NEW YORK, NY.- ART FOR CHANGE, a leading platform that connects art collectors with in-demand contemporary artists and their work, is pleased to partner with artists Jesse Krimes and María Magdalena Campos-Pons to benefit The Brooklyn Museum. To celebrate the Museum's annual Brooklyn Artists Ball on April 25, Krimes and Campos-Pons have created two new limited-edition prints that will launch the day of the gala. In keeping with all of ART FOR CHANGEs releases, both artists will receive 50% of the net proceeds from each print sale.
This marks the third consecutive year that ART FOR CHANGE has partnered with artists to benefit The Brooklyn Museum. In keeping with previous years, the platform will donate $500 from each print sold to support the annual Galas goal of raising critical funding to help the institution fulfill its mission to bring people together through art and experiences that inspire celebration, compassion, courage, and the will to act.
I am thrilled that all four prints from 2021 and 2022 have been acquired by the Museum for their permanent collection, and we are incredibly honored to partner with Jesse Krimes and María Magdalena Campos-Pons to once again benefit The Brooklyn Museum, said Jeanne Masel, Founder of ART FOR CHANGE. I have been inspired by The Brooklyn Museum for many years and am a proud member of their Board of Advisors. I strongly believe in their vision and am very excited to have Krimes and Campos-Pon on board this year.
Blackwater is from Krimes Elegy Quilt series, which incorporates memories or feelings of home described by currently incarcerated people. In the Elegy series, antique chairs sit empty, evoking both absence and symbols of Americana that have been forgotten and cast aside. Krimes harnesses the power of absence to reassert the humanity of his unseen subjects. Portraying the homes of people who are incarcerated is an affirmation that they once lived in community with the free world and that many of them will return home. The frames are not entirely empty of life, however: animal figures loom or confront the viewer directly, suggesting a panoptic state of surveillance and alluding to American zoologys troubled history of eugenicist and white supremacist ideas. Krimes has created each hand-transferred print for ART FOR CHANGE on prison bedsheets and embellished each work through a combination of hand embroidery, sewing on remnants of fabric from the original quilted work, and hand-drawing or painting over the print, making each print unique.
Campos-Pons Testigoa self-portraittraces a visual and conceptual lineage to Untitled (The Right Protection), a Polaroid photograph that the artist created in 1999. In this new iteration, numerous eyes appear on Campos-Pons back, referencing the eyespots of butterfly wings as well as the evil eye motif that dates back to ancient times. Tears drip from these eyes, as though to mourn the dark narratives that have plighted the Afro-Cuban community since the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. As in many works created over the span of the artists nearly four-decade career, the deeply emotive image embodies an unyielding personal interest in themes such as love, redemption and spirituality; more recently, Campos-Pons has also explored the power of community care and protection. The artist will hand-embellish each print in this edition with new details to the eyes and tears.
ART FOR CHANGE connects socially conscious art collectors with in-demand contemporary artists and their work. A platform for discovery, ART FOR CHANGE offers a curated selection of museum-quality prints and original works at approachable price points. By leveraging their deep relationships with artists, galleries, and collectors, they affect positive change in the world by donating a portion of every purchase to relevant non-profits. As with all of ART FOR CHANGEs initiatives, artists receive 50% of the net proceeds of each sale under the belief that direct investment in artists is vital to a thriving cultural ecosystem. ART FOR CHANGE is committed to making the art collecting process more accessible through selling quality prints and artworks at manageable prices, and by providing art advisory services and best-in-class insights and education to new and seasoned collectors alike.