La Cueva de la Sirena
Buscando la sirena (Searching for the siren)
Mint Museum Randolph
Curated by Jennifer Sudul Edwards
October 27, 2023 - October 27, 2024
Artist Jackie Milad presents mixed-media abstract paintings and collages that address the history and complexities of dispersed cultural heritage and multi-ethnic identity.
A Baltimore City-based artist, her paintings, collages, and sculptures explore global migration inspired by her identity as a first-generation American citizen. She creates layered two-dimensional works that are primarily paintings but that also incorporate collage elements, such as found and stenciled fabrics, notions, and pieces of paper.
Though Milad’s father is Egyptian and her mother is Honduran, there is a shared relationship to outsiders who excavate and exploit cultural artifacts, exporting primarily to Europe and the United States where it is often presented out of context. This exploitation fascinates Milad. In her words, she is “omnivorous” in her inclusion of objects and images from museum collections and academic papers.
Milad has previously focused on her father’s Egyptian roots. Her father’s family came from stability and money, enabling them to preserve their history with photographs, keepsakes, and documents dating back to the 19th century. Her mother, in Milad’s words, had a “gap in resources,” yielding very little physical material for Milad to investigate, making it difficult for her to explore her Honduran maternal heritage. Ironically, Tiger Island, where her mother was born, represents a unique convergence of cultural styles and exchanges that mirror Milad’s larger artistic project.
In Buscando la sirena, Milad explores her mother’s homeland of Honduras through created works and selected objects from the Mint’s permanent collection that connect to the Gulf of Fonseca geographically or stylistically.