En la luz de la quietud / In light of stillness

Join artist Nadia Liz Estela at the Newark Museum of Art for a contemplative meditative performance and temporary installation. The audience is invited to reflect on memory and the passage of time as they participate in the communal weaving of discarded shirts. Members of the community have donated the traditional button-down shirts, and the ripping and braiding of the shirts -an act of doing and undoing- is a labor of love, stillness, and prayer. The performance of braiding and weaving is informed by the artist’s mother's work as a seamstress in Newark’s garment factories. The performance and fabrication of this artwork are meant to create a meditative space for the artist and the audience. Estela says of her practice: “The laborious process that a seamstress endures in creating garments is akin to the same type constructive and arduous process that we go through to weave ourselves together as a whole of many parts.”

This program was made possible by Advancing Latinx Art in Museums, an initiative to nurture and prioritize US Latinx art supported by the Ford Foundation, the Getty Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Bio:

Nadia Liz Estela is an interdisciplinary artist, working across painting, performance, and installation. She creates a visual language that lies somewhere between abstraction and magical realism, utilizing the histories of desire and labor within found materials and textiles. Nadia Liz Estela is the recipient of the 2024 Newark Creative Catalyst Grant and the 2024 New Jersey Individual Artist Award Fellowship.

Host or Publisher Newark Museum of Art