Student

Simeen is a social practice artist hailing from New Delhi, India. She was raised in post-liberalization India, a transformative period that reshaped the urban landscape and neighborhoods. While on one hand, this world presented a sense of freedom in the ways of being; particularly for young women, the stratification across class, caste and religion created tensions that manifested in everyday life of women in many ways. Simeen’s creative practice represents a conscientious effort to grapple with these tensions, offering personal insights that comment on the broader political context.

Her approach involves the intentional integration of everyday fragments from ordinary life. Through mediums such as installation, wall murals, and community art projects, Simeen endeavors to initiate conversations that can facilitate new possibilities of being, becoming and belonging in a time of repression. Her work intersects at both personal and political junctures; it is, at large, an attempt to represent lived experience of systemic oppression and collective healing in/of community. 

Simeen’s involvement extends to numerous community-based art projects addressing gender issues and marginalized identities in public spaces. Her works have been featured in the past two editions of the Students Biennale within the Kochi Muziris Biennale. Notably, she is currently engaged in an upcoming project, a photo essay slated for release in Spring 2024. This essay, which delves into the utilization of tarp sheds in India as an anti-authoritarian strategy, is set to be featured in a book titled ‘Beyond Molotovs—A Visual Handbook on Anti-Authoritarian Strategies’. 

Simeen currently lives in Portland and is working on a project that seeks to document safe spaces and spots of leisure for women in the city, further contributing to her commitment to social engagement through art.

Instagram: @loadingwaitt

Nina Vichayapai explores how surroundings embody humankind. Her work examines physical spaces as expressions of the many people who shape them. Through many mediums but especially hand stitched textiles she explores how belonging within the American landscape has been established by historically marginalized communities.

Her work has been shown nationally and locally with institutions such as the Wing Luke Museum, the Henry Art Gallery, and the Bellevue Art Museum. She has been an artist in residence with Caldera, Inscape Arts and Cultural Center, Deception Pass State Park, Centrum, and more. She has also been the recipient of several public and private commissions including with Meta Arts, Homes for Good, Lake Sammamish State Park, and the Cities of Redmond and Ellensburg.

Born in Bangkok, Thailand, she graduated from the California College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2017. Nina currently lives in the Pacific Northwest and when she is not making art she can be found turning roadside fruit into jam, taking pictures of crows, or trail running in the rain.

Website: www.nvichayapai.com
Instagram: @nvichayapai

Clara Harlow (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and preschool teacher from Omaha, Nebraska. Her work weaves together community, personal history, and play through experiential events and interactive objects. You can most likely find her at the local swimming pool or making pigs in a blanket for her next themed party. 

Recent collaborations include Crown Heights Mutual Aid, Carrig Montessori School, Lolo NYC, Four-D, and the Fabric Workshop Museum Shop. Clara currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Check out her work at www.claraharlow.com and @all_corndogs_go_to_heaven. 

Lou Blumberg (they/them) is an artist, educator, and facilitator living in New Orleans. Their work deals with questions of personal and community safety, vulnerability and intimacy, and how to live a good life. Hire them to mediate your next conflict by emailing them at loub@pdx.edu.

Socially Engaged Designer.

Just like you probably, I have been exploring who I am and how to make myself and the world better. It would be great if we can come across and work together. I am excited to hear your stories and your dreams. I would be very happy to help your challenges and share what I have. Together, let’s make our world better.

I am a Latin art communicator from San Jose, Costa Rica. I believe in communicating through and by art.

After graduating from the Art School of the University of Costa Rica, my interest as a designer and art enthusiast is in creating art communications solutions/experiences around the use of technology.

I have 6+ years of experience in design and visual communication in the technology industry with several expressions in video, design, and photography. I created videos for Costa Rican rock bands, art videos, as well as educational videos about art topics and art history.

+ Take a look here

+ Instagram here

Gilian Rappaport (they/she) is an artist, educator, and naturalist.

In this urgent moment of climate catastrophe, their practice is asking “What can we learn from closeness with nature, and the paths to get there?”

They experiment with co-authorship to deepen our sense of connection to our natural environments and communities.

Their design thinking practice allows them to continue asking these questions while supporting the vision for projects aiming to renew, restore and nurture our world.

The granddaughter of Ashkenazi migrants by way of Russia and Poland, they were born and raised in New York between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers.

Their work has found its way into the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Vogue, and The New York Times. They are currently a collaborating artist at KSMoCA, a contemporary art museum inside a public elementary school in Northeast Portland, Oregon.

They are openly queer, and live and work in Rockaway Beach, Queens and Portland, Oregon.

Follow along: @gilnotjill

Art Portfolio

Design Portfolio

Portrait by Seth Caplan

Olivia is a mixed media artist interested in human connection, what it means to be tender, and the joy/sorrow dichotomy. She finds solace in creating through and for grief and is currently thinking about how grieving can become more of a community practice. She asks questions like:

Olivia likes to make books for and about the people she loves. They’re all about love taking a material form:

And if she isn’t working on a book, she’s working on a video: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgSOSJiWixUFXzyJSyzdEqg

You can find more examples of her work at https://oliviadelgandio.com/

and find her on Instagram at @liv__bliss

luz blumenfeld (they/them) is a transdisciplinary artist and writer with a background in early childhood education. third generation from oakland, california, they currently live and work in portland, oregon. their practice is about looking and noticing, research and history, and personal archives. luz’s work has taken forms such as an unofficial artist residency at the psu pool, teaching preschool, making things public through publications, an open invitation to play with soft sculptures, a radio program about field recordings and the immateriality of memory, and more. 

you can see some of their work here + you can also follow them on instagram at @dogsighs__