Swann Salon: An Evening with Artists Sana Musasama & Dianne Smith

Описание: This is a livestream of a special talk held at Swann Auction Galleries featuring artists Sana Musasama and Dianne Smith in collaboration with the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation as they celebrate their 30th anniversary, alongside The Friends of the Tanner House and their efforts to save the historic home that belonged to Henry Ossawa Tanner.


Featured Speakers:

Sana Musasama:
Sana Musasama received her BA from City College of New York, NY (1974) and her MFA from Alfred University, NY (1987). Musasama began traveling as a way to recover identity and cultural place. Clay was a geographical catalyst that brought her first to West Africa. She studied Mende pottery in Sierra Leone (1974-75) and ventured later to Japan, China, South America and Cambodia. She has continued her quest, expanding her interests to tribal adornment practices in various indigenous cultures. She is challenged by the concerns surrounding the safety of women, specifically the rituals involving rites of passage, female chastity and the “purification” of the female body.
Musasama’s travels have transformed her and her approach to clay. Realizing that clay is universal, she believes that there is no dichotomy between her life and her work. Her trekking has taught her valuable lessons in observation, her mission speaks of a global citizen who walks through the artwork, heart first. Musasama’s work is informed by history, women’s studies, culture and her travel journal.



Dianne Smith:
Dianne Smith's career as a multidisciplinary artist began over twenty years ago as an abstract painter.
Her group and solo exhibitions include When the Tropics Are Quiet, Garner Arts Center, Two Turntables and a Microphone at The Bronx Museum, and Visions for Our Future Echoes of Our Past at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design. The Way We Remember, and Uptown Triennial, at the Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, and Re:Harlem, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Smith was the Director of Public Engagement at Allentown Art Museum and Adjunct Professor at City College of New York Department of Education. Her work is in The National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Bronx Museum, The Brodsky Organization, and the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art.

Additionally, her papers are in the Barnard College Library Archives and Special Collections. Smith is a Bronx native of Belizean descent. She received her Master's in Fine Art from Transart Institute in collaboration with Plymouth University, U.K., in Berlin, Germany. Smith currently lives and works in Harlem, New York.