De Buck Gallery is thrilled to support Jackie Milad’s upcoming show, Buscando la Sirena (Searching for the Siren), at the Mint Museum in South Carolina.
This exhibition explores the artist’s Honduran heritage through mixed-media paintings and collages. Milad addresses the complexities of cultural identity in her work, which features pieces created specifically for the Mint Museum as well as objects from the Mint’s permanent collection.
From the Mint Museum
Artist Jackie Milad presents mixed-media abstract paintings and collages that address the history and complexities of dispersed cultural heritage and multi-ethnic identity.
A Baltimore City-based artist, her paintings, collages, and sculptures explore global migration inspired by her identity as a first-generation American citizen.
Though Milad’s father is Egyptian and her mother is Honduran, there is a shared relationship to outsiders who excavate and exploit cultural artifacts, exporting primarily to Europe and the United States where it is often presented out of context. This exploitation has long fascinated Milad. In her words, she is “omnivorous” in her inclusion of objects and images from museum collections and academic papers.
Milad has previously focused on her father’s Egyptian roots. Her father’s family came from stability and money, enabling them to preserve their history with photographs, keepsakes, and documents dating back to the 19th century. Her mother, in Milad’s words, had a “gap in resources,” yielding very little physical material for Milad to investigate, making it difficult for her to explore her Honduran maternal heritage. Ironically, Tiger Island, where her mother was born, represents a unique convergence of cultural styles and exchanges that mirror Milad’s larger artistic project.
In Buscando la Sirena, Milad explores her mother’s homeland of Honduras through created works and selected objects from the Mint’s permanent collection that connect to the Gulf of Fonseca geographically or stylistically.
The exhibition is on view from October 27, 2023 – October 27, 2024 at the Mint Museum Uptown in Charlotte, North Carolina.
An Artist’s Talk will be held on October 29 from 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM. Free Admission.
