About the Artist
Erica Thomas is an artist, producer and creative consultant from Portland, Oregon (United States), teacher in contemporary art and social practice. She is co-founder of Works Progress Agency, a collective that helps individuals and organizations discover, aestheticize and appropriate what is important to them, using an integrated and relational approach. In addition, he designs socially engaged artistic practices, personalized tools, activities and participatory exercises with a human-centered approach.
His practice is based on research and the production of innovative solutions for his clients and partners, including the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art and the Portland Museum of Art. It also proposes alternatives to the problem of social injustice that affects various communities; this by combining his business and organizational experience and his knowledge of contemporary art and design.
The results derived from his artistic and social practice are translated into collaborative works, interventions in the public space, public conversations, publications or designed experiences.
Erica comes to C3P with the interest of working with communities of women in situations of economic and social uncertainty, from a politically informed perspective, crossed by a feminist perspective.
Proposal
Erica came to C3P with the interest of working with communities of women in situations of economic and social uncertainty, from a politically informed perspective, crossed by a feminist perspective. Together with Roger Peet and Amélie Cabocel, he designed and facilitated a photography, video and screen printing workshop for the communications team of the FARC party, made up mainly of female ex-combatants, which took place in the rural area of Carrizal, Remedios (Antioquia). In addition, it began a collaborative relationship with the Antioquia Trans collective and with transgender women sex workers from the Barbacoas neighborhood, with the help of Gallery At Divas. In key with Amélie Cabocel, she did an exercise to map the violence to which these women are exposed in the city. Finally, Erica shared her experience as a social artist in a discussion open to the public held at C3P, where issues related to the sustainability of a socially informed art, the ethics and politics of social practice, and the creative power of collective work were addressed.