Nica Aquino is a multidisciplinary artist, analog photographer & educator from Los Angeles, California. She holds a BFA in Photography from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon and an MA in Visual Culture from the School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom. Her work has been exhibited internationally in Manchester, United Kingdom; Belgrade, Serbia; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and nationally in Portland, Oregon; Los Angeles, California; San Antonio, Texas.

Her work reveals place, identity, diaspora and the cross-cultural experience largely through a photographic lens. Via photography, viewers see through the eyes of a first generation Ilokana-American trying to navigate North American culture and drawing inspiration from the people and places around her, exploring diverse immigrant diasporas and communities in the US and beyond. Most recently, her work has expanded to experiment with textiles, installation, video and sound; examining themes of memory and loss.

Nica is currently based & working in the Northeast Los Angeles community, where she is a teaching artist, independent curator & arts administrator.

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UPDATES:

Limbo Gallery & Bar
Poblacion, Makati City,
Metro Manila, Philippines
Exhibition Dates: Sat, January 19-Tues, February 19
Opening Reception: January 19

A Public Collection of the Hidden but Familiar

Accidental Intersections of Aesthetics and the Everyday (A Tropikalye Survey)

KRIS ARDEÑA
NICE BUENAVENTURA
LESLEY-ANNE CAO
JED ESCUETA
KOLOWN/Kolown
CZAR KRISTOFF/Laguna Daily
ALFRED MARASIGAN
MARK SALVATUS/Load Na Dito
SIDNEY VALDEZ
COSTANTINO ZICARELLI

My photo on view belongs to the Tropikalye index.



Tropikalye exists to document overlooked and underrepresented Filipino cultures of the present day. These cultures are everything in between the realms of the indigenous and the socio-economic elite - a speculated post-folk gray area that evolved from a more homogenous and rural folk culture. Through its gathering and presentation of personal observations made about the community by the community, vernacular wisdom is not lost to the wind.

From a digital space, the Tropikalye online index is extended to a physical one through A Public Collection of the Hidden but Familiar. With the exhibition format’s narrative capacities, enhanced by the co-presence of object and visitor, a new curiosity about creativity in the margins of society is anticipated. Recognizing the potential contributions to wider cultural development, the project’s goal is to introduce ‘hidden but familiar’ ways of life into mainstream consciousness.

In its first staging, A Public Collection features work by Filipino artists taking cues from the vernacular landscape, providing an initial survey of what it means to live in tropical and postcolonial conditions.

Limbo Gallery & Bar
5374, 1210 General Luna,
Makati, 1210 Metro Manila, Philippines

Open Thus-Sun, 6PM-2AM
Closed Mon-Wed

Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University
Moulton Hall
One University Drive
Orange, California 92866

Open Mon-Fri, 12PM-5PM,
Sat, 11AM-4PM
Closed Sundays

January 28th – March 10th, 2019
Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University

Nica Aquino
Nina Chanel Abney
Genevieve Gaignard
Chistine Tien Wang
Hayv Kahraman
Derek Fordjour

Co-curated by LakeLyn Bagge, Olivia Collins, Tram Dang, Marcus Herse, Grace Jones, Dane Nakama, Hannah Scott, Kayla Quinlan

More info TBA.

Borders: Representation and Reality 
MK Gallery
Feb 6th - Feb 27th, 2019
Opening Reception: Wed, Feb 6

In his seminal essay, "What is a Border?" Etienne Balibar write of the "heterogeneity and ubiquity of borders" and observes that "borders are everywhere". Though people often conflate borders with official political borders, borders are also social, cultural, economic, and psychological. Border walls and barbed wire fences gouge landscapes. Borders are etched in law books and embodied by state officials charged with coercing, confining, and deporting transgressors. Languages and dialects nourish communities, but also exclude people without linguistic knowledge or access to interpretation. Borders are mobile, etched on bodies, accompanying people as they traverse space. Furthermore, they are polysemic so that their effects and even their visibility vary depending on people's individual characteristics and social belongings. As a result, borders immobilize some and facilitate the mobility of others, perpetrating structural inequalities. 

Though borders structure the fabric of the social world, their nature is mysterious and opaque. Borders are not static. Indeed, borders in significant ways are the efforts to maintain and contest them - if people do not recognize and legitimize them, they cease to exist. In many respects, it is more sppropriate to speak of bordering rather than borders.  The heterogeneity, complexity, and peculiarity of borders call for multidisciplinary efforts to explore the ontological, socio-political, and cultural dimensions of borders. In this spirit, we invite artists and theorists across disciplines and media to present and exhibit in our gallery/symposium Borders: Representation and Reality.

MK Gallery
2000 SW 5th Ave
Portland, OR 97201

Open Mon-Fri, 10AM-5PM
Closed Sat & Sun

Curator:
Gabrijel Hammond Savic Ra

Organizers:
Alex Sager (Philosophy),
Angela Coventry (Philosophy),
Craig Epplir (World Languages)

Artists:
Hector H. Hernandez (Mexico/USA): www.hectorhh.com
Nica Aquino (Philippines/USA): www.nicaaquino.com
Vojislav Radovanovic (Serbia/USA): vojislavrad.wixsite.com/vojislavradovanovic
Okty Budiati (Indonesia): saatchiart.com/obudiati
Palash Bhattacharjee (Bangladesh): palashartistry.blogspot.com 
Hormone Sekine (Japan): www.super-blue.com

Panel:
Borders: Representation and Reality presented by the PSU Department of Philosophy Socratic Society.
February 13th, 2019, 5 p.m.
Location TBD
Elena Aviles (PSU, Chicao/Latino Studies)
Nica Aquino (artist)
Craig Epplin (PSU, World Languages, Spanish)
Hector H Hernandez (artist)
Angela Coventry [panel chair] (PSU, Philosophy) 

Thank you to the American Philosophical Association's Berry Fund for Public Philosophy for their support.

pdx.edu/philosophy/borders-representation-and-reality