Category: Exhibitions

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Join Me on Governors Island next weekend

Free Your Mind Public Art Installation @ Art Crawl Harlem

Live Art Demos on July 9, July 16, August 6 and August 20 from 11a – 3pm.

Location: Governors Island, 406b Colonels Row

The installation is on display through the end of August 2022.

Come hang out and play with me while I live weave a new emotional baggage cart.

Free Your Mind: Social Justice Public Art Installation
Free Your Mind is a collection of personal narratives. Participants are invited to share an personal experience with implicit bias to release this story from their personal narrative. Later, artist Theda Sandiford will weave these stories into a protective blanket. 
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July Exhibitions

Chutes and Ladders

Window Installation on display through July 30th

Location: Art 150, studio #231. 150 Bay Street.

Enter at Provost and First Street and ride the elevator to the 2nd floor. Studio # 231

Free Your Mind Public Art Installation @ Art Crawl Harlem

Live Art Demos: July 9, July 16, August 6 and August 20 from 11a – 3pm.

The installation runs through the end of August 2022

Location: Governors Island, 406b Colonels Row

Tell Me More About Yourself (Self-Portraits and other Autobiographical Endeavors)

Exhibition Dates: June 25, 2022 – August 5, 2022

Location: Gallery Aferro, 73 Market St, Newark, NJ

Public Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 12:00-6:00pm

Camouflage Pink Detail

2022 New Jersey Arts Annual: Reemergence.

Exhibition On View: June 18, 2022 – April 30, 2023

Museum Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 9am to 4:45pm; Closed Mondays and all State Holidays

Location: New Jersey State Museum; 205 West State Street Trenton NJ

Lady Whistledown

Sculpture Walk Springfield 2022-2023

Exhibition Dates: Now through May 21, 2023

Location: 411 N. Sherman Parkway, Springfield MO

Dorchester Road Rage
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Camouflage Pink

One hundred feet of rope, impeccably wrapped, woven, tied and embellished with beaded garland, ribbon, and silk flower bobbles lure you into a hue-imbued, installation symbolizing natural hair. This bold whimsical sculpture gingerly invites the audience into off the-wall conversations about implicit bias and black women’s hair..

Camouflage Pink Detail
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Free Your Mind from Microaggressions with Me this Saturday

“Free Your Mind” is a cascade of story ribbons tied to fishing nets draped upon the wall like a blanket. Visitors are invited to share written statements about experienced microaggression on a “story” ribbon which I will weave into the “Free Your Mind” blanket. Infusing the essence and yarn of each participant into the social fabric of a protective blanket.

Free Your Mind Public Art Installation

Exhibition Dates: On view for the public Thursday  through Sunday from 12:00 to 5:00PM until the end of August

Location: ArtCrawl Harlem @ Governors Island, 406b Colonels Row

Theda In Residence: June 25, July 2, July 16, from 11a – 3pm.

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Tell Me More About Yourself (Self-Portraits and other Autobiographical Endeavors)”

The exhibition casts a wide net and captures an impressive variety of interpretations on the ever-present artistic motif, offering the audience a rare treasure trove of old and new takes on the creative confessional that is the self-portrait.

Curated by Juno Zago
Exhibition Dates: June 25th – August 5th, 2022
Opening Reception – June 25th, 6-9pm
Location: Gallery Aferro Main Gallery, 73 Market St, Newark, NJ 

“Camouflage Pink” Mixed Media Fiber 100’x 1/2″ 2019
Camouflage Pink Detail
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June Exhibitions

Chutes and Ladders Installation

JC Friday June 3, 6:00-9:00pm

Location: Art 150, window of studio #231. 150 Bay Street.

Enter at Provost and First Street and ride the elevator to the 2nd floor. Studio # 231

Free Your Mind: Public Art Installation @ Art Crawl Harlem/ Governors Island

Exhibition Dates: through August 2022

Live Art: June 11, June 25, July 2, July 16 from 11a – 2pm.

