OUR EDUCATION:

LEARNING & UNLEARNING

Our Education: Learning and Unlearning is an art exhibition curated by the Simmering Spices Art Collective to reimagine what education looks like in our communities, girlhoods, and informal learning settings. The exhibition will feature works from girl and femme of color artists who use the materials around them to display how education follows them wherever they venture. In this multimedia art exhibition, the Simmering Spices invite artists along with visitors to think about the central question: What does educational justice look and feel like?

While many other conversations about education focus on learning in school, Our Education emphasizes how Girls and Femmes of Color understand that education can manifest itself in different ways, whether that be through our relationships, family history, and hope for the future. Each artist uses different mediums to display the impact education has had on their lives, and also reclaim their narratives in the process. As some reflect on the education system’s weaknesses, others highlight how their family and friends acted as their most insightful teachers. In their pieces, artists center their childhoods, showing how their identities are shaped by their learning experiences. Doing so, they locate how their unique and intersecting identities also influence the ways they experience and view learning today.

The exhibition represents a story told by the many artists that have chosen to display their art. Each piece works together to tell a community-based narrative of girls and femmes of color in education, while still holding their own individuality across specific stories and mediums. The result is an onion-like and layered demonstration of the need for children, teens, and young adults to be seen and heard so that we can change and unlearn the ideas that have been imprinted in our minds. By working to reimagine the systems of education in our world, and dreaming for justice in the future, Our Education invites visitors to think about their own communities and areas in which they learn the most. Additionally, we envision visitors will take away areas in their own life where they can unlearn ideas, and open their minds to a new world of education. The Simmering Spices will prepare workshops and interactive activities for visitors throughout the week of the gallery, along with Keynote speakers, including Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, where artists and visitors can make connections with a new community. What results is a beautiful collection of artworks that tell the stories of those who have been silenced across time, making their memories and stories known and valid.

*Click on images to zoom in

A woman wearing glasses and a face mask holding a smartphone showing an air quality index of 347, indicating hazardous air quality. Behind her, there are trees, apartment buildings, and a fence, with an orange sky overhead.

THE AIR WE BREATH

KAI BARRETT

18” X 24”

Pen & Marker on Paper

Kai (she/her) is an Afro-Latina, Brooklyn-based artist. She has ties to both African American and Caribbean American culture.

Kai’s piece captures one of the days in June last year when wildfire smoke got pushed into NYC, resulting in extremely unhealthy air. Kai’s mom, a science teacher, who is depicted, spent a lot of that time warning people about the drop in air quality and the need to practice outside mask-wearing and closing windows. New York City has good air quality most times, but the lack of government response put the job of teaching people about air quality on to local educators and everyday people. Through this collective experience, New Yorkers had to learn about the air we breathe. Ever since, Kai’s mom has remained adamant about tracking air quality and teaching others. What we choose to or not to do during times of risk and danger will forever leave marks on our body.

A woman sitting on a bed with a purple blanket, looking thoughtful. The background features a large torn section of a wall revealing wooden planks behind it, with dark and muted colors overall.

DEFACED

MIKAYLA HINDS

3’ x 3’

Acrylic on Canvas

Mikayla Hinds (she/her) is a 20 year old artist from Brooklyn, NY.

A young woman is stiffly sitting up on her bed surrounded by broken down walls that reveal the darkness. Her facial features are undefined and blurred, her face appearing mask-like and expressionless. Carved into the decaying walls is a silhouette of her face. Outside of the ruined walls, lies a bright street light in the distance. This is a study of self-reflection and the unveiling of the ugly truths within ourselves. When we are stripped of our external facade, we actively choose to ignore our own flaws and deceitful tendencies. In the ruins, we must come to terms with our true selves, acknowledging the “bad”.

A woman with glasses wearing a white shirt with small black dots, standing in front of a plain wall with text about hybrid culture, holding her hand up as if presenting.

A mirror or reflective surface creates a double image of a woman with glasses and long dark hair, one side showing her face with eyes closed and the other with her eyes open and head slightly turned.

HYBRIDITY

JASMINE LIE

11” x 18”

Photographs

Jasmine (she/her) is an eighteen year old, first generation, Indonesian American photographer from Philadelphia. Throughout classrooms, Jasmine has felt that her Indonesian culture is separated from her identity as an Asian American. The constant struggle of leading what felt like two identities especially when her classroom name was Andrea whilst outside the school community she went by Jasmine. Finding that hybridity and balance of bringing both cultures within both spaces allowing them to flow together was a light she wishes to see cultivated within classrooms from a young age.

A colorful painting of three women with their eyes closed, surrounded by floating hands making various gestures, and holding a pink lotus flower.

HOLDING THE LOTUS

IRENE PHAM

24” X 36”

Acrylic on Canvas

Irene (any pronouns) navigates their life as a Vietnamese second-generation immigrant woman raised in a Buddhist family. They identify as genderqueer and bisexual, even if they are perceived as a woman. They also tend to identify this way because they navigate life as a chubby Asian woman as well, and they feel disconnected/alienated from this ethnic feminine identity.

Irene uses Buddhist and Vietnamese cultural imagery to express the relationship that they have with their mother and the relationship that their mother has with her father. This body of work is dedicated to their family history as Vietnamese refugees, always moving and always transforming. Their paintings speak to the very common tension that immigrant children have with their immigrant parents, so we have to reimagine what forgiveness and personal justice is to us.

Abstract colorful painting with swirling shapes and vibrant colors including pink, purple, green, blue, orange, and yellow.

