September 18, 2024
Location
Mississippi State University Department of Art
The Mississippi State University Department of Art Visiting Artist Committee is excited to welcome Kaleena Stasiak to campus on September 18 and 19, 2024.
A Teeny Tiny Print Exchange between the MSU Department of Art and the University of Mississippi will begin during the visit.
The Teeny Tiny Print Exchange was started by Stasiak as a way to spark interest in printmaking and foster community among students. A print or portfolio exchange is a printmaking tradition that references the democratic and collaborative nature of the medium. Participants generally create an edition of prints large enough to supply one print for each participant and then receive a suite of prints from each participant. In the case of larger exchanges (like this one) participants will receive a random assortment of prints from other participating artists. It’s a fun way to make some prints and then get a bunch of printed original artworks from other artists! Never printed before? No worries! There will be a relief printing workshop for those interested in making a print with no printmaking experience.
About the Artist
Stasiak is an interdisciplinary artist who uses an assortment of haptic media to explore collective mythmaking and its relevance to the present day. Digging through a lexicon of symbols and imagery evoking American colonial times, folk art and quilts, she reframes the dominant ideologies surrounding early history and domestic labor. Her graphic cyphers denote the power and breadth of traditional women’s work, functional handicraft and the impulse to create. Decoration and ornamentation become expressions of desire, signifiers of identity and autobiographical documentation of lives omitted from text-based historical narratives and artistic discourse.
Originally from Ontario, Canada, Stasiak holds a BFA in printmaking from the Ontario College of Art and Design and an MFA in printmaking and book arts from the University of Georgia. Recent shows include Prevailing Winds at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Tournament of Lies at Wassaic Project in Wassaic, New York, Ancient Art Objects at Whitespace in Atlanta, Georgia, and Identity Measures at the Contemporary Art Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. She has attended residencies at St. Michael’s Printshop in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Stoveworks in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the Klondike Institute of Art & Culture in Dawson City, Yukon Territory. In 2017 Stasiak founded the South East Women Wrestlers, a performance troupe based in Athens, Georgia, that uses the spectacle of wrestling to reframe stereotypes and representations of femininity. Stasiak is currently serving the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Mississippi in Oxford as area head and assistant professor in printmaking.