Coagulants

If images flow through the digital world like blood through the veins, the works included in this show clot that flow. They present points where images from myriad sources congeal. These viscous artworks slow down the usually rapid consumption of digital media through their densely layered and complexly referential compositions. Not only must we look longer and closer at these pieces to discern what it is we are seeing, but when their constituent elements are parsed it becomes clear that these works are tied to specific localities and positionalities, rather than the disembodied globalness which often characterizes the digital realm.
 
Some images don’t glide as seamlessly across the globe as others. Some disasters are localized, some information doesn’t make it passed borders and some people bring many places with them as they travel. These artists curdle the seemingly unmoored flow of digital images to comment on environmental crisis, diasporic identity and access to information.
 
Group Exhibition featuring Shanna Merola, Nkiruka Oparah and Sheida Soleimani
Curated by Emily Leifer
 
 
About the Artists:
 
Shanna Merola received her BFA in Photography from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007 and her MFA in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2011. Merola, an Adjunct Professor at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, has exhibited in many Detroit galleries as well as the University of Toledo Center for the Visual Arts.
 
Nkiruka Oparah received her BA in Psychology from The University of Georgia in 2008 and her Post- Baccalaureate degree in Fashion Marketing from Parsons in 2011. Oparah has exhibited her artwork internationally at venues such as the Southbank Centre in London, the Ford Foundation in Lagos and Goodman Gallery in Cape Town.
 
Sheida Soleimani received her BFA from the University of Cincinnati in 2012 and her MFA in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2015. Solemani is currently the AICAD Fellow & Assistant Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. She has exhibited internationally at venues such as the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati and ROMPONE gallery in Cologne.