Creator Labs Features 8 Visual Artists
Creator Labs is a visual art incubator uplifting voices of artists from underrepresented communities and backgrounds.
Creator Labs, a visual art program by Google and LENS, shared ten new cross-cultural visual artists working in their incubator program.
The incubator provides resources for photographers, filmmakers and YouTubers to capture personal work grounded in an important social cause. Stories told by these visual artists are captured on Google’s Pixel 4 smart-phone and aim to illuminate underrepresented figures and celebrate diversity.
Here’s a look at some artists featured in Creator Labs.
Anthony Prince Leslie | Project: In My Feelings
“Mentally I wasn’t in the place to create while dealing with the current state of the world,” Leslie said. “In the beginning of quarantine I attended a virtual wellness series hosted by Ashya in collaboration with Tool Box 260 (South Africa) and was exposed to a new form of yoga—yoga nidra.”
Feeling unmotivated and unable to create at the beginning of quarantine, Leslie created In My Feelings as a meditation coping mechanism. The multi-part Instagram video series features British-born Ghanaian designer and performance artist Nana Yaa, both of which lead the viewer through a guided visual meditation.
Andrew Thomas Huang | Project: Portraits
Huang’s Portraits explore the “Idea of intra-community support or peer mutuality.” This Los Angeles based filmmaker wants to emphasize the necessity of peer groups to make safe spaces for each other.
Mayan Toledano | Project: Mothers
This Israeli-Moroccan photographer captures BIPOC women at multiple points throughout their pregnancy. Photographs in Mothers are an empowerment of femininity and an exploration of vulnerability. Toldedano previously collaborated with Brown Girl Butterfly project to help provide tools and therapeutic techniques for people affected by moments of stress.
Joshua Kissi | Project: From Harlem to Howard
Kissi points his lens at issues about cultural identity. This Ghanaian-born photographer’s project photographed female figure skaters in Harlem and was featured in Inc Magazine’s “30 Under 30.” Previously, Kissi documented the annual courtship and ritual competition of the Wodaabe Fula people of Niger.
June Canedo | Project: Self Portraits
Canedo work seeks to deconstruct romantic and beauty standards that “still confuse us.” Presently her work embodies Renaissance artist Botticelli while her past re-examined them within intersections of femininity, migration, collaboration, and duration. “I’ve been making reinterpretations of Botticelli since I caught my first glimpse of ‘Venus’ in 2003,” Canedo said.
Myles Loftin | Project: Intimacy
This Maryland photographer explores themes of sexuality and representation of masculine-presenting BIPOC. This photographer seeks to disrupt male beauty standards and define intimacy requirements. Loftin’s photographs are taken in and of familial relationships.
Tim Kellner | Project: Letchworth
Kellner, filmmaker and composer, created ambient travel videos for Creator Labs. He seeks to bring his viewer into the natural world and introduce them to diverse locations never before encountered. In Letchworth, Kellner explores the natural world of his home town in New York.
“[Letchworth is] filled with deep gorges and spectacular waterfalls flowing under beautiful old stone bridges,” Kellner said.
Josh Goldenberg (Glassface) | Project: Ultradreamer (Episode 2)
Goldenberg, also known as Glassface, is an image-maker creating stylized videos with visual effects, intense music and graphic design. In Ultradreamer Episode 2, Glassface turns the camera on himself and explores the interplay of mental health and creativity.
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