Upcoming events
$10-$30 sliding scale entrance fee; members enter FREE
GES Spring Season
The 18th GES Spring Season - Night Five
Featuring Performances By:
Neuroflora
Straw Pipes
Cass Yao x Qiujiang Levi Lu
Doors at 7:00 for members, 7:30 for the general public
GES Spring Season
The 18th GES Spring Season - Closing Night
Joseph Ravens
Meadow L’Elle
Joan La Perish
Miao Jiaxin
Doors at 7:00 for members, 7:30 for the general public
GES Spring Season
The 18th GES Spring Season - Night Four
Featuring Performances By:
Alex Romania X Stacy Lynn Smith
Mangodog
AMYGDALA
Doors at 7:00 for members, 7:30 for the general public
Member’S Event! The VR archive for performance art
Performance art is ephemeral. To preserve it and make it accessible to a wide audience, we have documented performance art in Virtual Reality from 2016 to 2025. With VR headsets, anyone can now (re)experience the works as if they were there in person.
The VR Archive has visited festivals from Canada to Cameroon, as a pocketsized performance art festival for an international performance art audience. We have also created new recordings at many of the festivals we visited. The archive contains around 100 international works.
At Grace, April 18th, we are looking forward to presenting 8 artists with new works.
GES Spring Season
The 18th GES Spring Season - Night Three
Featuring Performances By:
Smiling Beth
Erica Enriquez
Stuart B Meyers
Danny Tantrum
Doors at 7:00 for members, 7:30 for the general public
GES Spring Season
The 18th GES Spring Season - Night Two
Featuring Performances By:
Bri Frei
SIELU MA
Yasunao Tone
Doors at 7:00 for members, 7:30 for the general public
GES Spring Season
The 18th GES Spring Season - Opening Night
Featuring performances by
GOOD.W.Y.N.
Pink Tacos
Crackhead Barney x Rabbistravinksy
The Sirens Are Calling - Project 2025
The Sirens are Calling is a 25-hour community action and education marathon focused on Project 2025.
The reading will go on for 25 hours, broken up into 1-2 hour sessions covering specific sections of the 900+ pages of the plan.
//PIXELMOUTH SHARE.nyc Takeover
SHARE.nyc returns to takeover the Cult of Consumption //PIXELMOUTH residency!
CENTRAL Performance Festival - curated by Pancho López
Performances by Susanna Gonzalez-Revilla, Illimani De Los Andes, Milko Delgado, and Alicia Grullón.
CENTRAL Performance Festival - September, October, November 2024 - presented at Grace Exhibition Space, a space for creative experimentation that has been dedicated to performance for more than a decade. In this festival, attendees will be able to see twenty performances and works by artists who work from immateriality and the creation of ephemeral experiences from the body; exploring themes such as violence, migration, diaspora, the abuse of power, identity and other problems intrinsic to the human being.
Curated by the Mexican artist Pancho Lopez, this festival seeks to build a bridge between the Central American region, some Caribbean islands and one of the most important global stages in the world in terms of art and culture: New York City.
CENTRAL Performance Festival - curated by Pancho López
Performances by Manuel Tzoc, Elia Arce, Vanessa Hernández Gracia, and Nicolas Dumit Estévez.
CENTRAL Performance Festival - September, October, November 2024 - presented at Grace Exhibition Space, a space for creative experimentation that has been dedicated to performance for more than a decade. In this festival, attendees will be able to see twenty performances and works by artists who work from immateriality and the creation of ephemeral experiences from the body; exploring themes such as violence, migration, diaspora, the abuse of power, identity and other problems intrinsic to the human being.
Curated by the Mexican artist Pancho Lopez, this festival seeks to build a bridge between the Central American region, some Caribbean islands and one of the most important global stages in the world in terms of art and culture: New York City.
CENTRAL Performance Festival - Curated by Pancho López
Performances by Alejandro De La Guerra, Crack Rodríguez, Valeria Cobos, and Natalia Domínguez.
CENTRAL Performance Festival - September, October, November 2024 - presented at Grace Exhibition Space, a space for creative experimentation that has been dedicated to performance for more than a decade. In this festival, attendees will be able to see twenty performances and works by artists who work from immateriality and the creation of ephemeral experiences from the body; exploring themes such as violence, migration, diaspora, the abuse of power, identity and other problems intrinsic to the human being.
Curated by the Mexican artist Pancho Lopez, this festival seeks to build a bridge between the Central American region, some Caribbean islands and one of the most important global stages in the world in terms of art and culture: New York City.
CENTRAL Performance Festival - CURATED by Pancho López
Performances by Blanca Van Hoorde, Kevin Quiles Bonilla, Pável Aguilar, and Paulina Velázquez Solís.
CENTRAL Performance Festival - September, October, November 2024 - presented at Grace Exhibition Space, a space for creative experimentation that has been dedicated to performance for more than a decade. In this festival, attendees will be able to see twenty performances and works by artists who work from immateriality and the creation of ephemeral experiences from the body; exploring themes such as violence, migration, diaspora, the abuse of power, identity and other problems intrinsic to the human being.
