Members
CURRENT STUDIO MEMBERS:
Doris Caçoilo
[Artist :: Activist :: Co-founder/Director of _gaia] With the organization, Doris has developed programs and events focused on the social, political and artistic lives of women. She has co-curated the group shows INside and Instant Gratification among many others, showcasing the work of over 200 artists, helped produce the P.S.1 WACK! Open Studio Artists Tour and has organized the Wonder Women Residency program, an annual group artist residency and exhibition.
Doris has an MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College and has been teaching at Hunter College, Rutgers University and New Jersey City University. She is teaching to learn and learning to teach, freelancing with her various talents, designing, lecturing, conducting workshops and curating – always experimenting at the intersection of social advocacy, media and art. She is using the challenges of the current economy to make kick-ass work and to create better opportunities for her fellow artists and her students. Her screen-based work, sculpture, performances and curated projects have been exhibited in NY and NJ and recently in Cyprus.
www.doriscacoilo.com
www.thecolchaproject.org
Marilyn Arias
[Studio Member :: Filmmaker and Producer] A New Jersey Resident, Marilyn Arias has been an avid film aficionado for most of her life. With a background in Real estate, she integrated her passion of Film & TV with her business acumen and emerged as a Producer. An alumni of New Jersey City University with a BA in Media Arts. Marilyn was the 2013 recipient of The Dr. Joseph Drew Award for Excellence in Media Production 2013, presented to the top graduate in Media Arts Production, Media Arts Department, NJ City University. She is currently the head Video Content Producer for KVibe Productions, LLC a leading provider of Video Production services in the Tristate area.
Jennifer M. Torres
[Studio Manager and Development Intern] For the past ten years Jennifer has explored multiple art media and genres leading to her love of the three dimensional world. She is experimenting with various life-casting, ceramic and 3D techniques to create organic forms of the human body. Her work explores the human body and its relationship to nature and the social and psychological aspects of body image. “The human body is a vessel which we modify to socially please others while we are secretly never satisfied and never should be.” She’s currently completing her B.F.A in Sculpture at New Jersey City University.
Panda Suwan
Based in Jersey City, Panda Suwann works with many media to convey social issues and life conflicts while intriguing the audience with outlandish and quirky methods and materials in her work. This local, young artist choose to create not just art but dialogues that helps further a cause either in women’s rights to the negative affects of social media in today’s society. She uses her bold attitudes to reflect on her choices of materials from food-based products to clothing, which inspires from her years as a seamstress.
With many influences from philosophers and artists, she draws out her inspirations from this feminist clothing artist, Mimi Smith, as well as for the boldness attitude and metaphorical ideas from the neo-German expressionist, Anselm Kiefer. Both artists use unorthodox materials and methods to represent their thoughts and concepts in their work.
With her work, she hopes her concepts and ideas help educate and provoke new ideas for better life. Her expectations for the future drive her into making these works for one day to arise above from this generation and its selfishness that is now called Generation Me. And hopefully, she believes this will change into more a self-awareness and almost an enlighten generation that will continue challenging these misconceptions and wrongful way of living.
Theda Sandiford
A self-taught mixed media artist based in Jersey City, NJ was born in Queens NY in 1970 into a cultural gumbo of multi racial parentage. As a child, she spent her summers collecting shells at the beach, taking photographs with her father’s Nikon FE and going to NYC museums to avoid the heat.
Though art is engrained in her psyche, Theda’s first creative endeavors were in the music business as a sales & digital marketing executive. After years of ground breaking digital work for musicians, she began combining digital and analog collage processes, to develop her own artistic self-expression.
Using internal conflict as a starting point, Theda uses found materials and photography to make cut and paste collages that are then digitally manipulated to extend the narrative. Fragmented identity juxtaposed with the existence with infinite possibilities is a recurring theme in her work.
