Aileen
Bassis
Media:
Mixed Media
Studio Location:
Paintcan Studios at 10-10 44th Ave
Room/Studio#
304A
Website:
Artist Bio:
Aileen Bassis is a visual artist and poet with a practice in artist books, printmaking and work on paper. Her artist books are in many public special collections including the libraries of Yale, RISD, Brooklyn Museum and Swarthmore. She's been awarded residencies in art to the Fine Arts Work Center, Vermont Studio Center and in poetry to Yaddo and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She's received grants from the Puffin Foundation, Queens Arts Fund, NJ Council on the Arts, NYState Arts Council, SuCasa and the Dodge Foundation. Her solo exhibits includeYork College, LaGuardia Community College and Lewis Latimer House Museum in Queens; Watson Institute at Brown University, Rutger University in Newark, University of Pennsylvania, Ohio University in Athens, Ceres Project Room and Chashama266 in Manhattan.Most of her work is centered on social and political issues that range from women's right to choose to deportations to immigration and migration. She's the author of two poetry chapbooks, "The Other Side of the Mirror," and "Advice for Travelers," and a collection, "Among Sinners and Saints."
Artist Statement:
My art practice is content driven, by this I mean that there are particular areas such as social histories, the Holocaust, issues of identity, immigration, income inequality, racial disparities, etc, that I explore through making art. My process begins with a subject. The forms of my work can vary, but is usually work on paper, often based in photography. I use publicly available new images andmy own photos to make transfer prints, inkjet prints, lithographs, etchings and artists books that combine one or more print techniques. The images are often rather ordinary, but the organization, the combination of images, inclusion of text or additional art media shapes the interpretation. Language has evolved into an intrinsic part of my work. Poetics inform the language I incorporate into my artwork. I’m interested in providing the viewer with the opportunity to reflect, review and re-examine the world around us.