Curated by the Mexican artist Pancho Lopez, this festival seeks to build a bridge between the Central American region, some Caribbean islands and one of the most important global stages in the world in terms of art and culture: New York City.
CENTRAL Performance Festival - CURATED by Pancho López
Performances by Leonardo González, Marton Robinson, Humberto Vélez, and Carlos Manuel Rivera.
CENTRAL Performance Festival - September, October, November 2024 - presented at Grace Exhibition Space, a space for creative experimentation that has been dedicated to performance for more than a decade. In this festival, attendees will be able to see twenty performances and works by artists who work from immateriality and the creation of ephemeral experiences from the body; exploring themes such as violence, migration, diaspora, the abuse of power, identity and other problems intrinsic to the human being.
Curated by the Mexican artist Pancho Lopez, this festival seeks to build a bridge between the Central American region, some Caribbean islands and one of the most important global stages in the world in terms of art and culture: New York City.
Membership Night
This free event introduces audience members and Grace Exhibitions Space supporters to our FY25 programs. We hope you can come and enjoy light refreshments and mingle with friends and performance art lovers. This night we will have a special conversation with Jill McDermid-Hokanson, our Chief Curator, and Pancho Lopez who is curating the Fall Season: Central Performance Festival featuring artists from Central America and The Caribbean.
CENTRAL Performance Festival - CURATED by Pancho López
Performances by Quintin Rivera Toro, Alexia Miranda, Regina José Galindo, and Maricio Esquivel.
CENTRAL Performance Festival - September, October, November 2024 - presented at Grace Exhibition Space, a space for creative experimentation that has been dedicated to performance for more than a decade. In this festival, attendees will be able to see twenty performances and works by artists who work from immateriality and the creation of ephemeral experiences from the body; exploring themes such as violence, migration, diaspora, the abuse of power, identity and other problems intrinsic to the human being.
Curated by the Mexican artist Pancho Lopez, this festival seeks to build a bridge between the Central American region, some Caribbean islands and one of the most important global stages in the world in terms of art and culture: New York City.
GARDENS OF MEDIUMS AND ENDEAVORS
Wasif Sami in performance
Doors 7:30 PM / Performances 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Join us for an electrifying evening on May 17th!
This is our final performance event for the spring season. At the core of these performances lies a deep exploration of human experience and expression. Each artist brings a unique perspective, weaving together identity, belonging, and transformative themes.
Featuring:
Open Call Artists:
Alexa Wilson (New Zealand)
Lena Deutsch
V
Wasif Sami
International Guest Artist:
Mehdi-George Lahlou (Morocco/Belgium)
MEHDI-GEORGES LAHLOU [BELGIUM] @mehdigeorgeslahlou
Mehdi-Georges Lahlou, born in 1983 in Sables d’Olonne, is a French-Moroccan artist who lives and works between Paris, Brussels, and Casablanca. He was trained at the École supérieure des beaux-arts de Nantes Saint-Nazaire and earned a Ph.D from AVANS University in the Netherlands in 2010. In 2014, Lahlou participated in the first session of Les réalisateurs, a postgraduate program in Art and Business, co-directed by Fabrice Hyber. From 2017 to 2020, he served as associate artist at CDN Normandie-Rouen and was an artist in residence at the Jan Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht from 2019 to 2020. His solo exhibitions include notable venues such as SPACES Art Center in Cleveland, Centrale for Contemporary Art in Brussels, and the Kent State Museum in Ohio. Mehdi-Georges Lahlou has also shown his work in numerous international exhibitions and biennials worldwide.
A Botanical Conversation
In "A Botanical Conversation," a performance directed by Mehdi-Georges Lahlou, the artists delve into themes of the palm tree, cultural migrations, and queer ecology. With contributions from Diwe Augustin-Glave, CHIMI, and Dr Lady J, this artistic experience offers a deep dive into the relationships between humanity and nature.
"A Botanical Conversation" invites the murmurs born under the dome of the Cleveland Botanical Garden to escape, as if the essence of this place were transported to a new audience. These murmurs become stories, real dialogues, in a poetic and immersive experience for the spectators.
A Botanical Conversation
Featuring Diwe Augustin-Glave, CHIMI, Dr Lady J. Musical collaboration by Nature. Text collaboration by Simon Njami, Arianne Foks, Ghita Serraj and Dr Lady J
Alexa Wilson [NYC/NZ]
Alexa Wilson is an interdisciplinary artist; dance/performance, video, and text artist from New Zealand . She has presented within NZ, NY, Europe, UK, Canada, Australia, India and China in theatre, film and gallery spaces: Berlin at Sophiensaele, Uferstudios, Ackerstadtpalast, Acud, Month of Performance Art Berlin, Kule, Meinblau, Tanzfabrik, Gr_nd Gallery, Agora Collective, at Brussels Volksroom, Vienna’s Improper Walls Gallery and Impuls Tanz, London’s Ugly Duck Gallery, Glasgow’s Buzzcut festival, NYC’s Center for Performance Research, Dixon Place, Mothership residency, Vancouver’s Space to Fail residency hosted by the Dance Centre, Beijing’s Red Gate residency, Melbourne’s Dancehouse, and India’s Morni Hill’s performance Biennale. She has curated Morni Hills Performance Residency in India (2017) and is Artistic Director/founder of Experimental Dance Festival Aotearoa/NZ. She published Theatre of Ocean in 2022, has written articles in several publications and has a First Class Master of Philosophy. She has danced for many NZ choreographers.
