Cedric Mizero: OPEN STUDIO
8629 Crenshaw Blvd, Inglewood, CA 90305
Tuesday, September 13 at 12:00 PM 2:00 PM
Ends Oct 7, 2022
The Crenshaw Dairy Mart Gallery is thrilled to announce OPEN STUDIO, a series of ongoing intimate presentations of international artists’ works from the diaspora - Africa in particular - and their dialogue with local Inglewood and South Central-based artists. CDM strives to share the stories, the artists, and the artists’ presence from the continent, across Western Africa and Eastern Africa. The first two artists CDM will share presentations of works by are specifically from Rwanda. The conversations between these artists look to Rwanda’s history of healing and a recurring narrative of resilience and repair. Most importantly, the first two artists of this series have been part of a legacy of community builders, organizers, and healers through their works in the arts in their respective communities in Rwanda. These artists are part of a large cohort of Rwandan artists at the forefront of an arts renaissance that is currently shifting conversations across the continent, and in turn the arts globally. CDM’s ongoing work as a collective, organization, and gallery is deeply tied to this dialogue from the diaspora, in the centering of healing, care, and resilience. By centering abolition in our own work, we continue to center the artwork of artists, internationally and locally, at the frontlines of repair, healing, and care in their respective communities. _ Cedric Mizero ( @cedric_mizero ) is a Rwandan artist and filmmaker whose work is characterized by his investigation of personal and collective memories, design, and aesthetics. The Crenshaw Dairy Mart (@crenshawdairymart ) is pleased to present an intimate selection of works from the series, Protection, for OPEN STUDIO. The series, Protection, is part of a large body of mixed media artworks Mizero has been developing since 2017. The works from the series navigate much of the artist’s personal and collective memories anchored in the artist and Rwanda’s relationship to the church. Continued in comments: 1d crenshawdairymart's profile picture crenshawdairymart Verified Continued: Throughout the series, Mizero utilizes textile in relationship to bodies that become armored through religious iconography such as rosaries and medallions, citing the two as his primary medium in the series. Mizero’s artworks and projects are largely mobilized through community collaborations and conversations with upwards of 100 women artisans and craftworkers in his hometown of Kigali, as well as across Rwanda. These collaborations are a large part of Mizero’s discourse in creating work which is centered in the healing of collective memory in community, as well as building resilience through community efforts. For Mizero’s work, this resilience and healing is created over time and is in conversation with a history of indigenous practices which have centered collective fiber work as a practice towards collective healing. This is largely prevalent in the collective, intricate beading, weaving, embroidery, and embellishments in his sculptures and mixed-media works developed across conversations with his communities. As part of Cedric Mizero : OPEN STUDIO, the artist presents an intimate screening of Protection (2021), a short film developed by the artist as part of the residency, Aby Concept.* Cedric Mizero is the director of Umutima / The Heart (Rwanda, 2022), Dreaming My Memory (Rwanda, 2019), and New Life in the Village (Rwanda, 2019). He is the production designer, costume designer and provided artistic direction to Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman’s Neptune Frost (Rwanda / USA, 2021). Cedric Mizero’s work has previously been exhibited at Galerie Cécile Fakhoury (Abidjan, Ivory Coast), 180 Strand (London, UK), and Kigali Fashion Week (Kigali, Rwanda) and is currently on view at the Frick Art Museum (Pittsburgh, USA) in collaboration with FashionAFRICANA. Cedric Mizero : OPEN STUDIO will be on view from Monday, September 12 through Friday, October 7, 2022 by appointment only. All appointments can be made by emailing info@crenshawdairymart.com. *Spiritual Armor: An Interview between Cedric Mizero and Kami Gahiga
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