A non-profit institute for research and publishing, exhibitions, and convenings on art of the global diaspora,
Rivers’ work with artists is anchored by the Amistad-Rivers Research Residency, a partnership with the
Amistad Research Center (ARC) which aims to advance contemporary art that makes a study of history. Over the next three years, Andersson and Amirkhani will partner with organizations in New Orleans and beyond to present several exhibitions and publications that highlight Rivers’ commitment to research at the confluence of diverse bodies of knowledge.
Film still, Helen Cammock, I Will Keep My Soul, 2023. HD video. Courtesy the artist and Kate MacGarry Gallery, London.
In Fall 2023, Rivers will present the second edition of
Helen Cammock: I Will Keep My Soul at the University of New Orleans' St. Claude Gallery. The exhibition features a film commission and other works that investigate artist Elizabeth Catlett’s struggle to realize her 1976 commission for a sculpture of Louis Armstrong in New Orleans’ Armstrong Park. The accompanying artist’s book (co-published by Rivers, Siglio Press, and the California African American Museum in Los Angeles) will include contributions by Jordan Amirkhani, Andrea Andersson, Roshanak Kheshti, Courtney Martin, and Kristina Kay Robinson. Rivers will also release an artist’s book with Alia Farid (co-published by Rivers and Siglio Press) in coordination with an exhibition that brings together sculpture, film, and an artist’s book as multiple perspectives on the landscape, people, and culture of Southern Iraq.
Installation view, Alia Farid, In Lieu of What Was, 2019. Resin and fiberglass water vessels. On view in Dos Instalaciones, Espacio Temporal, Pantin, France (April 24–June 27, 2021). Courtesy the artist and Kate MacGarry Gallery, London.
In 2024, Rivers will partner with New Orleans’
Ogden Museum of Southern Art and New York’s
Center for Art, Research, and Alliances to present
Tina Girouard: SIGN-IN, the first comprehensive retrospective for the Louisiana-born artist and icon of 1970s SoHo.The publication (co-published by Rivers and Dancing Foxes Press) will foreground archival material and include essays by Nic Aziz, Julia Bryan-Wilson, Lynne Cooke, Aruna D’Souza, Pamela M. Lee, and Lumi Tan.
Installation view, Tina Girouard, Moving In/Moving Out/Sign-In, 1976. On view in ROOMS, P.S. 1 Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Queens, NY (June 9, 1976–June 26, 1976). Courtesy of the artist’s estate.
In 2024 and 2025, Rivers will also debut an exhibition and complementary artist’s book with Allison Janae Hamilton which will explore the knowledge of wetlands, the front porch, yard art, and the margins of books, histories, and communities.
Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought is part of Teiger Foundation's
Climate Action Pilot.
Andrea Andersson serves as founding director and curator of Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought, a non-profit institute for research and publishing, exhibitions and convenings on art of the global diaspora. A writer and curator, she has organized recent exhibitions with artists including Helen Cammock, Troy Montes-Michie, Yto Barrada, Sanford Biggers, Cecilia Vicuña, Zarouhie Abdalian, Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick, Adam Pendleton, among others. She co-edits a series of artists’ books together with Siglio Press including Adam Pendleton: Becoming Imperceptible, Cecilia Vicuña: About to Happen, Hinge Pictures: Eight Women Artists Occupy the Third Dimension, Troy Montes-Michie: Rock of Eye, and most recently, Helen Cammock: I Will Keep My Soul. She also recently co-edited with Antonio Sergio Bessa, Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch (Yale University Press) and organized the eponymous touring exhibition.
Dr. Jordan Amirkhani is Deputy Director and Curator of Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought. Prior to taking on these roles, Amirkhani has held academic positions at American University in Washington, DC and at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga. Recent curatorial projects include Helen Cammock: I Will Keep My Soul; Troy Montes Michie: Rock of Eye; and Yto Barrada: Ways to Baffle the Wind. Amirkhani has written scholarship and essays on the work of contemporary artists such as Wendy Red Star, Sheida Soleimani, Soheila Sokhanvari, and Vesna Pavlović and her work has been featured in publications that include The Paris Review Daily, Artforum, Art in America, Baltimore Arts, Boston Art Review, X-Tra, and Burnaway. Her emphasis on contextualizing contemporary art and artists working in the American South garnered her a prestigious Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation “Short-Form” Writing Grant in 2017 and three nominations for The Rabkin Prize in Arts Journalism in 2017, 2018, and 2019.