V [NYC]
@tostones_ennyc
V Tineo (V) is a versatile and talented interdisciplinary artist hailing from New York but with ancestral ties to the Dominican Republic. Their artistic endeavors encompass a wide range of mediums, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, printmaking, and installations. Through these diverse forms of expression, V seeks to convey various ideas, touching upon themes such as home, family, body, and society. Their artwork acts as a language, communicating powerful narratives that emphasize the significance of these concepts.
WASIF SAMI [NJ]
@wasif.sami
Wasif Sami is a theater director and performance artist invested in moving and doing otherwise. His improvisational dance practice has followed him from his bedroom in New Jersey to the streets of Wisconsin and Bangalore. He is obsessed with intimacy and becoming, and studies anthropology, theater, and gender & sexuality studies at Princeton University.
LENA GARDEN OF HEDON [NYC] @garden_of_hedon
Lena, Garden of Hedon (they/babe), is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary Performance Artist, curator, and event producer from New York City. Their dramatic and ritualistic movement flows from their post-modern dance and gymnastics background. Lena uses technology, water, darkwave, noise, dirt, and gore to explore the properties of water: its borderless transcendence through sanctity and essentiality.
Since graduating from Hampshire College in 2018 Lena founded @disembodied_affair, a virtual performance art series produced in 2020 that featured artists around the world. They then cofounded MOMENTA @momentanyc an experimental dance and performance art series homed at Trans Pecos in December 2022. Lena has performed at Trans Pecos, Chinatown Soup Gallery, Purgatory, Honey's, and DIY spaces across the city. They are currently pursuing their MS in Sustainability at Columbia University.
LIVE PERFORMANCES: Innermost Beings, Escaping Identity
MARA | Bruno Rodriguez for Gangere at Insomnia
Friday, May 3
Doors 7:00 / Performances 7:30-10:30
$10
Join us to view four newly commissioned performance art pieces featuring:
MARA [Norway] Supported by the OCA: Office for Contemporary Art Norway.
Brendan Bunny Elephante [NYC]
Fanny [NYC]
Carolina Muñoz Awad [NYC]
MARA [NORWAY]
MARA is a visual artist, chanter and musician who works with numerous artistic directions that includes performance art, sculpture, ceramics, soundart and installation art. A common denominator especially, for her performance art projects, is the profound intention to challenge the audience - and herself, by reaching into the innermost being of the spectator, creating deep vibrations through sound, materials and the human connection, that which can transform our senses. Her artistic themes circle around a central core containing the intuitive presence, togetherness, spiritual technologies, connections and reflections around wholeness.
SUPPORTED BY THE OCA: OFFICE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART NORWAY
CAROLINA MUÑOZ AWAD [NYC]
@carolinamunoza
Carolina Muñoz Awad is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY, and Santiago, Chile. She has a background in architecture and received her MFA from Parsons School of Design in 2022. Her practice is a constant experimentation of her own body in space, trying to respond to questions regarding presence in healing, absurdity, and intuition. Carolina works through performance, installation, and the interaction of both in endurance pieces. She has exhibited her work in Santiago, Albany, and New York. She has attended the Arts Letters & Numbers Residency in upstate NY, and the Belgrade Art Studio online. Her most recent work, Monas Cigotas (2023), was included in the South American Performance Art cycle in New York at Grace Exhibition Space.
commune-cater is a performance involving bodies. Bodies wearing handcrafted pieces that may influence movement and interaction. What if we could only touch through protuberances and sensorless extrusions on ourselves? Would we hold tight to others, or just to ourselves? To soothe, dance, and care. Curiosity and scale, obsession and repetition, are some of the topics the artist is interested in with this work. Collaborators: AJ Johnson, Sal Chen and Michael Jay 108.
BRENDAN BUNNY ELEFANTE [NYC]
Brendan Bunny Elefante is a Brooklyn-based new media and performance artist who has presented work in the US, Russia, and Indonesia. In his work he explores the escape from identity through transcendental states and alter egos.
FANNY [NYC]
@fannnsystem
Fanny is a visual and movement creator and facilitator. She is an instructor of practices to reach altered states and connect to the divine such as Ritual Body Postures and Sacred Whirling. She has been invited to perform and work with local and international artists and organizations such as West Chelsea Festival of Art, International LitFest, NOoSPHERE Arts, Center for Remembering and Sharing, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, The Brooklyn Nomads, Stanley Love Performance Group, Culture Push, Dance to the People, Harlem Dance Club, Gaia NoMaya, Nancy Azara, Katie Cercone, Universidad Iberoamericana (MEX), Colectivo Tarantula (MEX), El Otro Mono (MEX), Sinestesia (MEX), Laura Ríos (MEX), among others.
