged depiction of an interior space…invitations into these intimate spaces compel us to consider the unspoken stories of the individual maker, in context of their lives and work.

Talk will be delivered Live on Zoom, and link will be sent directly to registrants.

Anna McNeary

Anna McNeary is an interdisciplinary artist working in print, fiber, sculpture and installation. Her work draws on the familiarity of pattern, decoration, garments and domestic materials. By gently subverting motifs, spaces and objects reminiscent of comfort and functionality, she explores the necessity of intimacy, the pressures of social performance, and the complicated dynamics of emotional exchange.

She holds an MFA in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design, and has exhibited at venues across the United States, including Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center’s {Re}HAPPENING Festival (Asheville, NC), The Compound Gallery (Oakland, CA), Not Gallery (Austin, TX), Newport Art Museum (RI), and International Print Center New York. Selected residencies and awards include a Post-Graduate Apprenticeship at The Fabric Workshop and Museum (Philadelphia, PA), a Monson Arts residency (Monson, ME), an upcoming Santa Fe Art Institute residency (NM), and a RISD Graduate Fellowship. She is currently based in Providence, RI where she teaches at Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design, and is a member of The Wurks art collective.

Jungil Hong

Donnabelle Casis

I am a Filipina-American artist. My paintings explore the relationship of personal identity and ritual to visual systems of signification in both ancient and modern cultures. Through the use of patterns and geometry, I reassemble disparate and discrete iconographic sources into unified compositions as an analog of cultural hybridity. Filipino tribal tattoos and textiles, trajes de luces (suits of light) or bullfighting costumes, and facial recognition software inform my aesthetic decisions. Filipino tribal imagery is tied to storytelling, marks of accomplishment, and societal roles. Spanish bullfighting costume colors and embellishments have deep ties to familial history and status. Facial recognition software maps physical characteristics which determine one’s visual identity. I filter these and other images to create my own configurations rich in a variety of interpretations.

I earned an MFA in painting from the University of Washington. My work has been included in solo/group exhibitions in national/international galleries including: Widener Gallery at Trinity College, Oresman Gallery at Smith College, BoeckerContemporary, Ely Center for Contemporary Art, Platform Gallery, LABspace, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Carroll and Sons Gallery, Wing Luke Asian Museum, among others. I received the Neddy Artist Fellowship from the Behnke Foundation, a New Works Laboratory residency from 911 Media Arts Center, Massachusetts Cultural Council and Northampton Arts Council Grants. My work is part of several public and private collections.

Cicely Carew

Cicely Carew spent her formative years in Los Angeles surrounded by artists, writers, sculptors, photographers, and teachers. She recently completed her MFA from Lesley Art + Design in Cambridge, MA. Carew actively exhibits her work in group shows and creates public art installations, one of which is on the exterior of the Northeastern University College of Media, Arts and Design building. She recently completed the Artful Seeds Fellowship The Art Connection, where she designed workshops, created custom work, and went beyond the scope of the fellowship to create a collaborative mural project for Bay Cove’s Mental Health organization’s clients and staff. Carew has received several honors and grants over the years such as the Cambridge Art Association’s Emerging Artists Exhibition award, the Sustainable Arts Foundation award, Strauch-Mosse Merit Scholarship Award, and a Cambridge Arts Council grant. Carew’s work is in private, corporate, and University collections. She currently lives in Cambridge, MA with her son.