announcing the selections for play miami beach 2017

Following the success of last year’s open call for submissions, PLAY at PULSE Miami Beach 2017 again accepted proposals for video and digital art. Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Pauline Jampol, Co-Founders and Directors of Project For Empty Space, returned as the curators to adjudicate the open call. The nine finalists selected for PLAY Miami Beach 2017 are listed below. In addition to being shown onsite at PULSE, the works selected for PLAY will be shown in a month-long, pre-fair exhibition at Project For Empty Space from October 11 through November 19, 2017.

Join us in celebrating the selections at the PLAY Opening at Project For Empty Space on Tuesday, October 10, 2017 from 5pm to 7pm.

Each of the nine works selected by Wahi and Jampol relate to this year’s theme of POWER, a theme the curators chose to define in a broad sense, inviting artists to explore the multiple iterations of the word, it’s definitions, and the myriad of ways to interpret and contextualize power.

“By the time it reached its half-life, the year 2017 had witnessed the gamut of powerful events, powerful people, powerful movements, and powerful paradigm shifts. In feeling the impact of overwhelming examples of social, political, ecological, civil, economic, and even personal power (or lack thereof), we decided to address these moments through the PULSE PLAY program,” say Wahi and Jampol.

“The nine videos that we picked include works that contend with the stripping away of power through the lens of the oppressed or expose the dynamics of political dominance through the perspective of the spectator. Others intend to ameliorate the negative impacts of history, validate the power of personal achievement or emphasize the crippling impact of cultural power paradigms on the masses. Each of the videos selected are intended to illicit a visceral response and may be difficult to watch; a few may make you weep, gasp in shock, laugh with an unexplained sense of victory, or sigh with relief. It is our hope that this collection stirs you, and that you feel the full impact of our idea of power.”

We congratulate the artists selected and hope you will join us in celebrating their inclusion in PLAY at Project For Empty Space on Tuesday, October 10 from 5pm – 7pm. 

ABOUT JASMINE WAHI

Jasmine Wahi is a curator, activist, and the Founder and Co-Director of Project For Empty Space. Her practice predominantly focuses on issues of female empowerment, complicating binary structures within social discourses, and exploring multi-positional cultural identities through the lens of intersectional feminism.

Wahi received her undergraduate degree in art history from New York University, and attended the Institute of Fine Art. She began her art world endeavors in the South Asian Art Department at Christie’s Auction House, which was followed by positions in several contemporary Asian/South Asian art galleries around New York City. In 2008, she began working on curatorial projects, working with emerging and mid-career artists from across the globe.

In 2010, Wahi Co-Founded Project For Empty Space, a not-for-profit nomadic organization that creates multidisciplinary art exhibitions and programming that encourage social dialogue, education, and systemic change through the support of both artists and communities. In 2013, she began a long-term partnership in Newark, NJ, with Rebecca Pauline Jampol of Solo(s) Project House, to create a series of pop-up exhibitions under the moniker ‘Gateway Project Spaces.’ In 2015, Wahi and Jampol revamped the space, transforming it into a mixed-use space that housed both Project For Empty Space and a plethora of commercial artist studios. This ‘third space’ endeavor has since become a community for multi-disciplinary artists and a space for social discourse, activism, and change.

Additionally, Wahi is on faculty at the School of Visual Arts: MFA Fine Arts, where she focuses on Intersectional Feminism and Art Praxis. She is a former board member of the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective (SAWCC) and instructor for the Girls Educational Mentoring Services (GEMS) group. She has also co-organized numerous interventions and happenings as part of her social activist work.

Wahi’s curatorial work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Vogue, Vogue India, Hyperallergic, Whitewall Magazine, artnet, and ARTnews to name a few.

ABOUT REBECCA PAULINE JAMPOL

Rebecca Pauline Jampol is a curator and designer dedicated to cultivating impactful social dialogue and change through her interdisciplinary creative praxis. Her predominant interest is in fostering discourse through a variety of projects ranging from gallery work and publishing to public art programs.

After graduating from Rutgers University-Newark in 2008, she took a leading role in furthering the development of the city’s burgeoning arts scene. She moved forward to become the driving force in a myriad of cultural and educational initiatives including: Jajo Art Gallery; Glocally Newark; The 239 Collective (2010); Rutgers Future Scholars “I am” Program (2010); Solo(s) Project House (2010); The NeWWalls Newark Public Art Conference (2014); The Gateway Project Public Art Initiative (2014); Portals, Newark (2016); and most recently, The Newark Downtown District’s Entryway Program, “Gateways to Newark” (2016).

In 2013, Jampol began a long-term partnership in Newark, NJ, with Jasmine Wahi of Project For Empty Space to create a series of pop-up exhibitions under the moniker ‘Gateway Project Spaces.’ In 2015, Wahi and Jampol revamped their space into a mixed-use space that housed both Project For Empty Space and a plethora of commercial artist studios. This ‘third space’ endeavor has since become a community for multi-disciplinary artists and a space for social discourse, activism, and change.

She is also currently a lecturer and professor of design at Rutgers University – Newark.

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