Crisp-Ellert Art Museum welcomes Peruvian artist

For The Recorder

Flagler College welcomes Seattle-based Peruvian-born artist and independent curator Rafael Soldi as the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum’s (CEAM) Artist-in-Residence from Nov. 16 through Nov. 30. An artist talk with Soldi will be held at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 22 at Flagler College’s Ringhaver Student Center Virginia Room, 50 Sevilla St., St. Augustine.

This event is free and open to the public.

Soldi is an artist and curator based in Seattle, Washington, who utilizes video, photography, installation, text and performance. Soldi blends personal history with collective memory to explore how gender expectations are deeply embedded in language and childhood games — and how they can be destabilized. His recent works implicate a type of masculinity that favors violence and erases the necessity of intimacy and connection.

During his residency, Soldi will work on his upcoming book and engage with students and faculty through class visits, student critiques and public programming. Soldi’s text-based works focus on the fluidity and dissonance of the bilingual experience, revealing the gendered power structures integrated into language. He analyzes this state of in-betweenness, providing nuanced insight into immigrant identity while also offering a rich metaphor for queer experience.

The CEAM Artist Residency, in collaboration with Flagler College’s Department of Art & Design, is a regular program of artists-in-residence to engage in themes of place-making while collaborating with some aspect of St. Augustine’s local community, the city’s significant and varied roles in American history, or its rich natural environment.

A goal of the residency is to foster diverse perspectives on these aspects of our local community, and artists and scholars in a range of fields are invited to integrate and collaborate between the areas of fine art and broader fields of inquiry, such as curatorial practice, performing arts and creative writing.

A grant from the Dr. JoAnn Crisp-Ellert Fund and The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida backs the CEAM Artist Residency. CEAM programming is also supported by the St. Johns County Tourist Development Council, the St. Johns Cultural Council and voco, an IGH hotel.

For further information on CEAM programming, go to www.flagler.edu/ceam or contact interim director Helena Rodriguez at 904-826-8530 or crispellert@flagler.edu.