A former Art NJCU Alumni (Krystle Lemonias) has exhibited artwork in the Guttenberg Art Gallery, the exhibition was called Ah Who Run Dis?, which had an opening reception on November 9th, 2024. She also runs a podcast called “The Hidden Critique” on Spotify and Youtube, giving information on the equity gap and applying to grad school. Krystle was open to sit down for an interview before appearing as a guest speaker in Professor Jung’s Studio Research II class. As someone who didn’t get a chance to visit on opening night, I had several questions in mind to ask when viewing her exhibition pieces on her site: www.krystlelemonias.com
Artistic Journey During and After NJCU
How does it feel to be back in NJCU? Not just as an alumni, but now having experience as an art instructor, being an established artist and a guest speaker.
Krystle: It feels humbling. I was an undocumented person in the US for a long time. When I started NJCU, I got my paperwork a year before I was able to accept my presidential scholarship. It was a long journey of finding a place in higher education not just in the US but as a whole. Having completed my degree here, gone to a master’s program, becoming an educator, and subsequently having an established career is way more than I ever thought I would have achieved. I’m constantly surprised at my capabilities.
As an NJCU Alumni, how did your time at the university shape your artistic practice and how much has it evolved since you’ve graduated?
Krystle: It was home away from home. NJCU was where I found myself as an artist. The faculty was so supportive. Professor Bastidas, Ashley, Tim, Professor Kruck, Deborah Jack, Antoinette Ellis and so many more. All these people played a role in building my understanding of placing myself in American society, how I am able to not be on the peripherals anymore, feel very much fully within myself as an individual, and my footing in society and the stories I have to tell are valuable. I think it was so important to be at a university that was small. But then also a historically Hispanic institution, it is similar in ways to the experience my colleagues talked about in Spelman and Howard. I didn’t know how important it was to see yourself being around faculty and the student body. It was a great foundation.
What are some of the challenges you have experienced while preparing for an exhibition?
Krystle: Figuring out what’s a priority. What is the priority of the showcasing of the work? It’s often best to think about your work and start to see what themes pull out of a few of the pieces from the series for an exhibition, and then have that vibe be portrayed in my title. I’m constantly thinking about context within society and context within intimate relationships. Whether it is in families, friendships, or other types of relationships that exist.
What advice would you give to undergraduate and recent graduate students who would like to be featured in an art gallery but have trouble finding where to start?
Krystle: Speak to your professors, they are a wealth of sources. The work that they had to do to be in the places that they currently are, meaning that they are showing in galleries and various institutions, they have a lot of knowledge to guide you as to what’s next. What happened that kinda got me thinking in this way is showing work a lot. Martin Kruck suggested I apply for a national student competition. While I didn’t win, I got into the final pick. In the pool of artists that were from the New York Academy of Art, out of all the top art schools across the country, I was the only printmaker in a group of forty other artists; they had applications from 500 artists. It was a big deal. He sent me the open call and said apply to this. I had two days before the applications closed. I just listened to him, took his advice, and asked questions to figure out what I felt was my strongest work.
How have you managed to balance the responsibilities of being an art instructor and an active artist featured in many exhibitions?
Krystle: That is hard. The balance is tough. Keep with self-imposed deadlines, as well as imposed deadlines. Apply to a thing, hopefully you get into that thing and it gives you a deadline as to getting work to that thing. You don’t want to disappoint. Even if it doesn’t make the cut once you submit it and the work wasn’t chosen for the exhibition, you have made work that can go somewhere else.
Her Latest Exhibition: “Ah Who Run Dis?”
Can you guide us through your thought process in creating your pieces?
Krystle: Most of my work is based on thinking about the ethnographic study of my family and how family is your first interaction with the values of a society. I start with these little instances or experiences and then use them as the focus that I center all my workaround. This work was inspired by an experience I had, after a time of having a challenging relationship with my mom, I proposed a project for her to organize a storage unit and in turn, I would compensate her for her services as a professional organizer with payment of my art. In the proposal of that project, it was turned down and she sent a cease and desist letter for the work itself and other works I had. I knew that was a potential. I created those pieces and documented how the family space really is the ground of where we learn capitalism. Where oftentimes in America, the individual’s needs are prioritized over the collected, even when it will hurt the entirety
Your exhibition features repurposed baby clothes that belonged to you, your mother, and the children she cared for. With your materials being in a limited supply, how do you decide how many clothes to use for each piece and what significance do each hold?
