ARTISTS WHO MAKE FUTURES
A new conversation series that invites you to engage with PES’ ongoing exhibitions and community of artists and culture makers at your fingertips from your own comfort!
EP 01: Shoshanna Weinberger X Tiana Webb Evans
About the Exhibition
Composed of mirrors, The Space Between Light is an experiential installation that explores a sequence of life-sized fractal reflective structures that unfold portals between the imagined and the yet-to-come. As a visual anthropologist, Weinberger catalogs cultural and architectural motifs from the Caribbean to build an environment that meditates on identity through memories.
Throughout the exhibition, Weinberger stacks sculptural forms reminiscent of building blocks commonly found in the Caribbean, often left partially constructed for future expansion, and reimagines with mirrored and striped surfaces. Stripes, a recurring codifier in Weinberger’s studio practice, transform these utilitarian forms into reflective markers of possibility and cultural memory. For the first time in her professional experience, Weinberger incorporates film within the installation. Shot in Kingston, Jamaica, her birthplace, the film adds a layer of color, sound, and visual storytelling tied to memories of her childhood into the space. These scenes layer a personal narrative within the reflective environment, grounding the installation in a lived Caribbean landscape while inviting visitors to glimpse moments of memory, place, movement, and themselves within the larger layered refractions of the work.
About Shoshanna Weinberger
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 .
About Tiana Webb Evans
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.
For our first episode, cultural strategist & Jamaica Art Society founder Tiana Webb Evans joins AIR Alumna Shoshanna Weinberger for a discussion on “The Space Between Light.” Dive deeper into Shoshanna’s installation as they break down the installation’s elements and discuss how the artist’s trajectory, her familial legacy in the arts, and growing up in diaspora shape the exhibition and the artist’s broader practice. Moreover, Tiana and Shoshanna touch on the role of memory/retention to remind listeners of the histories of resilience within Jamaica, as the island and its communities underscore how resilience is built through collectivism, with neighbors coming together in response to the effects of hurricane Melissa.
Full transcript is available for reading here!