Collaborators:
AJ Johnson is an experimental video artist and professional Video Jockey
Sal Chen is a writer, educator, and multidisciplinary artist
Michael Jay 108 is a facilitator of Sage Academy of Sound Energy retreats and trainings
LIVE PERFORMANCES: Investigating pathways and concepts for gesturing strange rituals
Local NYC performance artists and invited internatiobnal artists will be creating magic for this amazing evening.
Transitions on Spring: Featuring Viviana Druga | Molly Ross | Julia Hsia, Hsiao-Chu Hsia | Amelia Marzec
Friday, April 5
Doors 7pm
Performances 8-10 pm
$10 | Purchase Tickets
Featuring: Viviana Druga [Transylvania/Berlin] | Molly Ross [NYC] | Julia Hsia, Hsiao-Chu Hsia [NYC/Taiwan] | Amelia Marzec [NYC/Poland]
Bagpipe by Andrew Forbes 7-8 pm
VIVIANA DRUGA is a Romanian visual artist based in Berlin. The interplay between the free mountain nature and the Christian Orthodox mysticism on her mother's side deeply influenced her during this time.
HSIAO-CHU HSIA is a multidisciplinary artist from Taiwan, now based in New York, USA. Hsia’s practice focuses on performance art and dance improvisation, addressing the theme of ”relationship.”
MOLLY ROSS is an artist based in Brooklyn NY. She engages with choreography, performance, and collage practices. Her work has been presented at PAGEANT, Essex Flowers, FourOneOne (curated by Moriah Evans), the Wild Project (curated by Kyla Gordan) and DIY spaces throughout NYC.
AMELIA MARZEC is an American artist focused on rebuilding and engaging with local communications infrastructure to prepare for an uncertain future. Her work has been exhibited at SIGGRAPH, MIT, ISEA (Canada) and is part of the Rhizome ArtBase.
kyle b. co. Critical Race Therapy: (Treatment 1/The Rhythm Treatment)
Critical Race Therapy :Treatment 1 Intensive is now at Grace Exhibition Space
.
Grace Exhibition Space presents a soft opening with kyle b. Co, hosting a series of interviews by artist kyle b. co. entitled Critical Race Therapy: (Treatment 1/The Rhythm Treatment).
Critical Race Therapy was developed by kyle b. co. to provide a space for people to have conversations around race that are not punitive or prompted by a traumatic event (i.e. following the death of a black body, after the misstep of an institution, etc.). The process invites folks to vocalize their understanding of race and in so doing, respond or acknowledge where they are at in their practical understanding and comfort with race.
Signup for a 1:1 experience at https://calendly.com/crth/ges
Hours 1:00 - 6:00 pm
Spring Season
INTIMATE CONSUMER ZONES
Open Call: lele dai, Glenn Potter-Takata / International: Arai Shin-Ichi [Japan], Jessica Fairfax-Hirst [Dominican Republic]
MARCH 22 // Doors 7:00 PM / Performances 8:00 PM | $10
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
lele dai was born in Hangzhou, China, and moved to Sydney, Australia, at age 18. In 2013, lele visited New York City by accident and has stayed there ever since. lele lives in Brooklyn with their best friend and two lovely but strange cats. lele is currently studying in the MFA program at Hunter College.
Their visual work and performances have been exhibited or shown at The Glove, Greene-Naftali Gallery, Children’s Museum of the Arts, Downtown Music Gallery, David Zwirner Gallery, Shift 411 Kent, Hauser & Wirth Gallery, Secret Project Robot, NYU, Sunview Luncheonette, Columbus Theater (Providence), Microscope Gallery, Knitting Factory, Essex flowers Gallery, Tufts University, SUNY at Purchase, Here Theater, Knockdown Center, Elsewhere, TransPecos, the Abasement series at Max Fish, The Synesthesia, and various other venues.
Glenn Potter-Takata is a Japanese-American media designer and artist working in performance. His work has been presented in dance and gallery contexts around NYC as part of programs with Center for Performance Research, Abrons Art Center, Movement Research at Judson Church, Mabou Mines, New Dance Alliance’s Performance Mix, Pioneers Go East’s Crossroads Series, Amanda + James’ Summer Happenings Series, Triskelion Arts, Mizuma & Kips Wada Art, and Trotter&Sholer. His first solo gallery exhibition opened at Rogers Studio Gallery in Las Vegas in January of 2023. Glenn is a recipient of the 2023 Bronx Cultural Visions Award, 2022 MAP Fund Award, 2022 Bronx Dance Fund Award, and has been awarded residencies through Movement Research, Rogers Art Loft, Gibney Dance Center, and CUNY Dance Initiative/Lehman College. Glenn received his MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, where he is currently a teacher of media design for live performance.
Arai Shin-Ichi [Japan]
ARAI lives and works in Tokyo. He studied his B.A. in Chinese modern literature at Tokyo Metropolitan University under Mr.llKURA Shohei. Later he majored in printmaking (Intaglio/Copper printing) from 1981 to 1987 under ex Mr.YOSHIDA Katsuro (Mono-ha group.) He also began experimenting with sound, voice, and language performance actions since 1982. As a Japan Overseas Cooperative Volunteer, he taught at Nyumba ya Sanaa Art School in Zanzibar, Tanzania 1992-94 where he experienced various insights into the relationship between culture and politics in contemporary society. This led to his radical social-political performances today. In his raw and direct style, ARAI's body appears as a site of social tension presented with humor yet biting criticism. Often exposing the conservative and xenophobic cultural tendencies and contradictions in global and local situations. Besides performing regularly in Japan, ARAI has also presented his works internationally, especially in China such as Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Xian, Chengdu, Changchun, and Beijing.
