STONELEAF RETREAT

We are proud to announce that Las Hermanas Iglesias, the collaborative team of Lisa & Janelle Iglesias, are the inaugural recipients of the Peggy Toomer Family Residency at STONELEAF RETREAT.

The Peggy Toomer Family Residency includes a stipend, private accommodation and studios on twenty-two acres of land at STONELEAF for the month of July. Las Hermanas Iglesias will also exhibit works from their Commiserates series at STONELEAF during UPSTATE ART WEEKEND, July 22-24, 2022.

Since 2012 Las Hermanas Iglesias have been engaging in an on-going Commiserates project, which began as part of their Competitions series. Commiserates has expanded to include an open-source resource around grief and infant loss which can be found here.

Las Hermanas Iglesias were previously artists-in-residence at STONELEAF in 2018, where their mother and collaborator Bodhild joined them, and in 2022 they will return with their partners and children.

About Las Hermanas Iglesias: Las Hermanas Iglesias is the collaborative team of Lisa & Janelle Iglesias, sisters born to Dominican and Norwegian immigrants in Queens, NY. The moniker anchors the artists’ identities within the contexts of feminism, teamwork, and multiplicity. For the past 15 years, the two have maintained their mixed-media, genre-blurring collaboration alongside their individual practices rooted in Drawing and Sculpture. Las Hermanas undertakes this collaboration while living in different cities, usually through formal and informal residencies and extended on-site collaborative installations. Their practice has evolved to include a number of team efforts and variations such as a further collaboration with their mother, Bodhild. Through employing playful structures that respond to the community and geographical context of each project, Las Hermanas Iglesias creates artworks that disrupt borders, engage absurdity, and promote the benefits of working together.

Their collaborative work has been exhibited at El Museo del Barrio, Queens Museum, Abrons Art Center, ASU Art Museum, NMSU Art Museum, The Utah Museum of Fine Arts and others. As a team, they’ve been artists in residence at LMCC’s Paris program (France), Fanoon: Center for Print Research at VCUQ (Qatar), The New Roots Foundation (Guatemala) and the Textile Arts Center (US). The artists’ work has been featured in the New York Times, the Huffington Post and Bombmagazine.com and supported by the Queens Council for the Arts, NYFA, and The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures. www.lashermanasiglesias.com / @lashermanasiglesias

Janelle Iglesias is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of California San Diego and works on site-responsive projects in a variety of contexts. Working with and through objects and materials, her sculptural installations often explore the relationship between humans, late capitalism and the natural environment. An alumna of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, her work has been supported by the Joan Mitchell, Pollock-Krasner and the Jerome Foundations––through which Janelle conducted research on bowerbirds in the rainforests of West Papua. / www.lashermanasiglesias.com/janelle-iglesias / @theinvisibleisreal

Lisa Iglesias recently joined the Department of Art at Mount Holyoke College as an Associate Professor and is a mother of 3. Her work explores expansive histories and potentials of drawing and painting and takes into consideration the translation of patterns, images, and gestures across materials. Her work has been supported by NYFA and residencies at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, among others. Lisa divides her time between Western Mass and Queens, NY. www.lashermanasiglesias.com/lisa-iglesias / @lisa_iglesias

About the Peggy Toomer Family Residency: The Peggy Toomer Family Residency was launched in honor of Helen’s Granma, who passed away suddenly in December 2021. Peggy was the strong, creative and deeply supportive matriarch of a large family. She raised four children, nurtured thirteen grandchildren, of which Helen is the oldest, and was beloved by many great-grandchildren.

Helen states, “My Granma was magic! I owe so much of my creative and determined spirit to her and her loving legacy will forever live on at STONELEAF.”

Thank you to all the generous donors who made the Peggy Toomer Family Residency possible! We are still fundraising to strengthen this annual initiative and if you are able, please consider making a tax-deductible donation.