A Lil of Abstraccíon Queer Sudaca

A workshop with artist + educators Ad Minoliti + Catalina Schliebener on queer or feminist abstraction based in the global south.

Artist and educators Ad Minoliti and Catalina Schliebener present a class and workshop that repositions abstraction out of its history as a tool of white essentialism and colonialism that has been perpetuated by art education. Rather, Minoliti who will be present virtually and Schliebener who will lead the in-person workshop will guide participants through a decolonial teaching of the origins of abstraction focusing on artists from the global south that work in queer or feminist abstraction. In line with the themes of Future Schools and in relation to Minoliti’s installation, participants will be given the framework to learn and engage with modern abstraction outside of its common depiction as the origins of the euro-vanguards.

After a short lecture, participants will collage caricatures out of abstract artwork from art history into characters in a zine, adding comic-style speech balloons to create dialogue between the pieces. The invitation is to take a queer, whimsical, and collaborative approach with all pages being combined into one collaborative zine at the end of the workshop. Collage materials will be provided, but outside materials are welcomed.

RESERVATIONS: Admission is free but reservations are required.

ACCESSIBILITY: This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs. To request free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service, email your request at least three weeks in advance of the event to info@nationalacademy.org.

About the Speakers

Ad Minoliti is an Argentinian-born artist primarily working as painter with an expansive practice: a nonbinary approach to geometric abstraction, as a speculative science fiction from which to create from paintings to functional installations, and programs for local communities, like the Feminist School of Painting, Bird Hotel, or Sala Peluche, an art gallery in Buenos Aires with a trans, anti-racist exhibition program.

Minoliti's work is based on their readings of feminist and queer theories and the Latin American legacy of geometrical art. They exhibited in the USA, Brazil, Puerto Rico, France, Mexico, South Korea, Japan, Peru, China, Spain, Bolivia, Chile, Portugal, India, among other countries. Minoliti has participated at the Bienal del Mercosur, the Aichi Triennale, Front Cleveland Triennial, Venice Biennale, and Gwangju Biennale.

Catalina Schliebener Muñoz (b.1980), is a Chilean-born, trans and intersex visual artist and educator based in Brooklyn. Their research and collage-based practice extends across multiple media, including work on paper, sculpture, installations, and mixed-media murals. Their work focuses on everyday images and objects related to popular constructions of childhood and adolescence and explores and interrogates learned stereotypes around gender, sexuality, class and nationalism. Children’s books, cartoons, movies, pedagogical objects, costumes, and games are frequent sources of material in their work.

They earned a BA in Philosophy and a BFA from Universidad ARCIS (Santiago, Chile). Schliebener Muñoz has exhibited their work internationally, including solo shows at Queens Museum, NY; Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh; Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, NY; Boston Center for the Arts, Boston; Centro Cultural de España, Santiago, among others. They have shown in recent group exhibitions at the National Academy of Design, NY; Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, NY; Children’s Museum of Manhattan, NY; Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY, among others.

Image: Ad Minoliti, Installation view of Fantasías Modulares, MASS MoCA. Courtesy of the artist.