Dirty Ice Cream in a Poor Party

In the organizer's words:

Guest artist Maria Jeona Zoleta

Opening: Friday, August 1, 7 p.m.

At the end of her three-month residency at Artists Unlimited, Manila-based Filipino artist Maria Jeona Zoleta is showing the works she created in Bielefeld.
The powerful, colorful paintings and drawings, as well as three-dimensional works playfully composed from found objects, tell an enigmatic story of Zoleta's world, which oscillates between extreme life in a megacity, dreams and trauma, comics and physicality and traditional ritual actions.

The artist herself describes her work as follows:
"I depict cartoonish figures of innocence transformed into forces of nature, in an unsettling atmosphere that evokes unease and a strange, uncanny familiarity - similar to the feeling of goosebumps or the discovery of a goblin, called "nuno" in Filipino mythology. I want to exorcize the past to revive another, while reflecting the turbulent times we live in today and envisioning a future that is uncertain, yet full of potential for transformation and renewal. I engage with these tensions artistically and explore deeper questions about our collective relationship to nature, identity and social constructs in my work. Ultimately, I see my art as a place to imagine new possibilities - challenging entrenched norms while sparking conversations about vulnerability, politics and reshaping our cultural narratives. I believe in the power of painting. Painting is an act of resistance that allows me to challenge traditional representations of femininity, growing up as a girl and motherhood. Especially since I am a single mother."

Maria Jeona Zoleta lives and works in Manila. She studied at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Zoleta's work has been shown internationally in group and solo exhibitions since 2008. These include Taiwan, Australia, Singapore, Germany, Japan, France, Mexico, the USA, China and Thailand. She has received residency grants for the Philippines, Australia and the USA. As a member of the "Possessed Planets" group, Maria Jeona Zoleta regularly participates in major international art book fairs with her own publications and those of artist friends. She has also initiated and designed several artistic projects as a curator in the Philippines.

One of the founding ideas of Artists Unlimited was the desire for connection and exchange with the international independent art scene. A residency scholarship was therefore established in 1986. Every year, the members of the association select three international artists from around 150 applications, who are each invited to stay for three months. A scholarship organized and financed by artists for artists. Already 115 artists from all over the world have enriched the house through their stay, got to know Bielefeld and exhibited their artistic work.

Artists Unlimited Gallery
Viktoriastrasse 24
33602 Bielefeld