TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image
Past Events

Thursday Night Photo Talk w/ Maria Dumlao

Benevolent Assimilation: scenes that do not represent who we are

May 13, 2021
7 PM EST

In an attempt to make sense of the events of the last year, Maria holds a mirror to the colonial gaze, asking what images reveal and hide, who created the images and for what purpose. 

Maria Dumlao works with combined media, including film, video, animation, sound, photography, embroidery and installation. Her work explores individual and collective history as mediated experience. Her work, History in RGB, combines images of history, popular culture, mythic folklore, landscapes, and creatures to propose alternatives to the systemic representations ordered by colonial narratives. Born in the Philippines, Maria immigrated to the US mainland, where she currently lives and works in the traditional homelands of the Lenape (Philadelphia area). She received a BA in Studio Art & Art History from Rutgers College and MFA in Studio Art at Hunter College-CUNY. Maria’s work has been exhibited, screened and performed in the US and internationally. Most recently she completed a commissioned installation for Auckland Museum and Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Aotearoa NZ and awarded the 2019-21 Center for Emerging Visual Artist Fellowship, the 2020 Leeway Transformation Award, and PPAC’s 2021-21 Artist in Residence. Her work is currently exhibited at Pearlstein Gallery (Philadelphia April 2-May 28), Michener Art Museum (Doylestown through August 15) and on the windows outside of PPAC (through May 31). 

Support for Thursday Night Photo Talks is provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Artist fees for the Thursday Night Photo Talks have been underwritten by The Lillian F. and Jerome L. Sindler Fund for Visual Media.

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