Jessica Fairfax-Hirst [Dominican Republic]
Jessica makes performances, videos, installations, and texts, sometimes all in the same project. Jessica creates metaphoric crumple zones, the parts of a car’s body designed to absorb the massive energy caused by the impact of a crash. Like the engineering of a crumple zone, Jessica’s works seek to create a space to observe controlled deformation, rather than merely succumb to chaotic destruction. They explore ways to redirect and absorb the forces that threaten to crush us.
Spring SEASON - FEATURING LIVE PERFORMANCES Every other Friday
Grace Exhibition Space is proud to announce a series of dynamic performances set to take place every other Friday. Curated from a diverse group of artists, including local NYC artists chosen from our Open Call last summer, as well as esteemed international artists who have presented at Grace in the past, this series promises to be an electrifying exploration of contemporary performance art.
GRACE UNDERGROUND: ACTION ON ACTIONS
ACTION ON ACTIONS #4
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18th, 2023
4:00 – 6:00 PM Free + snacks & beverages provided
ACTION ON ACTIONS is an opportunity for conversations on performance art that move beyond our Friday nights’ to a more expanded discussion, featuring various guest artists with presentations, workshops and in-progress short performances.
AGENDA:
4:00 Meet performance artists participating in the Immersive Festival/NYC
4:30-5:30 Short Performances
5:30 Presentation by Jill McDermid
Our question is: “What is Performance art?”
South American Artists curated by NATACHA VOLIAKOVSKY
SOUTH-AMERICAN PERFORMANCE ART CYCLE @ NEW YORK CITY
The “South-American Performance Art” cycle @ New York City is a three-night program organized and curated by Argentina Performance Art (APA), founded by Argentinian performance artist Natacha Voliakovsky.
This cycle transcends Argentine borders to enrich the pan american artistic landscape. Using their bodies as vehicles of expression the selected artists address critical and essential southamerican issues, such as political turmoil, social inequality, gender, cultural trauma, and more. The purpose of this cycle is to highlight the power of performance art as a vehicle for cultural preservation, resistance, and transformation. The cycle will emphasize the interrelated nature of Latin American artists and their diaspora, building a connection of narratives braided with strands of memory.
Argentina Performance Art (APA) is a platform dedicated to the study and practice of Performance Art in Argentina. APA aspires to conserve the intangible heritage of past performances imprinted in collective memory by compiling and analyzing historical archives and saving them from oblivion. Its goal is not only to save but to keep building a future archive of Latin American art memory and culture, highlighting current performative representations from a non-heteropatriarchal perspective.
The “South-American Performance Art” cycle at @TeatroaLatea (Nov. 2) & @GraceExhibitionSpace NY (Nov. 10 and Nov. 17) will feature live performances by Arantxa Araujo (Mexico / NYC), Pancho Lopez (Mexico / NYC) Natacha Voliakovsky (Argentina / NYC), Salome Egas (Ecuador / NYC), Anna Costa e Silva and Nina Terra (Brazil), Mana Bugallo (Argentina / NYC), Carolina Muñoz Awad (Chile / NYC, Domenica García (Ecuador / NYC) and Siri Gurudev (Colombia / Texas) and videos by Amapola Prada (Perú), Marta Minujin (Argentina) and Alfombra Roja (Perú).
For more info, visit https://www.argentinaperformanceart.com/ciclonyc
NATACHA VOLIAKOVSKY
Natacha Voliakovsky is an Argentinian performance artist based in New York. For over a decade, her pieces aimed to unveil and question social inequality, body autonomy and freedom.
Natacha’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries all around the world including: The Momentary Museum, Arkansas; the Museum of American Art, Arizona; The Center for Performance Research, New York; and Usina del Arte in Buenos Aires, among others. Additionally, she created NVMethod, a training technique for performance art, and is the director of Argentina Performance Art, the first research platform on performance art in Argentina.
PERFORMERS
Carolina Muñoz Awad (Chile/NYC)
carolina muñoz awad is a multidisciplinary artist, born in Santiago, Chile, in 1993. She has a background in architecture and science, previous to her studies in Fine Arts at Parsons, New York, which she completed in 2022. Her practice focuses mainly on the questioning of her human body in space and what different environments and materials provoke. carolina has used her own body as the main experimental subject since 2020 and has shown her installation and performance work in Santiago, New York, and Albany. She is interested in the raw perception through our senses and in the abstraction of improvised and instant reactions in the physical and emotional realm. carolina’s work interweaves English and Spanish language, as it deals with her presence in society; as a feminist, queer, migrant body–one that lives in a continent called America, and in a country that might never allow her to be called American.
