Elise Rasmussen
Finding Ana
November 3–30, 2013
Finding Ana investigates the complexities of Ana Mendieta’s personal and professional life, allowing for discourse on the cross-over between biography and practice of an artist and the varying strata and positions of power within the art world. In 1981, Ana Mendieta returned to her native Cuba where she created the Rupestrian Sculptures, a series of carvings in the caves of Jaruco Park. These works confronted her anxieties of separation from her culture of origin and concluded the series of identity-based works for which she is best known. According to the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Ludwig Foundation in Havana, Ana’s sculptures were destroyed. Finding Ana considers the position of the artist as investigator in re-strategizing history in search of another truth.The project documents Elise’s journey and discovery of Ana Mendieta's lost works, unraveling an alternative to what is reported while asserting her-self in her narrative.
Elise Rasmussen received her BFA from Ryerson University (2004) and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2007) as a Merit Scholar. Elise has had solo exhibitions at the Elizabeth Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum (NY), Agape Enterprise (NY), Night Gallery (LA), AC Institute (NY) and ESP (Toronto). She has exhibited in group shows at the CCS Bard Hessel Museum (Annandale-on-Hudson), Galerie Articule (Montreal), Standpoint Gallery (London), Mulherin Pollard Projects (New York), Werkschauhalle Gallery (Leipzig), the Chicago Cultural Center (Chicago), Gallery 400 (Chicago) and ThreeWalls Gallery (Chicago). Elise has upcoming exhibitions at Gallery 101 (Ottawa) and Momenta Art (NY).
