Incongruent Lineage: Natalie Falero & Arash Fayez exhibition at Pro Arts in Oakland


Natalie Falero performance at “For Incongruent Lineage” exhibition 


Incongruent Lineage explores the bodily tensions of belonging to a foreign place. Does one ever belong? How is the need for place cultivated? As our bodies constantly shift, how do they take up space in a time where space is not always available? Natalie Falero and Arash Fayez both explore the complex notions of foreigners to place through performance art.
There are things we can only understand as we become foreigners to place. As our physical bodies navigate through countries, bodies of water, borders, landscapes and continents, we are left with remnants from these places. Memories, languages, gestures, fear, rituals, and costumbres all become a part of the things we carry. In order to adapt, we are often forced to drop, dilute and forget some of this residue along the way. “To become” is to find ways to adapt, resist, and reclaim through instinctual ways of belonging and placemaking.

Arash Fayez performance at “For Incongruent Lineage” exhibition 
Whether willingly or not, to displace a body from location A to location B is to learn to shed and become C. Utilizing performance as a tool to cope through political turmoil, Falero and Fayez (officially known as Faeiz) scatter to find place in order to belong outwardly and within.
For Incongruent Lineage, Faeiz will present the foundation of the psyche as it operates in a bicameral way. Through the act of shedding, he develops a third person in order to belong in location B. Fayez creates the possibility for multiple layers of being, as well as learning to belong through a multilingual, distracted mind. In tandem, Falero will present herself in the gallery to engage in a conversation about the Puerto Rican government and her individual liberation. For Falero, the tensions between statehood and independence are constantly at play. Her attempt to find a sense of place through political turmoil is an oscillatory process of coming and going to Puerto Rico. Ultimately, Falero aims to find belonging in liberation from the post-colonial “development” of the United States.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Arash Fayez performance at “For Incongruent Lineage” exhibition 
ARASH FAYEZ 
Arash Fayez, sometimes Faeiz, is an artist and curator who is stateless and without location (at the moment). Spanning live situations, video, and objects, his practice intertwines to create para-fictional and multi-layered projects informed by notions of displacement, distraction, and bicamerality. Through storytelling based on partial memories and notions of interstitial space, his works confront sociopolitical issues while engaging the role of found footage and archival materials in constructing these narratives. Fayez has exhibited and performed internationally at venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Musée du quai Branly, Paris; the British Museum, London; the Queens Museum, New York; and the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco.

Natalie Falero performance at “For Incongruent Lineage” exhibition 
NATALIE FALERO
Born in San Juan Puerto Rico, Natalie Falero is an interdisciplinary artist that works along the medium of performance, installation, video and photography. Her arts practice began, while pursuing her BA in Journalism at the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in 2015. There, she began working through the medium of photography. Falero then receiver her MFA in Studio Art from the San Francisco Art Institute and received the Anne Bremer Prize Award for Best MFA Exhibition 2017 at The Mint, San Francisco.
Highly invested in understanding the body as a communication tool to interact with cultural and social constructs, Falero examines the body as site of activism and reinvention among acculturation and social-political conditions. Her work explores social injustices related to discrimination of race, gender and colonialism. Through ritualistic acts, she dismantles traces of identity by marking territory with her body. She accesses the body’s poetic language in pursuit of the processes that speaks to the experience of breaking free from restrictions.


XAVIER ROBLES / CURATOR
Xavier Robles is a Mexican-born curator, visual artist, and educator, who grew up in Santa Ana, California. Robles previously worked as the Coordinator of Public Programs at the Grand Central Art Center, where he created programming and developed youth curriculum addressing contemporary art forms by artists of color.
Currently, Robles is the Curatorial Intern at Southern Exposure, where he works closely with the Curatorial Committee and Exhibitions and Projects Program Director. He is also an Artist-in-Education at Southern Exposure. In this role, he works one-on-one with youth to expand their craft. He is the founder of Paleta Zine, an ongoing self -published curatorial zine that creates a space of expression and documentation for queer bois of color.
Robles’ practice as a curator seeks to challenge and address the concept of “invasion” through a range of art forms that subvert in order to embrace the term as way to take space. Robles holds a B.A. in Architectural Studies from Hampshire College and currently resides in Oakland, California.
ABOUT 2 x 2:
2 x 2 is a series of solo exhibitions featuring new work from four accomplished emerging artists based in the Oakland/Bay Area. The program recognizes artistic excellence and supports the freedom to create challenging and noncommercial work.
This program is made possible, in part, through the support of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). 


Incongruent Linenage: Natalie Falero & Arash Fayez - A 2 x 2 Exhibition / Curated by Xavier Robles runs through September 1, 2017. Pro Arts is located at 150 Frank H Ogawa Plz, Oakland.

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