Samantha Box + Joshua Lee

caribbean dreams / fluctuation

july 10 to 30, 2021

VIRTUAL and in-person Opening: Saturday, JULY 10th, 2021 at 6:00 PM

VIrtual Artist Talk: SUNDAY, july 18th, 2021, 6:00PM on IG LIve

virtual and in-person Closing: Friday, July 30th, 2021, 6:00 pM

IN-PERSON VIEWING: BY APPOINTMENT

Michelle O’Connell, Apexalypse, 8 x 27 inches, Colored pencil, marker, pen, and watercolor on Illustration board, 2020

Empty Set Project Space is pleased to present Caribbean Dreams / Fluctuation, a conversation between the artworks of Samantha Box and Joshua Lee. Both artists present realities primarily produced using large format photography to examine concepts of identity related not only to themselves, but to the condition of perpetual displacement and erasure.

Prompted by cultural/political studies Caribbean Dreams investigates familial, regional histories; folklore; and memory. Samantha Box creates intricate photographs using her body and hair; Caribbean fruits vegetables and seedlings; family heirlooms; and archival images. The photographs are autoethnographic, examining structures of exodus and diaspora, while articulating hybrid Jamaican/Trinidadian diaspora consciousness from an embodied perspective.

Fluctuation centers on personal fixations on absence, desire, and isolation. Joshua Lee’s expressionistic black and white photographs are suffused with a sense of melancholy and darkness, as well as theatricality and opacity. The photographs question ideas of authenticity and representation, as well as examining erasure and absence, and whether the two are distinct. His work is heavily process driven, using both analogue and digital techniques, in addition to embracing chance and serendipity as important components of image-making.

Caribbean Dreams / Fluctuation will be on view from July 10th through July 30th at Empty Set, 860 E. 136th Street, #10D, Bronx, NY. The opening will take place on Saturday, July 10th, 2021 at 6:00pm and the closing will take place on Friday, July 30th at 6:00pm at the gallery and on Instagram Live (@empty.set.gallery). The gallery will also host a virtual artist talk and conversation between Samantha Box and Joshua Lee on Instagram Live (@empty.set.gallery) on Sunday, July 18th, 2021 at 6:00pm. In-person viewings are by appointment and kindly ask to RSVP for the opening and closing. Email at emptyset.gallery@gmail.com or DM us on Instagram for an appointment. For more information about Empty Set and its events and exhibitions, please visit emptysetart.com.

Samantha Box
Samantha Box is a Jamaican-born, Bronx-based photographer. In her studio-based practice, she uses self-portraiture, still-life, and installation to explore her intersecting diasporic Caribbean histories and identities. Recent exhibitions include the Houston Center of Photography (2019), and the Andrew Freedman House (2020). She will be in residence at the Center of Photography at Woodstock in August 2021.

Joshua Lee
Joshua Lee is an artist living in New York City. His artwork examines death and other related subjects such as grief, trauma, ephemerality, erasure, and absence, He specializes in large format photography and process based artwork, often switching between digital and analogue. He often draws inspiration from many sources and interests, such as poetry, film, music, history, and dad jokes. He has exhibited internationally in China, Italy, South Korea, and the United States.