This Fine Art Exhibit will take place Saturday, September 23rd from 3 – 6 p.m at The Hattiesburg Cultural Center (723 North Main Street). Meet the artists from 3 – 3:30 p.m. and enjoy the reception featuring a variety of international foods from 3:30 – 6 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.
“Artists Across Borders” is a collaborative group of eclectic artists that have made Hattiesburg, Mississippi their home. Hector Boldo, Allen Chen, Andrea Kostal, and Betty Press have been recently creating and exhibiting works focused on immigration stories, cultural connections, and social justice. They strive to communicate the value that immigrants bring to this country, as well the reciprocal value this country has brought to their lives.
Hector Boldo’s work is dynamic, full of color, and reflective of his roots, mood, and personality. In his work, he uses oils to deconstruct Mexican culture and American pop culture, folkloric dancing, celebrities, his dreams, and finds inspiration in other artists. Hector’s works start off as a sketch in his journal, an emotion, a photograph found online, or a random thought. Often this inspiration comes in waves, and he will paint a series in one theme, letting one piece inspire the other. Painting multiple pieces with a single theme in mind is one of the things he is passionate about. He continues to grow as an artist by exploring different media and is excited by all the amazing possibilities they can bring when combined. Hector has been working on a series of portraits of first-generation immigrants in the United States. The concept of these paintings is to tell the stories of these immigrants, specifically how they came to the United States or what they have done with their lives since being here. The goal of this series is to show the cultural value that immigrants bring to this country and the state of Mississippi.
Allen Chen is currently an Associate Professor of Ceramics in the School of Performing and Visual Arts at the University of Southern Mississippi. Allen’s grandparents fled communist China in 1949, along with his father who was 12-years old at the time. They settled on a small Taiwanese island and raised their family in hopes of more freedom and opportunity. Eventually, Allen’s father had the same aspirations for his own family, and in 1992 they immigrated to the United States. “The fact that I come from a long line of immigrants isn’t a unique thing. In fact, the choice to cross borders in hopes of new and better life opportunities is one of the most common origin stories in all of us. The relationship between borders and communities is the subject of an artistic exploration. And I hope my work contributes to the conversation to engage, explore, and bridge the crossing of borders.” -Allen Chen
Andrea Kostyal majored in textiles and graduated from the Secondary School of Fine Arts in Pecs, Hungary in 1999. Drawing, figure drawing, painting, and weaving were also a part of the 4-year program. Andrea moved to the United States in 2001. This was a significant shift in both her personal life and her art. There were many new things and her curiosity about the new environment sparked an interest in various techniques. She specializes in mixed media abstract cityscapes using a photo transfer technique. Locally, nationally, and internationally, Andrea has had solo and group exhibitions in museums, universities, galleries, as well as juried exhibitions. Her dreamlike paintings are inspired by urban landscape and nature that reflect experiences from her childhood and young adulthood. She enjoys careful planning of her detailed transferred photographs of street views as viewpoints in her paintings. They contain constructed forms between grids. These grids simultaneously connect shapes and forms along horizontal and vertical lines, like woven tapestry, creating rhythms, a sense of depth and visual spacing between detailed or compendious forms. Playful bubbles permeate the whole painting in poetic movement on the canvas, reflecting her feelings and moods.
Betty Press is a documentary photographer. For many years she has been documenting the black and white relationship in the deep South. Her award-winning photographs from Finding Mississippi have been widely exhibited and included in many public as well as private collections. She is well known for her photographs taken in Africa where she lived and worked for many years. In 2011 she published a stunning photobook: I Am Because We Are; African Wisdom in Image and Proverb. Since August 2019 she has been returning to Kenya to work on projects documenting urban culture and social injustice. Her latest project concerns families affected by excessive police violence in Nairobi’s informal settlements: THEY WERE US; Stories of Victims and Survivors of Police Brutality in Kenya. As a welcome respite to documenting such tragic stories of injustice, Betty’s most recent Storefronts Project images will be featured in the upcoming “Artists Across Borders” exhibit.
