Lisa Elmaleh: Tierra Prometida
Jessica Wolff: The New Mestiza

Two Photographers Depict Stories of Migration and Immigration

On view Sept 12–Oct 13, 2024

Opening Reception:
Thurs, Sept 12, 2024, 6:00–8:00 pm

THE GALLERY at the Visual & Performing Arts Center
Western Connecticut State University
Westside Campus, 43 Lake Ave Extension, Danbury, CT 06811
Gallery Hours: Tues–Fri, 12–4, Sat–Sun, 1–4

Lisa Elmaleh is a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow. Her photographic series, Tierra Prometida, captures the multifaceted aspects of migration at the border between the United States and Mexico. Created with a 1930s-era large format camera, her work encompasses the people, landscape, migratory routes, and humanitarian efforts there. While conveying both empathy and urgency, the series challenges the myth of the American Dream from the perspective of the borderland environs, the individuals seeking asylum in the United States, and the volunteers and groups involved in providing essential assistance to migrants.

Jessica Wolff's photographs delve into the experience of being Mexican-American and navigating the dynamics of two cultures that often clash or contradict each other. Embracing the term "mestizos" (of mixed race), Jessica acknowledges her and her subjects' Indigenous and Spanish ancestry. Using symbols and icons from both Mexican and American history, she creates a fusion that represents a new culture, new myths, new icons, and new images, where there is no longer a strict division between Mexican and American identities, but rather the emergence of a new mestiza culture.