The Bronx Museum

Reverse Reverse: Bring it Back, Bring it Back

This exhibit was curated by the 2019-20 Teen Council cohort at The Bronx Museum of the Arts. Reverse Reverse: Bring it Back, Bring it Back invited teen artists throughout New York City to submit work reflecting their experiences, memories of, and nostalgia for the last two decades.

Created in 2005, The Bronx Museum’s Teen Council is an intensive paid after-school program in which teens engage deeply with contemporary art and the museum space.

Teen Council is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation. Education and Community Programs are generously supported by Booth Ferris Foundation, Con Edison, Deutsche Bank, The Hearst Foundations, Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, LeRoy Neiman and Janet Byrne Neiman Foundation, Malka Fund, New Yankee Stadium Community Benefits Fund, New York Yankees Foundation, O’Grady Foundation, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, William Talbott Hillman Foundation, and New York City Council Member Vanessa L. Gibson, Council Member Diana Ayala, and Council Member Ruben Diaz Sr.

Jun 4 - Aug 1, 2020
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    • Drowning in High School, 2020, Ishikaa Kothari, Acrylic on canvas Drowning in High School expresses how overwhelmed high school students, like me, feel by their homework and the standardized tests they need to complete for school and to apply to college. The artwork critiques the competitive college process and school's interminable distribution of anxiety-prompting assignments and examinations to students. The piece relates to the exhibition theme as it represents my experience in school for the past three years.
    • Soft, 2020, Devaun Longley
    • Continuum, 2020, Amaya Tavares, Digital collage My piece, created in photoshop, represents my interpretation of the word continuum. When I think of this word, I imagine a timeline expanding infinitely in both directions. I believe that my digital collage about time reflects my experiences, memories of, and nostalgia of the last two decades very well. My image illustrates images that I feel represent my past, present, and future. Everything from a self-portrait, people and books I love, symbols of time, and symbols of my interests and personal values are included in the image.
    • Quarantine, 2020, Leanndra Hall, Watercolor My grandmother was a big part of my life growing up. During quarantine she’s a big comfort as she was a safe place to be brought to when I was very young.
    • Colors of Beauty, 2018, Cayla Johnson, Mixed media This piece is a surreal portrait that was based on my imagination and how I see the world and I saw the world as bright and as colorful as possible where everyone is free to express themselves through the art of colors.The purple hair represents our new era where we could wear our hair in any color now and not just the regular norm.
    • Levi, 2020, Cayla Johnson, Mixed media This is my own fictional character that I created about two years ago and Levi has changed throughout the years and this is who he is now for the Month of April 2020, he has evolved and is more colorful to adapt to the changing times. I draw him every month.
    • The Kois, 2020, Jordan Ganca, Acrylic on canvas Koi fish bring back memories of my trip back to China last year to adopt my little sister. We would see many Koi fish from our hotel to different outings.
    • Being Happier, 2020, Samirria Broadnax
    • Younger, 2020, Kaitlin Russo, Mixed media This piece is about my siblings. I am the youngest of four, and when I created this portrait of my three older siblings, I was thinking about how my life is different now that they have all left home to start college, find jobs, and move on with their lives.
    • All These Words Taken From My Mouth, 2018, Aneesa Razak, Painting This artwork is about the reminiscence of our teenage years and stories we find embarrassing. I made this work based on personal experiences with boys during middle school. I feel like it relates to the exhibition theme because it is an artwork reflecting on the past and there is much nostalgia surrounding our time as kids.
