"Nothing to Eat" by Aileen Bassis, photopolymer etching, 15 x 10" This photopolymer etching is from a series about displacement and migration. I included text about the various reasons that people may feel compelled to leave their homes and places of origin for an uncertain future.
My art practice is content driven, by this I mean that there are particular areas such as issues of identity, immigration, income inequality, racial disparities, the environment, migration and displacement etc, that I feel compelled to explore through making art. My process begins with a subject that I approach in different formats. The forms of my work can vary, but it’s usually some kind of work on paper that may include altered books, unique and small editions of artists books, printmaking, drawing and collage. My work is often based in photography, and I use my own photos to make prints. The images are ordinary, sometimes fragmented, but the organization, the combination of images, the inclusion of text or additional art media shape the viewer’s experience. I’m interested in providing an opportunity to reach out to the viewer, to make a cognitive space to reflect and rethink our world, the lives surrounding us and the lives that came before. My work is mostly categorized as “political” art but I think of it more as art about our human experience.
Aileen Bassis is a visual artist and a poet living and working in New York City. Her practice includes bookarts, printmaking, collage, installation, and mixed media on paper. She received grants from the Queens Council on the Arts, the Puffin Foundation, Dodge Foundation and the NJ State Arts Council. Her solo exhibits include York College, Chashama266 and LaGuardia Community College in NYC, Brown University, Rutgers University and Ohio University, Athens. Her group exhibits include Queens Museum, NYC, Jersey City Museum, Proteus Gowanus in Brooklyn, Weiner Library in London.