PIENSO EN TI

ANA SOFIA RAMIREZ

3” X 4”

Acrylic on Canvas

Ana Sofia (she/her) is a bilingual Latina woman.

Ana Sofia’s piece is representative of the different emotional aspects of her life. Each amorphous shape shows the flexibility and duality of life. Although abstract, its representation and chaos shows her individual experience as being a first generation daughter. She takes influence from Colombian art in terms of shape, patterns, and color. Meanwhile, her American identity peaks through her influence from her education given to her here in the States.

A painted illustration of a pink jewelry box with a mirror, a printed photo of a woman, a note, a bottle of pills, a wooden watch, and a piece of bread with a watch on top, placed on a crinkled fabric background with star and heart stickers.

INHERITED

SANJANA THAKUR

20” x 20”

Acrylic on Canvas

Sanjana (she/her) is a 17 year old Asian American girl from the New Jersey area.

This piece follows the path of passing down education and stories through Sanjana’s family and the rituals that bind us together. This piece represents her family history, which is a big part of how she learns and forms her opinions. An important part of this piece is that parts of it are hers, parts of it are her mother's. It represents their unique relationship but also the things in each other’s lives that they keep and change.

Two smiling women with natural hair sharing a moment in a warmly lit room.

A young woman with short curly hair and earrings looking into the eyes of another person, touching their head.

A woman with curly hair applying lipstick in front of a mirror, wearing a necklace and a dark top.

Two young women face each other closely, one with curly hair and the other with straight hair, touching foreheads and smiling in a warm, intimate moment.

SISTERHOOD

TIONNE THORNTON

12” X 18”

Photographs

Tionne (she/they) is a twenty one year old African American queer artist based in the Philadelphia/DMV area. This piece focuses on learning in unconventional spaces. As a Black woman the core lessons she learned were not formed in a classroom, but through those around her. Whether it be her elders, sharing stories whilst preparing meals. Or the friends she made at Howard University who have shown her the true meaning of sisterhood through their unwavering support and acts of service shown through this series.

Colorful painting of two children with large expressive eyes, a white cat, and a pomegranate cut open, with abstract background elements.

BEFORE WISCONSIN

RISA TIRADO

20” X 25”

Oil on Canvas

Risa (she/they) is a twenty year old Puerto Rican, neurodivergent artist who has had a unique experience navigating femininity, gender expression, and family.

This piece is a painting of Risa and their older cousin Chloe as kids surrounded by different references to their childhood. It symbolizes all she has learned from her cousin about family, honesty, and putting life into a greater perspective. Chloe is 24 now and has recently moved to Wisconsin, which signifies a new chapter in their bond and lives. Now that Risa is 20 and also an adult, they take these lessons with them and communicate them through her art and let them shape who they are now.

Illustration of hands working on papers filled with mathematical formulas and graphs, with a plate of exploding firecracker or fireworks above them.

TORTURED, WITHERING FLOWER

BLANCA V ANESSA VAZQUEZ

17” X 24”

Digital Illustration

Blanca (She/Her They/Them) is a Mexican American artist who is neurodivergent, and queer. They tend to focus on mental health and self growth in most of their pieces.

This piece is an illustration displaying the feelings and emotions that Blanca has had throughout her experience from learning in school. They had very fond memories of always struggling to read, write, and learn things in the usual school setting due to her neurodivergent mind. They struggled in fear of making mistakes and disappointing those she truly cared about. This ended up impacting not only their relationship with learning, but their own self image, believing they were broken and deserved the torture of homework.

A mannequin dressed in a colorful, striped corset with a pink ruffled top edge and large fabric flower in the center, standing indoors against a white door and wall with patterned carpet.

EVERYTHING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX

ISABELLA V IERA

12.5” X 17”

Textiles

Isabella (she/her) is a Puerto Rican woman.

Isabella has never been afraid to challenge the limitations of assignments given to her. One of her art teachers told her mom that that she was a very “out-of-the-box thinker” and this was because she was constantly challenging the directions or requirements. Isabella thinks educational institutions need to allow students, and even encourage them to think outside of the box and let their creativity guide them. This would lead to more of our youth being cognitive and creative instead of mindless consumers that never feel comfortable pushing boundaries. She describes her piece as “a corset top that is everything outside of the box.”

Abstract colorful painting with dark shapes, swirls, and drips, featuring heart and floral motifs and neon accents.

UNTITLED

MEERA

4” X 4”

Acrylic on Canvas

Meera (she/her) is a 17 year old American artist whose ethnicity is German and Indian.

Throughout Meera’s sophomore year she explored different art styles in her advanced fine arts class. She decided to create a large abstract piece at the end of the year. She began creating the canvas using wood, canvas, a fabric stretcher, and a staple gun. Next, she coated it in gesso and painted a layer of blended pastel colors. Inspired by Fiona Rae, she decided to step outside of her comfort zone by painting dark blobs on top of her perfectly smooth blended pastel piece. Although her classmates and art teacher were skeptical, she knew the piece would turn out well. She used many vibrant colors and brushes to create lines and squiggles across the canvas. She feels that this piece embodies the theme of the collection since the journey it has taken on has taught her so much. Firstly, she learned to step outside of her comfort zone with a chaotic composition and an almost abstract expressionist mindset by letting her subconscious guide the piece. Secondly, she learned to take inspiration from another artist while also making this work entirely her own. Lastly, she learned to be confident in her work even though it was not her usual medium.