Theda has participated at various group shows in the New York/New Jersey area including the annual Jersey City Studio Art Tour, Arts Unbound in Orange NJ, LITM in Jersey City NJ and the Limner Gallery Hudson NY. Several of her collages have been licensed for print and her work is included in private collections. Follow her process on Instagram @MissTheda and on her website www.thedasandiford.com
Co-Founding Directors:
Amie Figueiredo
[Activist :: Co-founder/Director of _gaia Action] amie had been searching for a way to make really cool things with really cool people in a really cool place — and she has found it. _gaia has become her venue for doing things that she has always wanted to do but never had the time nor the place to. It is a network of wonderful women that do extraordinary things.
Coming from a strong science background with a masters in Environmental Policy Studies her place in _gaia is somewhat strange to some but it fits right in. She likes to keep the members of _gaia involved in many different aspects of activism (political, environmental, and social). It has become her platform for promoting awareness, acceptance and education.
She is also a designer for re- clothing line, a collaboration with _gaia’s other cofounder, artist and long-time friend doris cacoilo. Their designs embrace a variety of different ideas. Re-encompasses a redefinition of existing clothing as well as some original designs. This collaboration allows them experimentation and exploration of different fabrics, styles and ideas.
Nancy Amirati Ghani
[Co-founding member/the NAG of _gaia] By way of the only art history course in her college transcript, Nancy met and became friends with Doris Cacoilo, which led to her membership in _gaia. Although she wouldn’t define herself as a traditional artist, Nancy gets creative with writing, sewing and photography. Within _gaia, Nancy has developed into an activist by participating in various important environment, health and social causes. Most recently, she is the organizer for V-DAY Union City, which is a movement to prevent violence against women and girls through a benefit production of The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler. Nancy considers herself blessed to be a member among such other equally dynamic women of _gaia.
Lillian Ribeiro
[Activist :: Co-founder/Director of _gaia Performing Arts] Lillian has organized original and nationally recognized theatrical productions and film events around social issues that impact people locally and globally. With over 10 years experience of developing residencies, programs, and events, Lillian has fostered large groups of supporters, artists, and volunteers for over 5 well-respected organizations.
In 2002, Lillian was invited to join _gaia, a collective of women artists in Jersey City, New Jersey, as a founding member. In 2007, she represented _gaia as one of the 6 theatre companies that founded the Hudson County Theatre Alliance. In 2009, Lillian joined the Garden State Rollergirls where she skates under the name “Lilly Lips – #12”. In 2010, Lillian began working for Catholic Charities as a Therapeutic Visitation Counselor with foster care families in Middlesex County New Jersey, where she works as an advocate for each family while providing creative interventions. Lillian also works at Women Aware, Inc. in Middlesex County where she currently works helping women and children overcome domestic violence and move beyond abuse.
Currently Lillian is studying at City University of New York School of Professional Studies where she expects to receive her Master of Arts in Applied Theatre Studies in 2013. As an undergraduate at Rutgers University, Lillian doubled majored in Theatre Arts and Speech at the School of Arts and Sciences, and Marketing at the Rutgers Business School.
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Past Studio Members – forever _gaia! Still close by and fighting the good fight with us……
Danielle Fotopoulos
[Designer :: Co-founding member] A NYC childrens’ wear designer by day, at night this _gaia member spends the wee hours embracing all areas of art & design. Danielle combines fashion design with art to create wearable art and photography projects. In her project Tampon Couture she combines feminine hygiene products (tampons, pads & pantiliners) to create a beautiful, wearable dress. Danielle also designs one of a kind jewelry and knitwear pieces. Danielle also organized the hugely successful Threads a wearable art fashion show at the Jersey City Museum.
Agnieszka Wszolkowski
[Artist :: Co-founding member of _gaia] Agnieszka Wszolkowski was born in Poland and has been in the United States since she was a teen. She went to Rutgers University where she discovered her passion for art and earned a BA with a concentration in painting and a minor in Anthropology. Agnieszka earned her MA in education at Seton Hall University. She teaches at the Main Street School in Orange, NJ and is also an art educator at The Montclair Art Museum.
