Conceptual Materials Social Practice Artist
The opening reception for the 2022 New Jersey Arts Annual: Reemergence will be Thursday, June 23rd, 6 – 8 PM.
The exhibition will open to the public on Saturday, June 25th and run through May 2023.
Location: New Jersey State Museum; 205 West State Street, Trenton NJ
You can take the NJ Transist or road trip with me. Please message me if you want to be my guest at the opening.
ArtCrawl Harlem along with other local arts and culture programs returns to Governors Island to offer programs and residencies within the historical homes on Nolan Park and Colonels Row as well as welcome the public in for art exhibits, open studios, art talks and more.
This Summer, I am presenting “Free Your Mind” and “Personal Baggage” two Interactive Art Installations as part of ArtCrawl Harlem’s House at 406B Colonels Row, Governors Island, NYC. On view for the public Friday through Sunday from 12:00 to 5:00PM.
You are invited to work with me on an Emotional Baggage Cart in progress on Governors Island on these dates June 11, June 25, July 2, July 16, August 6 and August 20 from 11:00am – 2:00pm on each day.
Please DM me if you plan to come.
Juried by Anastacia Bloch
Exhibiting Artists:
Janelle Abbott, Lexi Arrietta, Stacy Bogdonoff, Emily Budd, Rebekah Burgess, Malina Busch, Matt Cohen, Cathy Cooper, Rhonda Donovan, Rosalyn Driscoll, Vincent Frimpong, Kim Garcia, Gina Herrera, Eric Hines, Yasmine Iskander, Bonam Kim, Catherine Mellinger, Clara Nulty, Mari Renwick, Morgane Richer La Fleche, Sarah Rieser, Olga Rudenko, Theda Sandiford, Lauren Dana Smith, Maria Vasconcelos
| Museum of Arts and Design to Present Exhibition Dedicated to the Ephemeral Art of Floral Design |
| Flower Craft investigates floral artistry as an overlooked chapter in the history of craft and design. It features the creative visions of six botanical artists working at the forefront of contemporary floral design. Inspired by nature’s ephemerality, the artists engage with stages of the plant life cycle, from seed to germination to decay, to interpret nature in sculptural form. On view May 14 through June 26, 2022. Who wants to join me? |
My piece, “Lady Whistledown” chosen by juror, Margaret M. O’Reilly, the Executive Director and Curator of Fine Art at the New Jersey State Museum., in the upcoming exhibit 2022 New Jersey Arts Annual: Reemergence.
This open call invited a range of artistic practices and media to explore the theme Reemergence.
The opening reception is Thursday, June 16 , 6:30- 8:30pm
2022 New Jersey Arts Annual: Reemergence will be on view from June 18, 2022 through April 30, 2023.
Location: New Jersey State Museum; 205 West State Street Trenton NJ
On April 30th, 2022, the world unites in celebration of sculpture during the 8th annual International Sculpture Day!
Sky Garden Gallery invites you to play with Theda Sandiford’s Emotional Baggage Carts. Interact with the cart and leave behind any emotional baggage you are carrying.
We all carry emotional baggage Naturally; these manifests differently for each of us. Some of us push shopping carts of pain and bitterness while some of us just have a backpack.
I carry a lifetime of racial trauma.
Being alive means having the capacity to carry past experiences and learn from them. But there’s a point when this baggage becomes too much. Carrying too much emotional baggage can literally stop us from being open to new experiences, intimacy and growth.
How we choose to handle our baggage makes a difference. We have the choice to let it define us or to let it go and move forward.
Keep up with me on IG @MissTheda
#emotionalbaggagecarts #ThedaSandiford
My piece, “Purple Fiesta”” chosen by juror, Lilly Wei, is included in the upcoming exhibit. Future Perfect/Imperfect: The Next Century.
The opening reception is Saturday, April 30, 5:00- 7:00pm.
If you want to join me for a road trip and then dash over for the last hour or so Snowball, please DM me.
Exhibition Dates : April 30 to June 9, 2022.
Location: Silvermine Gallery; 1037 Silvermine Road New Canaan, CT
The simplicity of a zip tie tunic, over power tie weaving, on a dress form is anything but simple.
Despite a revolving door of daily microaggressions reminding me I do not belong, I imagine a life free from the constraints of implicit bias. I CHOOSE to live a life of Joyful Resistance, finding solace in cherished memories attached to materiality.
Joyful Resistance is a celebration of the alchemy that occurs when disparate materials are assembled to create something new, more beautiful, and more purposeful.
All the work in my upcoming solo show was made while the Pandemic took me on a emotional rollercoaster of a journey through self inspection, loss, isolation and racial trauma.
While in lockdown during the first month of the Pandemic, I organized my closet and storage unit. While sorting through my vintage accessories collection, childhood memories of playing dress up in my mother’s clothes flooded my brain like serotonin.
I recreated that moment with All Dressed Up And Nowhere To Go dressing the steel structure with Vintage hats, shoes and bags, 3 ply cotton ropes, pearls, rhinestones, wrapped ropes, yarn, trim.
I custom dyed the cotton rope a bright yellow using Jacquard ink, then wrapped it with ribbon, pom pom trim, yarn and vintage fabric from a block print tapestry that hung in my college dorm room.
These three emotional baggage carts explore the Middle Passage and its impact upon my cultural identity as a Caribbean American woman. I still have a lot to unpack here. Both Appropriation Mud Cloth Baggage Cart, on the right and Hi Yellow Mud Cloth Baggage Cart on the left are not covered in zip ties. These carts have unresolved emotional baggage connected to them.
We all carry emotional baggage. This manifests differently for each of us. Some of us carry shopping carts of pain and bitterness while some of us sport a backpack. How we choose to handle our baggage makes a difference. We have the choice, to let it define us or to let it go and move forward.
In 2020 my artist residency with NOW Friends in Nairobi Kenya was cancelled due to Covid. I had spent 6 months preparing for this residency, studying Swahili, researching local artists, looking at basketry and beading techniques.
I used the time I would have been in Kenya to clean, drill and string thousands of bottle caps into larger than life strings of pearls with the help of the Jersey City arts community during JCAST 2021.