Domenica García (Ecuador)
Doménica García is an Ecuadorian multidisciplinary artist based in New York. Her work delves into a process of introspection, exploring the personal and discovering the universal. With the use of a hyperbolic language and the juxtaposition of the radical with the ordinary, she gives greater relevance to the day-to-day experience. García’s multimedia approach, particularly merging performance and digital art, allows her to manipulate the perception of reality, facilitating a fantastic and surreal experience within the rational world.
Siri Gurudev (Colombia/Texas)
siri g is a multidisciplinary artist, poet, scholar, and ritual maker from Bogotá, Colombia, occupied Muisca territory. siri explores the meaning of being incarnated in a "human" body via thought, performance art, and spiritual healing practices.
GRACE UNDERGROUND: ACTION ON ACTIONS
ACTION ON ACTIONS #3
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2023
4:00 – 6:00 PM Free + snacks & beverages provided
ACTION ON ACTIONS is an opportunity for conversations on performance art that move beyond our Friday nights’ to a more expanded discussion, featuring various guest artists with presentations, workshops and in-progress short performances.
AGENDA:
4:00 Meet performance artists participating in South American Performance Art
4:30-5:30 Short Performances
5:30 Presentation by Jill McDermid
Our question is: “What is Performance art?”
South American Artists curated by NATACHA VOLIAKOVSKY
South-American Performance Art cycle @ New York City
The “South-American Performance Art” cycle @ New York City is a three-night program organized and curated by Argentina Performance Art (APA), founded by Argentinian performance artist Natacha Voliakovsky.
This cycle transcends Argentine borders to enrich the pan american artistic landscape. Using their bodies as vehicles of expression the selected artists address critical and essential southamerican issues, such as political turmoil, social inequality, gender, cultural trauma, and more. The purpose of this cycle is to highlight the power of performance art as a vehicle for cultural preservation, resistance, and transformation. The cycle will emphasize the interrelated nature of Latin American artists and their diaspora, building a connection of narratives braided with strands of memory.
Argentina Performance Art (APA) is a platform dedicated to the study and practice of Performance Art in Argentina. APA aspires to conserve the intangible heritage of past performances imprinted in collective memory by compiling and analyzing historical archives and saving them from oblivion. Its goal is not only to save but to keep building a future archive of Latin American art memory and culture, highlighting current performative representations from a non-heteropatriarchal perspective.
The “South-American Performance Art” cycle at @TeatroaLatea (Nov. 2) & @GraceExhibitionSpace NY (Nov. 10 and Nov. 17) will feature live performances by Arantxa Araujo (Mexico / NYC), Pancho Lopez (Mexico / NYC) Natacha Voliakovsky (Argentina / NYC), Salome Egas (Ecuador / NYC), Anna Costa e Silva and Nina Terra (Brazil), Mana Bugallo (Argentina / NYC), Carolina Muñoz Awad (Chile / NYC, Domenica García (Ecuador / NYC) and Siri Gurudev (Colombia / Texas) and videos by Amapola Prada (Perú), Marta Minujin (Argentina) and Alfombra Roja (Perú).
For more info, visit https://www.argentinaperformanceart.com/ciclonyc
NATACHA VOLIAKOVSKY (CURATOR)
Natacha Voliakovsky is an Argentinian performance artist based in New York. For over a decade, her pieces aimed to unveil and question social inequality, body autonomy and freedom.
Natacha’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries all around the world including: The Momentary Museum, Arkansas; the Museum of American Art, Arizona; The Center for Performance Research, New York; and Usina del Arte in Buenos Aires, among others. Additionally, she created NVMethod, a training technique for performance art, and is the director of Argentina Performance Art, the first research platform on performance art in Argentina.
PERFORMERS
Salome Egas (Ecuador / NYC)
SALOMÉ EGAS is proudly Ecuadorian: an interdisciplinary performer, arts educator and children’s books author who is permanently questioning her identity through multiple mediums: dance, theater, film and textile arts.
This year (2023), she’s a NYFA NYC Women’s Fund Recipient and The Opportunity Agenda’s Narrative Innovators Lab Fellow for her multidisciplinary project “Más que un Pétalo.” In 2022, she was a Brooklyn Arts Council grantee and an American Immigration Council fellow.
As a solo performer, she incorporates radical self-love and indigenization as tools to empower the ancestral knowledge carried by immigrant and femme bodies of color.
Salomé has performed nationally at several venues in NYC; and internationally in Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina and Canada. Salomé attended Creative Capital’s Latinx Workshop (2020), EmergeNYC (2018), obtained a Master’s from NYU(2018) and graduated from Skidmore College (2014). salomeegas.com
Anna Costa e Silva and Nina Terra (Brasil)
Anna Costa e Silva (Rio de Janeiro, 1988) works with constructed situations between people that challenge the limits between reality and fiction, self and other, experience and memory. Her projects happen in the intersections between visual, performing arts and social practice and unfold in installations, films, or ephemeral situations. Anna has won awards such as FOCO ArtRio, American Austrian Award for Fine Arts and was a PIPA prize nominee. In 2022, she was part of the Mercosul Biennial and winner of Terremoto Ubisoft artist residency and Franklin Furnace Grant. Her work has been shown at BienalSur (Buenos Aires), Art in Odd Places (NY), Pivô, Centro Cultural Hélio Oiticica, Oi Futuro, A Gentil Carioca (Rio de Janeiro), Ruby Cruel (London) Contemporary Art Center (Vilnius) among others and is part of public collections such as Rio de Janeiro Museum of Art. She teaches ArtLife Practices at Parque Lage School of Visual Arts.
