william cordova
william cordova's work attempts to reconcile ideas of displacement and transition through the use of alchemy, ephemeral residue and vernacular architecture that continually shifts and shapes what could be described as our contemporary situation.During his residency at Elsewhere, Cordova created untitled: or obsneerg y las cronicas marcianas.
Rontherin Ratliff
Rontherin Ratliff is known for creating textural assemblages and sculptural work that examines contemporary society. In 2009, Works and Process at the Guggenheim NYC commissioned the set installation for the production of Peter and the Wolf of which Ratliff lead the artistic direction and co-creation.
In 2010 Ratliff exhibited at Diverse Works in Houston Texas and in 2012 the Arts Council of New Orleans commissioned a site-specific art installation for The Norman Mayer Branch Library. Ratliff has exhibited at Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, Rebecca Randall Bryan Gallery at Coastal Carolina University SC and was selected for the Joan Mitchell Foundations Artist In Residence Program in New Orleans in 2014. He was a collaborating artist for the nationally acclaimed street art installation ExhibitBe New Orleans.In 2015, the Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator and NPN/VAN awarded Ratliff with an artist residency in Miami, FL. His commitment to his practice lead him co-found Level Artist Collective with local artist of color living in New Orleans. In 2016 Ratliff exhibited at Governors Island New York, 516 ARTS, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA and was a recipient of the Adeline Edwards Founders Award along with a Blights Out artist fellowship. In 2017 Ratliff exhibited at Xavier University Gallery at Xavier University and Carroll Gallery at Tulane University in New Orleans and was invited to the Netherlands where he created an outdoor installation in response to the 1717 charismas flood.During his residency at Elsewhere, Ratliff created Rosa No. 7 Yellow Independence.
Zeelie Brown
Zeelie Brown is a visual artist and cellist who through sound, textiles, and installations depth charges wells of Afro-Atlantic dynamism to conjure up works which provoke a sense of environmental and cultural shift. Her work meditates black freedom in the 21st century, and the renegotiation of the parasitic networks of power and privilege weft into the global, colonial world order. She was born in San Antonio and was raised between there and Pollard, Alabama. She graduated from Oberlin College with a BA in Africana Studies (Fine Arts) which they used to open their heart and soul to jazz, philosophy, and other great arts of the black world.
During her residency at Elsewhere, Brown created Fear No Joy.
Ash Eliza Smith
Ash Smith is a director, designer and new media artist who grew up in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina. Ash incorporates strategies of play and speculation to solve problems, re-imagine systems and build worlds—to create interactive stories, mixed reality experiences, simulations and prototypes of the future. Data, science and/or humor may be used to tell stories for film, stage, and improvisation that may blur the distinction between art & life, fact & fiction, and nature & technology—a liminal space—that considers how myth and history modulate a present reality while simultaneously engendering future dreams. Ash is interested in the dreaming collective and how these virtual shared spaces may bleed into the real and shape our co-existence. Ash also plays music in a few bands and loves to parallel park.
During 2017 their residency at Elsewhere, Smith created 11½ Spells for Our Future Selves. In 2019 Ash was the resident artist for the 2019 Rural Residency in Appalachia and created Southern Devices//Appalachian Futures.
Saba Taj
Saba Taj is a Southern Muslim artist and activist based in Durham NC. Heavily inspired by Islamic stories and speculative fiction, Saba uses mixed media practices to illustrate the liminalities of diasporic identity through the creation of hybridized femme-monsters. Taj remixes cultural references from her South Asian, American, Muslim, and queer identities, and explores themes of diaspora, inherited trauma and apocalypse.
During her residency at Elsewhere, Taj created Interstellar Uber/Negotiations with God.