Instructor: Esperanza Cortés
Monday - Tuesday
June 2 - 3
10am - 4pm
2 sessions, at Edgewood Farm

Memory as a subject matter, a process and a tool to evoke notions of meaning. Drawing inspiration from artist who use memory to create, such as Louise Bourgeois, Louise Nevelson and Joseph Cornell, all of which drew inspiration from memory, particularly their own personal experiences and recollections, to inform their artistic process. My own work has been fueled by memories both personal, familial, communal, and national, creating a commemorative and healing experience. The object is to create a work which is as unique as you are. Using objects, textures and images that stimulate our senses and the senses of the viewer. Through the inclusion of personal materials that are part of your life, be they photos, a piece of cloth, embroidery, beads, a keepsake, or a letter. Your final memory artwork will tell a rich, detailed story one that’s completely personal to you. Celebrating wonderful moment, place, sound, scent or feeling. Your memory inspired artwork can preserve the moments that mean the most to you. I will provide a variety of small quantities of glass beads from my studio and a small container of cold wax medium for each participant.

What can you use for a memory inspired work?

• Photographs

• Family mementos

• Pieces of fabric

• Broken jewelry

• Keepsakes

• A poem

Esperanza Cortés is a Colombian born multidisciplinary artist based in New York City. Cortés’ passion for the mosaic of the Americas, its folk art traditions, rituals, music, dance and their ever evolving changes are at the core of her sculptures, paintings, installations, site-specific projects and interventions. Her artwork examines the extent to which a consciousness—national or personal—defines itself through the opposing force of transcultural experiences. The work is poetically and intricately crafted to encourage the viewer to reconsider social and historical narratives, especially when dealing with Colonialism, and raises critical questions about the politics of erasure and exclusion. As a former Afro-Latin dancer, her work seeks to underscore and use sacred space, the patterns of dance, music and fragments of histories as departure points to investigate and build the structure and space of the installations. Cortés has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in venues including Smack Mellon Gallery, Bronx Museum of Art, Queens Museum, El Museo del Barrio, MoMA PS1 and Socrates Sculpture Park in NYC. National exhibitions include Albright-Knox Gallery, Ogden Contemporary Arts, Turchin Center for The Visual Arts, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Neuberger Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Art Museum. She has been part of international exhibitions in Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Japan, Mexico, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Spain and Greece. Cortés’ awards include: New York State Council on the Arts Project Grant, Shortlist 2022 Creative Capital, John Simon Guggenheim, Hispanic Society Museum and Library Artist Research Fellowship, BRIC Media Arts Fellowship, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Grant, Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, Puffin Foundation Grant, New York State Biennial, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts and the Sustained Achievement in the Visual Arts Award.
Read full bio here.