ARTISTS WHO MAKE FUTURES
Conversation Series
TIANA WEBB EVANS x SHOSHANNA WEINBERGER
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Read audio transcript here.
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Weinberger reflects on growing up with artist parents and returning annually to Jamaica, where memory is formed through sound, smell, weather, and light: whistling frogs, burning leaves, rainstorms, ocean rhythms. These sensory memories become the foundation of an immersive environment made of mirrors, stripes, sound, and suspended anthropomorphic forms. As Evans describes it, the installation functions as a “memory palace”—a space visitors don’t simply observe but physically enter.
Recurring motifs—stripes, mirrors, fractals, and stiletto-shaped botanical forms—carry layered meanings. They reference borders, surveillance, femininity, hybridity, and the systems that attempt to categorize bodies and identities. Inside the installation, reflection is fragmented; viewers become part of the work, momentarily occupying the position of the “strange fruit,” a figure Weinberger has revisited across decades of practice.
Sound operates as echolocation, grounding the space emotionally and geographically. For Weinberger, Jamaica is not romanticized but described as sensual and alive, a place where intensity heightens awareness and presence. The conversation ultimately expands outward, reflecting on climate, resilience, and community in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, and on memory as a collective force—one that preserves history, sustains connection, and imagines futures shaped by care.
The Space Between Light invites us to linger in that threshold: between past and present, clarity and distortion, self and reflection.
This episode is also available on Bloomberg Connects.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, and raised in Montclair, NJ, Shoshanna Weinberger received her MFA from Yale School of Art in 2003 and her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995. She has lived and worked in Newark, NJ, since 2006, where her studio practice explores her Afro-Caribbean-American lineage through abstraction.
Weinberger’s work is held in permanent collections including: AC Kingston Collection, Jamaica; Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA; Davidson College, Davidson, NC; Girls Club Collection, Fort Lauderdale; LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA; Margulies Collection, Miami; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ; Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ; Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University-Newark; and Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE.
Shoshanna Weinberger was a 2018 Project for Empty Space Artist in Residence.
Learn more about Shoshanna Weinberger at shoshanna.info.
Photo credit: Rachel Fawn Alban
Tiana Webb Evans is a distinguished brand strategist, cultural producer, and advocate committed to supporting artists and the creative economy. She is the founder of three unique ventures. These include ESP Group LLC, a brand strategy and communications consultancy serving a diverse international clientele across the art, design, and hospitality industries. She also founded Yard Concept, a cultural platform that features a digital journal, a gallery, and unique 'happenings' like her signature Reading Circles, all aimed at fostering consciousness through art, design, and community. Most recently, she established the Jamaica Art Society, a multinational advocacy initiative designed to strengthen the Jamaican art ecosystem through professional development programs, capacity-building workshops, and art engagement experiences for collectors and enthusiasts.
Tiana's extensive professional background includes significant roles in branding, communications, strategic planning, and cultural programming. Before launching ESP Group in 2014, she was the Communications Director at Phillips Auctioneers, a global corporation specializing in contemporary art sales. Her career also includes her tenure as Vice President of the Hospitality and Real Estate group at Nadine Johnson & Associates, where she managed a client portfolio at the intersection of art, culture, and business. Earlier, she served as the Business Director of Studio Sofield, a celebrated architecture and design firm known for its work with luxury brands.
In addition to her professional roles, Tiana is deeply involved in the art community through her service on various boards and committees. She was recently appointed to the board of the National Gallery of Jamaica, where she chairs its exhibition committee. She also serves on the boards of Project for Empty Space, the Female Design Council and is on advisory committees for the Laundromat Project and Art at a Time Like This.
Learn more about Tiana Webb Evans at jamaicaartsociety.com.
Photo credit: Bimpé Fageyinbo