The Skirt

AIKA AKHMETOVA: Rage Fantasies
May 6 - August 27, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 6, 5-7pm

Brooklyn, NY (April  25, 2023) — Ortega y Gasset Projects is pleased to present Rage Fantasies, a solo project in The Skirt by the New York based artist Aika Akhmetova curated by artist and OyG co-director Leeza Meksin.  An opening reception will be held on Saturday, May 6th from 5 to 7 pm. The show will be open to the public through August 27, 2023. 

For their site-specific project in The Skirt, Aika Akhmetova created Rage Fantasies –  a video installation with sculptural elements exploring the taboo subject of rage within familial structures. The work is autobiographical as the space is set up to mimic the entrance area or in Russian “подъезд” of Akhmetova’s childhood apartment building. The artist states that “it’s a very typical “подъезд” that is no different from thousands of other “подъезд”s that were built during Soviet Union time in Kazakhstan. This liminal space in between the outside and inside acts as a playground for teens growing up in these apartment buildings, it’s a place of your first kiss, your first fight, a place where you hang around when you don’t want to go home just yet.”

In the installation the viewer acts as an accidental spectator who overhears' conversations from family members that are not meant to be heard. There are videos masquerading as windows, false elevator doors and mailboxes that will never get any mail. The subterranean aspects of the Skirt are magnified and accentuated to bring the viewer into a psychologically and emotionally resonant space. 

Rage Fantasies will open concurrently with Clapping Corners, Cornell MFA group show, in the main gallery. All artists will be present at the opening.

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BIOS

Aika Akhmetova is an artist based between New York and Almaty. Akhmetova studied Painting at Rhode Island School of Design and holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University. Their practice consists of installation, video, sculpture, and text-based work exploring intimate corners of being. Coming from a complex cultural background Akhmetova has absorbed the fading heritage of the Post Soviet generation along with processes followed by the expansion of late capitalism and secular education. Such contradicting ideologies allow Akhmetova to question the essence of political constructs through personal optics.They had a solo exhibition at A.I.R. Gallery in 2021 and have exhibited in group shows across the US, Central Asia and Europe. Akhmetova was an AIM fellow at The Bronx Museum of the Arts in 2022 and currently an artist in residence at LMCC Arts Center on Governors Island.

Leeza Meksin is an interdisciplinary artist working in painting, installation, public art and multiples. Born in the former Soviet Union, she immigrated to the United States with her family in 1989. Her work investigates parallels between conventions of painting, architecture and our bodies.  Meksin has created site-specific installations for CLEA (R)SKY (2021), The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (2019-20), The Brooklyn Academy of Music (2018-19), National Academy of Design (2018), The Uptown Triennial at The Lenfest Center for the Arts (2017), Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (2016), The Kitchen (2015), BRIC Media Arts (2015),  Regina Rex (2014, 2010), Brandeis University (2014) and many others. In 2021 Meksin was awarded the NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Work and in 2015 received the emerging artist grant from the Rema Hort Mann Foundation. In 2019 Meksin was an artist-in-residence at The Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX. Her work has been featured in Bomb, The Brooklyn Rail, The New York Times, Hyperallergic, Chicago Tribune, and The Village Voice, among other publications. In 2013 Meksin co-founded Ortega y Gasset Projects, an artist-run gallery and curatorial collective in Brooklyn that she continues to co-direct. Meksin received a MFA from The Yale School of Art, a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA/MA in Comparative Literature from The University of Chicago.