Artist Bios
Aaron Akira (b. 1992 in Oakland, CA) is a painter and sculptor who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. His work has been recently featured in the Minetta Review, as well as part of the Et Tu Art Brute group show at the Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York City. Previously he participated in a NEA funded show at Red Space in Cleveland Ohio.
Nico Alonso (b.1991 in Teaneck, NJ) is an audio-visual artist, illustrator, and curator. A quotidian technologist, she uses consumer-accessible tools such as the iPhones, discarded televisions, home-electronics, and more, to produce her music and video works under the pseudonym MadamGuru. Her painting and illustration follow a similar trend, incorporating collagable found and dollar-store sourced materials; namely stickers, children’s drawings, and construction-detritus. She has performed at the Weltzhiemer-Johnson Frank Lloyd Wright House, PS1 MoMA, Secret Project Robot, among other venues, and is featured in a video work addressing the international refugee crisis, which is currently touring throughout Europe and South America with The National Gallery of Ireland. Alonso often works in an advisory capacity with artists to hone professional skills such as inventory and client management, invoicing, PR, and is an advocate for independently operating artists, curators, and organizers across arts disciplines. In October of 2014, Alonso co-curated artist Jason Akira Somma's debut solo museum show "Because I Hate Technology", which was on view at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, NL through January of 2015. Previously, she has worked with ROOM EAST gallery in New York, NY; the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, OH; the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, OH; SLP Art Culture Commerce in New York, NY; and more. Alonso is based in New York, NY. She is currently the Managing Editor and Staff for the nomadic art radio and events platform, Clocktower.
Bianca Dudeck-Mandity is a synesthetic painter whose work explores the visual landscapes created through a variety of sensory stimuli. She is the chair of 2d and textile studies at the Glick School of Art in Indianapolis, IN. Her work has been displayed globally and she has lectured across the United States on color theory and rendering. You can view more of her work on www.biancandm.com
Reem Saad, a native of planet Earth, or more precisely, from the sea in Tunisia, is a visual artist. Reem is a cinephile, and a daughter of cinephiles. After a baccalaureate in mathematics, she embarks on the Institute of Fine Arts, diving freely in the clear waters of art workshops. Ultimately, she decided to specialize in audio-visual arts. Having graduated with honors from a master’s in arts and communication, Reem pursues her passion with a research master’s in the sciences and techniques of the arts (with a major in art theory) from which she graduates in 2011 with highest honors. In parallel to academia, she plunges into the world of production and publishing (ViewDesign International). Reem first taught at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts, followed by five years of teaching at the Tunisian School of Architecture and Urbanism. Since 2016, she dedicates herself body and soul to her introspective watercolors; a technique and concept she started living in 2012. This mode of rigorous and colored introspection throws her back to her primary quest: being on the side of the living being. Reem exhibits since 2006: ink drawing, conceptual photography, watercolor.
Jim Zola has worked in a warehouse, as a security guard, in a bookstore, as a teacher for Deaf children, as a toy designer for Fisher Price, and currently as a children's librarian. Published in many journals through the years, his publications include a chapbook -- The One Hundred Bones of Weather (Blue Pitcher Press) -- and a full length poetry collection -- What Glorious Possibilities (Aldrich Press). He currently lives in Greensboro, NC