      • Midnight Wonders, 2019, Ideanna Isaac, Mixed media This piece of art is called “Midnight Wonders”. My main inspiration for this piece was that I was always fond of castles, especially Disney castles. When creating this piece I envisioned it being in a midnight like sky to make the mood of it more calm and relaxing. I decided to add stars in the background to make it feel more magical and give the picture a sense of wonder. Even though it is dark outside, the inside of the castle still seems to be wide awake judging by the bright lights that are still on inside. With this in mind it makes people wonder what could be happening inside the castle that would keep people up and wide awake when it’s around midnight. I knew that I wanted the castle to be the main piece of this art so I made sure that it was big and it took up most of the space on the canvas and made it in the center. I added clouds as well so that there wouldn’t be the castle alone and also the clouds will give it a dream-like feeling that will make this piece seem like it is part of a dream. When it came to the background I used watercolors to make sure that the background colors that I wanted to use blended in nicely. The overall theme of this art is to give a sense of magic and curiosity.
      • Red Dress One Room, 2020, Jordan Ganca, Acrylic on canvas People would explore abandoned buildings, go on tours and go ghost hunting. And in these old abandoned buildings where many children had played, their spirits still linger. In the past two decades many people always loved to explore and learn the history and stories of what was behind these abandoned places.
      • Letters to God, 2019, Lauren Makoff, Mixed media This piece is about the process of figuring out who you are. I made it when I was living alone for the first time in Arizona and going to flight school. It was quite similar to social isolation in that I had a lot of time to reflect on who I was. This wasn't always easy or comfortable, but I always had the beautiful purple and pink hues of the desert sunrise and sunset.
      • Hayden Plattus, Love in the Time of Corona, 2020, Digital drawing The art work is about relationships in the time of the coronavirus. It displays how relationships attempt to last through the distance, juxtaposed to what it like to actually be single during this time. Being a teenager, thinking back on the past decade, I just began to bud and form relationships with boys. Now that we are in a pandemic, all the relationships are cut, and in a sense, we are all single because we are alone. My piece relates to the exposition in two ways. It represents my years of budding romantically in the past decade and it also represents the recent strains of the coronavirus.
      • Past Obscurities, 2020, Aneesa Razak, Pencil on paper This artwork is about my summers as a child. Often times I would be laying around in my house and imagining parts of the room shifting and changing. I was constantly using my imagination to make up for the time I didn't spend outdoors. Now that we are all home, all I can think about are those times as a child where things weren't so complicated, and being home wasn't as much of a burden as it feels now. I try to mimic these memories and think about being in faraway places whilst being in quarantine at home.
      • The Forest is Alive, 2020, Kaitlin Russo, Mixed media When I made this piece, I was looking back on the fear I had as a child because of my imagination. I would stare at the illustrations in my favorite picture books and fantasize about the creatures that were hidden behind each tree, in the budding bushes, and under the water. The reason I was reminded of this time in my childhood and inspired to make this piece was because I had recently read an article about how trees are able to communicate with each other through their roots.
      • Robbery, 2020, Leanndra Hall, Watercolor on paper Many episodes of the educational cartoons I was shown growing up took my favorite characters and I abroad, or underwater as mermaids. In an ironically surreal watercolor painting, I kind of mashed those two ideas together.
      • No signal, 2020, Amari Ellison, Mixed media My artwork is about how the people of today are constantly on their phones and always looking at some sort of screen and I believe some day in the future people will have TVs or computers for heads. This relates to the exhibition theme because back before the internet was created people would talk face to face and go outside to see what the world has to offer instead of looking down on their phones or being isolated indoors playing video games.
      • BRUH, 2020, Devon Sawyer
        • ME, MYSELF & I, 2020, Ashmel Martinez, Digital collage This piece represents fashion in the 2000s. This artwork is called "ME, MYSELF & I" because I love old fashion clothes.
        • 2020, 2020, Bianca Nieves
        • Mind of 2000s, 2020, Ariana Marie
        • Untitled, 2020, Ashley Melendez
        • Siren, 2019, Liz Makoff, Mixed media and Photoshop l drew Siren as part of a project illustrating various clothing designs inspired by the contemporary e-boy fashion movement, which features a heavy emphasis on stripes, vibrant colors, and dramatic makeup.