Nina Terra is a Brazilian artist-therapist who lives in the city of Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Psychologist, Art Therapist, graduated in dance at Angel Vianna, Yoga instructor, specialist in Cooperation Pedagogy and Collaborative Methodologies. Creator of the Oracle Body, Creative Power Body and DANCE-RITO practices. She has been singing for over 12 years and practices body-voice connection. She facilitates experiences of connection, awareness and expansion. She creates relational artistic performances and rituals that explore the state of flow, body-voice and the present moment.
Mana Bugallo (Argentina / NYC)
Mana Bugallo is an Argentinian performance poet, singer, and writer based in Bushwick. Her work combines poetry, satire, and music and is now focused on the individual and collective consequences of what we had been told is normal. She created and performed her last two shows called Dónde (Where) and El País de las Cosas while navigating the challenges of living far away from home. Mana has performed at poetry and comedy festivals, book fairs, and basements in the United States, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Uruguay, and Switzerland. She’s a founding member of the duo Boca de Buzón, with Paula Maffia, and the artistic collective Sucede. She was also among the first to organize poetry slams in Buenos Aires. Mana has lived in El País de las Cosas since 2018.
WOMEN OF RIVINGTON SCHOOL - Curated by Angel Eydealism
“It's not WHO you did at Rivington School, it's WHAT you did. WORS: Women Of Rivington School is to honor the women who contributed painting, sculpting, photography, and performance at to this now-famous art movement. There was a fair amount of "hanging out," rampant drug use, and a whole lotta fucking going on. However WORS is dedicated to the women who actually made and displayed their art at the few small galleries, and Sculpture Gardens in the Lower East Side of NYC from 1983 to present…”
Most of the galleries are now gone, except for Shalom Neuman's Fusion Arts, now called Womb Space at 57 Stanton Street. The Sculpture Gardens were all removed from the abandoned lots in the Nineties. Rivington School was a macho, Boomer male art scene, however there were a few women who stood out, with outstanding art. WORS is dedicated to honoring and showcasing these women artists and their art.” - ANGEL EYEDEALISM
We’re proud to present WORS: WOMEN OF RIVINGTON SCHOOL for two nights in the month of October. Curated by Angel Eyedealism, we’re providing a platform for the women involved with the creations and performance art of Rivington School.
Presenting artists include:
Theresa Rodriques
Sylvia Bullett
Rachelle Garniez aka Planetella
Angel Eyedealism aka Angela Repellant
JD Fleishman
Nick Demopolus
Stuart Ginsberg
Clayton Patterson
Jim C
Al Diaz
Find more info on WORS at https://www.womenofrivingtonschool.com/about
ABOUT ANGEL EYEDEALISM
“In 2015, I started WORS: Women Of Rivington School to honor the women who also contributed to the macho Boomer male art movement. With the massive media attention I have garnered as an astrologer, I want to shine a light on these brilliant, yet hidden jewels, I espied amidst the junk and rubble of Rivington School. WORS is the view of the Rivington School through my eyes and the few women I knew who painted, performed and stood out as rare gems, in this thrilling and dangerous time.”
Internationally renowned astrologer Angel Eyedealism, is based in the East Village, Manhattan. She is also a stratospheric coloratura and performance artist and brings a theatrical bent to her the practical, down-to-earth advice.
PERFORMING ARTISTS:
RACHELLE GARNIEZ
Native New Yorker, multi-instrumentalist Rachelle Garniez has been described as a “diva with a difference” (Billboard Magazine) and a “certified free spirit” (The New Yorker).
Rachelle recently appeared on the HBO television programs “High Maintenance” and “And Just Like That”; her songs can be heard on several film soundtracks and have been recorded by artists including Catherine Russell, Karen Elson, and Ingrid Lucia of the Flying Neutrinos.
She was a performing member as well as a musical director of the Neo- Cabaret troupe, The Citizens Band. For several years in the early 2000s, Rachelle was a member of the TED house band led by Thomas Dolby; she was invited in 2019 to perform at a reunion of hand-picked TED alumni.
She’s performed/recorded with artists including Sven Ratzke, Weimar New York, the Marvin Sewell Group, Tigresa, Rufus Wainwright, Dan Zanes, and Mumbo Gumbo. In 2009, Rachelle composed the music for Taylor Mac’s visionary Obie-Award-winning epic five-hour theater piece “The Lily’s Revenge”.
