GILL — If you were to Google “Kasandra Pantoja” just a handful of years ago, you’d probably get the picture of a career sociologist who’s spent a lifetime in the classroom. But that picture would not be nearly as vibrant as it is now.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Pantoja has been channeling her mission through textile portraits. A 32-piece exhibit of her work is now on display at The Gallery at the Rhodes Arts Center at Northfield Mount Hermon School, titled “Pieces of HerStory: A Fabric Collage Celebration of Black Women.” A public reception is set for Friday, Jan. 23, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Pantoja, a resident of Orange, New Jersey, is entirely self-taught. Now in her 50s, the last formal art class she remembers taking was in her freshman year of high school. She’d always been crafty, though, sewing doll clothes in her youth and attending casual paint-and-sips later in life.
Come 2020, art would take on a bigger role as a reprieve during the pandemic’s quarantine period. Pantoja began ordering fabric online to start a small textile project when one day, one of the shops she bought material from invited her to a Zoom call with a portrait artist in Nigeria. Not thinking much of it, she agreed, reasoning that she had the time and might as well lean into something new.
“And then I said, ‘Oh wow, this is a thing,’” she recalled. “I want to figure this out.”
Textile art quickly transitioned from a hobby into a full-fledged passion as Pantoja diligently created throughout the pandemic. Her love for the medium peaked in 2022 when she attended an exhibit by fabric artist Bisa Butler in Chicago, which “floored” her.
“It was truly this source of inspiration that took everything into overdrive,” she said.
She tries to be sustainable when she can, sourcing a large amount of material second-hand from Facebook Marketplace and local families.
“In one piece, I would say there’s no less than 50 different patterns,” Pantoja said, “and actually that’s being pretty conservative.”
In an artist statement, Pantoja wrote that working with raw edges and discarded materials reminds her “of the power to construct beauty from what is overlooked.” This, she expressed, weaves perfectly into her passion for social work “to illuminate the complexity of social dynamics.”
“Pieces of HerStory,” Pantoja’s first solo show, is a “visual biography” to this accord, featuring portraits she’s created over the years that depict trailblazing women of color across a range of fields. Of the 32 portraits in the exhibit, 12 have connections to Northfield Mount Hermon School, where her child graduated in 2015.
Pantoja worked with NMH Dean of Equity and Social Justice James Greenwood, archivist Peter Weis and Director of Alumni Engagement Stacie Hagenbaugh to identify the women she wanted to portray, contacting living alumnae to learn more about their lives. Among those portrayed are Valerie Jarrett, Class of 1974, who served as a senior advisor to President Barack Obama; Belle da Costa Greene, Class of 1899, inaugural director of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City; and Bisa Williams, Class of 1972, former U.S. Ambassador to Niger.
Other women featured in the exhibit include U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson; former Vice President Kamala Harris; Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress; and writers Zora Neale Hurston, bell hooks, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison.
Pantoja hopes the exhibit at NMH is captivating enough for those visiting “to spark their education.”
“The point is for you to want to know the story,” she elaborated.
She also hopes her work serves as “a notion of representation” for students of color.
Gallery Coordinator Mona Seno noted that the exhibit has been a great success in these respects since opening at the start of the spring semester earlier this month.
“Kids are definitely responding to the color and the energy of the work,” she said, “and of course, it’s great to have the students of color feel represented.”
The exhibit will be available to visit by appointment through Jan. 30. Appointments can be arranged by contacting Seno at mseno@nmhschool.org.