Krystle: I use the material until it’s done, so I use what I need until it’s done, and then the context of my inspirational stories has to change. For instance, these pieces are based on the experience of my mom, and previous works are based on experiences of watching my mom as a caregiver. Lately, I have also been talking about the history of the Panama Canal. Many Jamaicans went to the Panama Canal construction site, but the materials had to change because it had a different context. My great-great-great-grandfather on my dad’s side went to the Canal zone. I collected clothes from his lineage from everyone on my dad’s side who were willing to contribute. That was a pile of clothes that I had as a resource. Once I went to Panama for a residency last summer, I ran another collection. Panamanians who lived close to the Canal or had some sort of connection to it also gave clothes. That created my materials to make the work. I’m always thinking of clever ways to have communal contribution and have it be a product of not just myself but of my community.
Have you gotten any feedback from the communities you present in your art pieces? Will it influence your future work?
Krystle: Absolutely. Most times when I present the work, most people have connections with it that move them to want to see it more. I have a wave of exhibitions happening because I’m assuming that my work is connecting with both curators and people in institutions. But also people, they’re getting responses from people saying, “Oh wow, this is relevant. This is important”. To think that we are moving into another 4 years of another administration that doesn’t value care and care workers is heartbreaking. There are so many people who do the work of caring for the old, the young, and animals. Depending on who does that work is how well they are paid. So many times it’s individuals who are undocumented, black and brown who are in these spaces and because they are in the American Society does not value this type of labor, it is looked at as subservient and is not paid adequately. There are no labor laws that protect workers in this space. In January of this year, New Jersey passed a bill that’s supposed to protect and give some rights to care workers in this space. But it’s only state-mandated and is not national.
What is the inspiration behind the name for your exhibition “Ah Who Run Dis?”
Krystle: The work as well as society is all a play of power. Ah Who Run Dis is an accusation based on the tone and it is a question at the same time. Who’s really running this? I am telling you, I run this.
Your artist statement mentioned your materials play with the contradiction of mammy stereotypes and show resistance to the power structure seen in care work. Can you elaborate?
Krystle: Mammy stereotypes, from the history of caregiving in America, that caregiving was provided by people who were enslaved. My work is in the context of this history, where in the contemporary story we have women that are still black and brown, and how they’re being paid is still low. So there’s a constant comparison, the cheapness of this labor currently in our society is being compared contextually to the past. When I talk about mammy stereotypes, I am referring to the history of our nation. Many women in these caregiving spaces, the families that they work for often, whether they want it or not, get a lot of these giveaway things, like clothes and items. They accept it to be nice, sometimes they have family to give it to or sometimes they’re using it themselves. I am utilizing these materials, cutting them, and pulling them apart, which are often really good quality things because people who can afford a caregiver are often fairly wealthy. Pulling them apart, and destructuring them is a resistance to the expectation to use it as actually a garment.
Role In The Art Community
In what ways do you believe your art can influence social change?
Krystle: I think that art itself is a door opening to have conversations that then changes culture, that then changes behavior. I sometimes think about the connotation that art itself can change people, but no, I think art helps to create the environment for conversations and in those conversations, behavior can change once people have more knowledge of understanding. I often love to have an exhibition that’s paired with some sort of lecture or workshop. I know that the artwork itself cannot do the work that the conversation that I instigate can do in an opening and in some sort of community activity to have the conditions to make people question.
When looking back on your entrance to the contemporary art scene, would you have done anything differently?
Krystle: I would not do anything differently, I was very strategic and it paid off.
What do you hope viewers take away from your work, both emotionally and intellectually?
Krystle: I hope they formulate questions. I hope that looking at the work makes them question the assumptions that they have about people who do care work, that are immigrants, whether they are documented or not. Because, one would never look at me now as the fancy professor, or artist represented by a gallery and say “Oh, she was undocumented”. No, you wouldn’t think of that history. But I readily talk about that background because there is a connotation that people who come to this country are the worst of their country. It is not. To have the resources to come to America- do you know how expensive it is to get to this country? Both the plane ticket, the visa, and the adjustment of status. The line goes on to how expensive and how many resources you have to gather to come here. For people that are born here and believe the politicians spewing the nonsense of it being the worst of other nations, no you are actually getting the best of everywhere else in this world that comes here.
Any upcoming projects or exhibitions we can expect to see from you?
Krystle: Yes, I showed a body of work at the Woodson African American Art Museum in Florida in January and one piece at the Noyes Art Museum in New Jersey. And there are things happening later down the line.