        • Harrowing, 2019, Liz Makoff, Mixed media and Photoshop Harrowing is part of the same drawing project as Siren, where l drew inspiration from the then-contemporary e-boy fashion movement, featuring a heavy emphasis on stripes, vibrant colors, and dramatic makeup.
        • Snacks, 2020, Yessica Morocho
        • Time Travel, 2020, Ericka Martinez
        • Mob Psycho 1000, 2020, Cayla Johnson, Mixed media This is my favorite show and it means a great deal to me because it helps me to stay calm amidst what we are experiencing in the world now with the Global Pandemic, not being able to go to school, not being able to go to swim training, not seeing my friends and not being able to graduate from Middle School with a ceremony and not being able to attend my senior trip. Also it helps me escape from reality and all the illness and deaths in the world now due to the pandemic.
        • Obama, 2020, Bianca Nieves, Digital collage
          • World Civilization Pathways, 2019, Souleymane Traore, Paint on paper This painting reflects the pathways of world civilization and the experiences of immigrants as they get to new places like NYC.
          • The Dream of Adventures, 2020, Alvar Acuña
          • Running Through the Market, 2020, Kaitlin Russo, Mixed media When I made this piece, I was thinking about how I used to go to Chelsea Market with my mom most days after school to get a snack or release my energy. When I was little, I would run ahead of my mom and swivel around the large crowds of people, but now I just walk straight through.
          • Diner Blues, 2018, Jiahe Wang, Digital photograph In this image, my friend Isabelle dons a vintage outfit that was entirely thrifted. She sits at the table of a small diner in SoHo, waiting for her order of bacon cheese fries on a Sunday.
          • Cyclone 1, 2018, Jiahe Wang, Digital photograph The soft evening glow is about to fade, enveloping everything on the empty Coney Island Boardwalk in a reddish halo. The place is saturated with childhood memories: the hot dog stands, the wooden planks of the boardwalk, the colorful ice-cream parlors, and of course, the Cyclone.
          • Cyclone 2, 2018, Jiahe Wang, Digital photograph The soft evening glow is about to fade, enveloping everything on the empty Coney Island Boardwalk in a reddish halo. The place is saturated with childhood memories: the hot dog stands, the wooden planks of the boardwalk, the colorful ice-cream parlors, and of course, the Cyclone.
          • Cure to an Old Wound, 2020, Saige Neris, Mixed media I created a picture showing a message of anti-racism “Quit Racism, Don’t Judge or Be Negative to People because of Their Skin Color and Race.” I did this because as far as we want to see the world has come since the times of slavery, we are still dealing with similar issues today. I believe this relates to the exhibition theme because it shows that no matter what decade the world is in, there are problems that we must all face and we must all work together towards a solution. Attacking one another is just bringing us all further apart.
          • Liberty, 2020, Jennifer Guaman, Mixed media I was thinking about my culture, my roots, about what I loved the most while growing up. Folkloric dance has always been one of my favorite moments, dancing to the music of my country Ecuador has transmitted me peace and freedom, since I was little until now, wherever I am, dance will always make me happy. Dance is art.
          • Empty Japan Cafe, 2020, Katherine Townsend, Acrylic on wood This empty cafe in Japan was frozen in time as if decades had past. Painting this picture in 2020 transported me back to traveling and exploring new places.
          • World in Your Hands, 2018, Taylor Fagan, Acrylic on paper This artwork is about capturing the moment and taking risks. Life is short and death is inevitable so it’s important to enjoy life while you can. It is also important to reminisce on life and be proud of what you’ve done which can to lead to you feel nostalgic.
          • Mama Africa, 2019, Souleymane Traore, Paint on paper Mama Africa is in reference to my memories from home.
          • The Adventures of Kacey Rose, 2020, Lauren Makoff, Mixed media The quarantine has been a time of reflection for me, and I have spent a lot of time wandering around the city. This takes me back to when I was thirteen and my parents let me walk around the city by myself for the first time. I enjoyed this newfound freedom thoroughly, spending whole days finding new nooks and crannies of the city. While the circumstances are quite different now, I still enjoy the exhilaration of seeing parts of the city that I have never seen before.
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