Uncool GalleryUncool Gallery
/ Opening: Jan 25, 2025
/ Closing/Panel Discussion: Feb 1, 2025
/Venue: Uncool Gallery
In the Mess, We Find Ourselves is an immersive art installation that reflects on transformation and the act of altering contexts. Through the collaborative efforts of artists Stefania Urist and Marco Caridad, this exhibition invites viewers to reconsider the materials, structures, and narratives that shape our experiences. The artists approach their work from distinct yet complementary perspectives, each exploring how the process of changing context—whether through manipulation of materials, reimagining forms, or introducing new elements—can prompt deeper reflection on the environment, identity, and the world around us.
At the core of this installation is the idea that art can disrupt the ordinary, offering a new lens through which to view familiar materials and experiences. Urist and Caridad, while grounded in their individual investigations of environmental issues and identity, will transform the spaces and materials with which they work. The viewer’s awareness and understanding of these common materials will be altered by this immersive experience. Urist’s use of invasive reeds like phragmites, woven into pathways, and Caridad’s hanging sculptures made from melted plastic, challenge the viewer to reconsider their preconceived notions about these materials. By removing them from their typical contexts, the artists invite reflection on the role these elements play in ecological narratives and how their manipulation can alter our relationship to them.
Artists Reflect: In The Mess, We Find Ourselves
Closing Panel Discussion for the Collaborative Installation by Stefania Urist & Marco Caridad
Join us for the closing event and panel discussion of In the Mess, We Find Ourselves, a collaborative immersive installation by Stefania Urist & Marco Caridad. This exhibition, the inaugural project of UA’s Changing Context Project, investigates how contemporary art engages with shifting environments, identities, and human relationships.
The discussion will explore the exhibition’s themes—environmental impact, material transformation, and the tension between structure and chaos—through the perspectives of the participating artists and curators. The conversation will feature:
Stefania Urist – Artist Carolina Paz – Artist & Curatorial Director, Uncool Artist Gustavo Fernández – Visual Artist
Stefania Urist is an interdisciplinary artist whose work centers on the fraught relationship between humans and the environment. Her sculptures and installations examine current systems and historic practices that overuse and abuse plants, land, water, and the environment. Urist earned her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2022 and her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2013. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center, the Uncool Artist in Brooklyn, and Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, NY. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions, and group shows in museums, galleries, and sculpture gardens across the US and internationally. Based in the green mountains of Vermont, Urist’s project-based artwork challenges audiences to think critically about the role of nature in a rapidly changing world.
Marco Caridad is a Venezuelan-American interdisciplinary artist based in Miami, whose work challenges stereotypes through an experimental fusion of media. With a focus on cultural identity and the exploration of social and political themes, Caridad has exhibited at prominent institutions such as the Wolfsonian-FIU Museum, Centro de Bellas Artes in Maracaibo, DORCAM, and Miami International Fine Arts, among others. The author of three books, including San Stereotypes, Caridad holds a Master of Arts from The Art Institutes and a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from Universidad del Zulia. He has taught at Istituto Marangoni and Universidad Católica Andrés Bello and has participated in artist residencies at the ICA Art+Research Center, Loop Art Critique, and IS Projects. Currently, he serves as the Artistic Director of Miami International Fine Arts and is a board member of FAMA (Fiber Artists Miami Association).
About Gustavo Fernández:
Gustavo Fernández is a NYC-based visual artist who explores memory, materiality, and cultural identity. His practice engages with themes of displacement and resilience, often incorporating found objects and unconventional materials to challenge perceptions of permanence and impermanence in contemporary society. Fernández’s work has been exhibited internationally, and he is recognized for his thought-provoking installations that blur the boundaries between the personal and the collective.
About Carolina Paz:
Carolina Paz is a multidisciplinary artist exploring intimacy, materiality, and learning through proximity. Her work, spanning painting, video, installations, and participatory projects, investigates substance, repetition, and affection within contemporary emotional and philosophical contexts. Carolina’s work has been exhibited in institutions such as SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York; RAW POP UP, Miami; Residency Unlimited, Brooklyn; and museums and galleries in Brazil, Portugal, and Argentina. She is the recipient of the Funarte Visual Arts award, and her work is held in the permanent collections of the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Art, Luis Seoane Foundation, and others. She has an MFA from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York and founded Uncool Artist, which was established in Brooklyn in 2018.