Serena Viola Corson
Seeking gallery representation.
Bio
Serena Viola Corson (b. 1996) is an American artist, currently working and studying as an MFA candidate and graduate assistant at LSU.
Grants/Awards
2022 Juror's Award, No Way Out But Through, Berkley Art Center
2022 Juror's Award, Melting, San Francisco Women Artists Gallery
2019 FSU Art Department Travel Grant
2019 IDEA Grant Recipient
2019 Susan & Mark Messersmith Art Scholar Award
2019 SIX Research and Creative Grant
2019 Peoples’ Choice Award at Remote Dialogue Exhibition, UWG
Solo + Two Person Shows
2022 Flora and Font, The Mill, San Francisco, California
2021 The Appalachia of Florida: Welcome to Bithlo by the Water, The Plant, Tallahassee FL
2021 A Room of One's Own, Square Mug, Tallahassee FL
2019 Between, Anderson Brickler Gallery, Tallahassee FL
Group Exhibitions
2023 A Ripple in the Garden, Soft Times Gallery, San Francisco CA
2023 Bay Area Contemporary Art Show, The Dojo, San Francisco CA
2022 Crimson, Soft Times Gallery, San Francisco CA
2022 Pamplemousse, Pamplemousse Gallery, Richmond VA
2022 No Way Out But Through, Berkley Art Center, Berkley CA
2022 Melting, SFWA Gallery, San Francisco CA June
2022 Tides of Change, Drawing Room SF, San Francisco CA
2021 Florida Show, Moisturizer Gallery, Gainesville FL
2021 What Does Community Look Like To You?, Brush Art Gallery, Lowell MA
2020 See Your Neighbor (virtual), 621 Gallery, Tallahassee FL
2020 Artist Relief Exhibition (virtual) Kole Trent Gallery, Cocoa Beach FL
2019 Remote Dialogue, The University of West Georgia, Carrollton GA
2019 From Creation to Creator: E.W.G.’s Second Annual Art Show, Tallahassee FL
2018 Girls Who Draw Girls, 621 Gallery, Tallahassee FL
2018 Subject vs. Object, The Plant, Tallahassee FL
2017 Faces, Grassroots Coffee Shop & Gallery, Thomasville GA
2017 WTF 2016?!, Phyllis Strauss Gallery, Tallahassee FL
Publications/Press
Harvard Alumna, Kristen Ghodsee, with her new Serena Viola Corson painting
https://scholar.harvard.edu/kristenghodsee/blog/amazing-painting-serena-viola-corson
Mystic Moon Mamas and Matisse: What inspires artist Serena Viola Corson
https://48hills.org/2022/08/mystic-moon-mamas-and-matisse-what-inspires-artist-serena-viola-corson/
Finding Your Niche with Serena Corson, https://goodfit.us/blogs/goodfit-artists/finding-your-niche-with-serena-corson
No Way Out But Through, Curator's Essay,
https://www.berkeleyartcenter.org/no-way-out-but-through
Contemporary Art as Liberation: Serena V.C.K. and the Phyllis Straus Art Gallery, https://www.hercampus.com/school/fsu/contemporary-art-liberation-serena-vck-and-phyllis-straus-art-gallery? fbclid=IwAR1C95Dh927XQtehwc-8Gmd7oHW7S9eKU6uuDdad1KOASDe R4FsyWvSihEc
Rethinking Feminism at The Plant, https://www.fsunews.com/story/news/2019/02/03/rethinking-feminism-plant/2758766002/
OPEN 3, Cum Clean performance, https://www.fsunews.com/story/life/2018/04/01/open-3-combines-written-word-visual-art-intimate-performances/476803002/
Artist Statement
Being raised in poverty by a struggling single mother taught me from an early age the importance of building community, practicing mutual aid, and not relying on the State for help or the nuclear family unit for love. In Western culture, largely influenced by capitalism, most kids are deprived of their parents’ presence. For me, this deprivation birthed a deep longing and a mission to find and cultivate that love. I regularly host intimate gatherings that celebrate platonic love and cultivate community. I think of these events as both social practice art, ritual, and prefigurative politics. At these events, such as the annual Manifestations of Luv gathering that takes place in February, we practice vulnerability, loving-kindness, intimacy, feminist consciousness-raising and being in sacred circle. The Witches Cove by Jan Mandijn from the 16th century and the more recent Dance by Matisse are compelling evidence of how important the sacred circle has been throughout history. I use photographic documentation from these happenings as reference for paintings which then manifest more gatherings, creating a feedback loop.
All of my work is about getting in touch with each other, land and body, which are all inseparable. Just as birds have their flock, bees their hive, and wolves their pack, humans also need kin. I’m drawn to Donna Haraway’s definition of ‘oddkin’ which refers to having solidarity across species and forming alternative and queered family dynamics. My “Oddkin” series depicts mystical gatherings of humans with the local flora and fauna. Butterflies and birds symbolize freedom and transformation. Sustained hope for ultimate liberation informs my art practice in every way.
Working within the esoteric art movement, my paintings pull ideas from the ether into reality like magic, a tradition as old as time. I am cultivating a spiritual practice that informs my painting and helps me connect to my ancestors and the earliest known artists (creators of Celtic passage tomb carvings and the bison paintings in Lascaux) through ritual, symbolism, and continuing this sacred tradition of mark-making and manifestation. I am interested in the mysterious aspects of the human condition, the feelings we can all relate to but cannot be translated into words or data points. I believe it is the artist, musician, and poet's job to dance around these common truths but never fully capture them.
"Magic is the miraculous and the mundane," - David Kubrin, Marxism and Witchcraft