Agnieszka began working with fabrics of different textures, designs and colors. Agnieszka uses wood panels and mixed media that include acrylic, latex paint, different fabrics, wire and staples, she calls these “Quilting Paintings.” She is also working with embroidery and acrylic paint to create a series of works based on communication and the Braille system.
www.agnieszka-wszolkowska.com/
Aileen Bassis
[Artist :: Member of _gaia] Aileen Bassis’ work is concerned with social and political issues and photo based. She has created work about immigration, the Holocaust, racism, children and psychiatric drugs, child abuse, aging and dementia. She creates work in book arts, installation, printmaking and digital photography. She received a fellowship from the NJ State Council on the Arts, a grant from the Puffin Foundation and numerous artist residencies in the US and Europe including the Frans Masereel Center in Belgium, the Vermont Studio Center in the United States, Nelimakka Museum in Finland and Atelier BaZtille in the Netherlands. Aileen has had solo exhibitions at Ohio University in Athens, University of Pennsylvania, College of St. Elizabeth in Morristown and galleries. She has exhibited in many group shows including the Jersey City Museum, City Without Walls Gallery, NurtureArt Gallery in Brooklyn, NY and in many universities including Rutgers University, New York University, Central Wyoming College, Boston University and the University of the South to name just a few. Her work is in the collections of Wellesley College, the Newark Library Special Collections, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp and the Nelimarkka Museum in Finland. She has a Masters of Arts degree from Hunter College, New York City and a Bachelors degree in Studio Art from State University of New York in Binghamton. Aileen also teaches art to children in an urban school district in New Jersey. Her life experiences inform and shape her art into a dialogue that connects the personal with the universal.
Nathalie Zaro
[Photographer :: Member of _gaia] Nathalie was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the United States when she was four years old. For the past couple of years she has been studying photography, learning extensively about the medium. She is currently exploring several techniques involving film and alternate photography processes. Nathalie is also learning about music production and currently uses digital software to experiment with music of all genres. She is graduating New Jersey City University with a Business Administration degree and a minor in photography. She plans to attend graduate school shortly after she receives her Bachelor’s degree to further study photography, fine arts and music.
Marci Mathews
[Artist:: Member of _gaia] Marci Mathew’s paintings focus on the raw beauty of womanhood and the spiritual relationship between women and nature. Her spirited and empowering portraits of women are rich in island colors stemming from her Puerto Rican heritage. Marci loves the creative process and views her paintings as visual rituals used to reflect her life journey.
Marci is a Board Certified Art Therapist. She is also dedicated to supporting pregnant women as a birth doula and childbirth educator, offering holistic and compassionate care with the mission of empowering women. Marci is a long time resident of Jersey City where she lives with her amazing husband and son.
Melissa MacAlpin
[Artist :: Member of _gaia] For the past 13 years, Melissa has been making books and comics. Her work has been carried by Cosmic Comics, Forbidden Planet, Jim Hanley’s Universe, and Midtown Comics in New York City. Melissa is interested in sequential art narratives. She spends her time collecting stories from friends and acquaintances then reinterprets these events into a visual form so she can offer her audience the opportunity to glimpse at the hidden moments of day-to-day life.
www.melissamacalpin.com
Charlotte Exantus
[Artist:: Member/Webninja of _gaia] Charlotte Exantus is:
– A New Jersey based gypsy-cab-style freelance print and web designer (www.legitcreativeperson.com).
– A EX-part-time caffeinated beverage architect.
– An extremely awkward dancer
Roxana Marroquin
[Photographer :: Member of _gaia] Roxana takes photos. Born in El Salvador, her family emigrated to the United States and settled in Hudson County when she was 8. She studied photography and creative writing in New Jersey City University and has exhibited her fine art photography extensively. She is also a freelance photographer, her work has been published in Time Out NY, Jersey City Magazine, Palisades Magazine, IN NY, and Splash Art among others. In addition, Roxana is a co-founder of La Ola org., a network group for North Hudson County artists and has curated various art exhibitions around Hudson County.
Her current work deals with the reconstruction of identity and memory, of which she says “through the camera lens and artistic process, I search for this memory along the lines of my skin, among the places I inhabit, inside the depths of my dreams, and within the dark remote places of my subconscious… this is the memory that holds who I am.”