Location: Governors Island, Art Crawl Harlem 406b Colonels Row

2022 New Jersey Arts Annual: Reemergence exhibition.

Exhibition Preview Reception: Thursday, June 23, 2022 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm

Exhibition On View: June 18, 2022 – April 30, 2023

Museum Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 9am to 4:45pm; Closed Mondays & all State Holidays

Location: New Jersey State Museum; 205 West State Street Trenton NJ

Tell Me More About Yourself (Self-Portraits and other Autobiographical Endeavors)

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 25, 2022 from 6:00-9:00pm

Exhibition Dates: June 25, 2022 – August 5, 2022

Location: Gallery Aferro, 73 Market St, Newark, NJ

Public Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 12:00-6:00pm

Sculpture Walk Springfield 2022-2023

Exhibition Dates: Now through May 21, 2023

Location: 411 N. Sherman Parkway, Springfield MO

Closing this Month

Theda Sandiford’s: Joyful Resistance closes June 4, 2022 atThe Center for Contemporary Art; 2020 Burnt Mills Rd, Bedminster, NJ.

Future Perfect/Imperfect: The Next Century closes June 9 at Silvermine Gallery: 1037 Silvermine Road, New Canaan, CT.  Gallery Hours: Tuesday- Saturday 10:00am-4:00pm

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Craft Nouveau

To all my California people, the last chance to see my works “Thunderdome” and ” in Roseville CA is coming up.

The Closing Reception is May 21, 4:00 – 8:00pm

Exhibition Dates: April 1 – May 28, 2022

Location: Blue Lines Arts: 405 Vernon Street Suite 100, Roseville, CA

Craft Nouveau is Blue Line Arts‘ biennial juried fine craft competition, open to artists internationally. The exhibition seeks to spark dialogue on traditional delineations between fine craft and art, and highlight mediums and processes typically associated with craft.

Recycled commercial fishing net, ribbon, and paracord 64 x 12 x 6 in September 2020
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Site: Brooklyn Mixed Media

I have two Emotional Baggage Carts included in this Online Exhibition
Juried by Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy

About the Exhibition:
The artists whose works are assembled all take the mantle of exploring the potential of multiple mediums at once. The possibilities opened by this project multiply wonderfully, as seen by the diversity of works on view, all of which find an expression of vitality through their mediums. Perhaps these artists working with mixed media are finding a way to reaffirm our bodily connection. They have a way of bringing out the physicality of their materials in the medium’s interactions, in divergent forms. We find surprising juxtapositions or forms springing out of their prior uses. Though in different ways, the works presented allude to the body: the presence of the artist’s hand in placing objects just so; suggestive forms; organic and inorganic decay; human detritus, and more.

Power Puff with Black Racing Stripes
I Can’t Breathe
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Free Your Mind Installation

by Theda Sandiford

Free Your Mind is a textile public art installation aiming to collect, embed and release personal narratives about Microaggressions.

Microaggressions are subtle, intentional — and oftentimes unintentional — everyday interactions or behaviors that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative racial messages or assumptions toward historically marginalized groups.

The weight of these daily interactions underpins very real consequences… stress, anger, frustration, self-doubt and ultimately feelings of powerlessness and invisibility.

Free Your Mind intends to expose these interactions and provide a release for the participating individuals. Participants have the feeling of being seen and acknowledged while interacting with the installation.

The installation evolves with each new ribbon, keeping a public record of disempowering interactions, that can be exposed and addressed.

Last year, Free Your Mind toured, collecting story ribbons in Bayonne NJ, Jersey City NJ, and during Miami Art Week. This summer at Governors Island, Free Your mind is documenting your story.

#freeyourmindart

Free Your Mind

You Are So Articulate

In this weaving, each piece of yarn is representative of a conversation where I was acknowledged for being able to express my thoughts and ideas. Being told I’m well-spoken often comes off as a backhanded compliment. It carries problematic connotations that, it is unusual for someone of my race to be intelligent or eloquent.

The completed weaving is displayed on a DYI loom, as if the work is still in progress because some version of this conversation, continues still…

You Are So Articulate, January 2021, 72 x 30 x 2 in, $4,000.00

Immersive Tag

The assignment… collage one iPhone photo, to pass the time while riding NJ Transit 123 bus from Union City NJ to NYC the summer of 2015.

Have you ever had someone put their hands in your hair without asking first?

This was a regular occurrence for me while riding the bus or subway… before the Pandemic. This is not ok. Please don’t pet me like a dog because my hair fascinates you.

Today, I rarely use public transportation and work mostly from home. I wonder, has social distancing caused a shift in this behavior?


“Immersive Tag” Digital photo collage printed on polysheer. 120 x 60 in, 2015

Blackty Black Blankets

Protective zip tie blankets draped on two 8 foot antique library ladders.

I know you are tempted to touch…

Blackty Black Blankets, 96 x 24 x 16 in, 2022