York College exhibition highlights diverse perspectives on pandemic life

A new online exhibition highlights the different ways a group of Queens artists, like Shervone Neckles, experienced the pandemic. Photos courtesy of Nicholas Fraser, Manager, Fine Arts Gallery, College Art Studio Technician

By Rachel Vick

Solitary walks through Forest Park inspired the photography and poetry of Jacqueline Herranz-Brooks.

The treks, a break from indoor COVID quarantine, focused her mind on the history of indigenous people in a region where the Rockaway and Lenape tribes once lived. The usurpation of their land “still prevails in other forms of disenfranchisement and cultural annihilation in these United States,” Herranz-Brooks said. 

She is one of a dozen Queens-based artists tapping into their own experiences during the pandemic to create pieces for a York College exhibition that opened Jan. 15.

The showcase “Emerging from Isolation - Notes on the Pandemic” from the Southeast Queens Artists Alliance features work across various media, with each piece inspired by the creators’ unique pandemic experiences, from isolation to a renewed need for community healing.

Elizabeth Velazquez’s piece “Today” was inspired by reflections on solitude in an expanding universe. She said she visualized herself as a pinpoint in a vast universe and her piece is intended to instill a similar sense of connection to the self for viewers.

“Before the pandemic, I refused to accept a belief in the present and held onto the constant movement of past and future,” Velazquez said. “Forced to confront my rebellion against existence, I found solace in writing ‘Today is…’ and repeating artworks containing the word ‘Today.’” 

 “It was during difficult moments of isolation that I clung to the present. I needed to believe that "today" existed,” she added.

The importance of healing informed the work of artists Damali Abrams, Shenna Vaughn and Ify Chiejina, while others were inspired by mundane items.

Artists Natali Bravo-Barbee celebrated personal protective equipment and household goods like hand sanitizer in order to give the items their “due credit for being the savior of many lives during COVID-19.”

Art from local creators Abrams, Bravo-Barbee,  Herranz Brooks, Vaughn and Velasquez, as well as Ify Chiejina, Sherese Francis,, Marvenia Knight, Rejin Leys, Shervone Neckles, Margaret Rose Vendryes and Lisa D. Wade will remain on display in the York College Fine Arts Gallery in Jamaica until Feb. 25

In a virtual opening, Gallery Director Dr. Margaret Rose Vendryes said the exhibition provided a vital lens for Southeast Queens artists.

“Artists in the Southeast Queens environment are working, thinking and very much a part of what it means to have a studio practice during these really strange times,” Vendryes said. “We have artists who are structuring works that they might never have thought of before this moment, before we have had needs we didn't know we would need.”