THERESA RODRIGUEZ
“I was born and raised in NYC. Presently my artwork is mixed media collages with photographs, silkscreen, and acrylic with found objects. From 1985 to the present I am a Woman of Rivington School.” - TR
WOMEN OF RIVINGTON SCHOOL - Curated by Angel Eydealism
“It's not WHO you did at Rivington School, it's WHAT you did. WORS: Women Of Rivington School is to honor the women who contributed painting, sculpting, photography, and performance at to this now-famous art movement. There was a fair amount of "hanging out," rampant drug use, and a whole lotta fucking going on. However WORS is dedicated to the women who actually made and displayed their art at the few small galleries, and Sculpture Gardens in the Lower East Side of NYC from 1983 to present…”
Most of the galleries are now gone, except for Shalom Neuman's Fusion Arts, now called Womb Space at 57 Stanton Street. The Sculpture Gardens were all removed from the abandoned lots in the Nineties. Rivington School was a macho, Boomer male art scene, however there were a few women who stood out, with outstanding art. WORS is dedicated to honoring and showcasing these women artists and their art.” - ANGEL EYEDEALISM
We’re proud to present WORS: WOMEN OF RIVINGTON SCHOOL for two nights in the month of October. Curated by Angel Eyedealism, we’re providing a platform for the women involved with the creations and performance art of Rivington School.
PERFORMANCE ARTISTS:
Theresa Rodrigues
Rachelle Garniez aka Planetella
Angel Eyedealism aka Angela Repellant
JD Fleishman aka Jill125
Melanie Tomsky
MUSIC BY:
Nick Demopolus
PRESENTING IN TRIBUTE:
Monty Cantsin (tribute to Little Alexis)
Stuart Ginsberg (tribute to Arleen Schloss)
Jim C (Video Montage Tribute to Monica/Missunderstood, Christa Camper, and Anne Jepsen)
Find more info on WORS at https://www.womenofrivingtonschool.com/about
ABOUT ANGEL EYEDIALISM
“In 2015, I started WORS: Women Of Rivington School to honor the women who also contributed to the macho Boomer male art movement. With the massive media attention I have garnered as an astrologer, I want to shine a light on these brilliant, yet hidden jewels, I espied amidst the junk and rubble of Rivington School. WORS is the view of the Rivington School through my eyes and the few women I knew who painted, performed and stood out as rare gems in this thrilling and dangerous time.”
Internationally renowned astrologer Angel Eyedealism, is based in the East Village, Manhattan. She is also a stratospheric coloratura and performance artist and brings a theatrical bent to her the practical, down-to-earth advice.
PERFORMERS
JD FLEISHMAN
JD Fleishman is a Multi-disciplinary Performance Artist hailing from Plexus, Dada, and Arte d'Povera. As a Tantric Shaman, she explores healing through sound, effortlessly creating Lucid Dreaming with singing bowls and gongs. She exhibited her visual and Performance Art in solo shows at Nada, and Freddie The Dreamer Galleries, as well as group shows at No Se No.This WORS is in Collections at MOMA and Gemente, Netherlands, and privately with Mike Bidlo, and Donald Baechler.
THERESA RODRIGUES
“I was born and raised in NYC. Presently my artwork is mixed media collages with photographs, silkscreen, and acrylic with found objects. From 1985 to the present I am a Woman of Rivington School.” - TR
MELANIE TOMSKY
Melanie Tomsky is a multi-disciplinary artist from Brooklyn, New York. She has performed in various classical music ensembles as a violist throughout the US and Europe. She is also a classically trained pianist. Tomsky’s expressionist paintings have been exhibited in several galleries in NYC. Melanie is also a performance artist and model.
PRESENTERS: 15 MINUTES OF FAME, HONORING FALLEN WORS
JIM C
Jim C. burst upon the East Village/ LES scene in 1983. His radical sense of experimentation - collapsing video, sound, painting, and photography together - blurring the boundaries between artistic disciplines - define his oeuvre. Jim ran The Magic Gallery with the painter, Edward Brezinski. Jim’s video of the scene are featured in the documentary Make Me Famous. In 1984 Jim then opened the Nada Gallery, 40 Rivington Street. Nada was at the hub of the notorious Rivington School. Jim now lives and works in Woodstock, New York.
“Immersive 8”- Live Art Tour Curated by cai qing
“Performance art is a spontaneous and unique form of artistic expression created by artists using their bodies and wisdom at a specific time and place. Its ephemeral nature makes it a one-of-a-kind experience that cannot be replicated, which is what makes it so special. For the 8th Annual Live Art Tour, we are excited to showcase this exciting and dynamic art form in vibrant and colorful New York City.
To create according to local conditions, artists will choose locations and venues that suit their unique styles, and immediately communicate with curators to organize and record their works on site. This approach not only expresses the richness and depth of Greater New York as an art center, but also highlights the unique method of performance art creation. It will provide performing artists from all over the world with the opportunity to unleash their unique energy.” - CAI QING (Curator)
Founder and curator Cai Qing [China/Germany] has gathered performance artists from around the world to immerse themselves and their art in the streets, parks and spaces in a different international city each year. This year, GES has invited Cai Qing and the curated artists to bring their vision to New York City for the first time. NYC is a stage for life, life/art, and art/life, that allows the artists to perform site-specific works at GES and on the streets, alleys and spaces throughout NYC.
The IMMERSIVE 8 Festival reacts not only to the richness and depth of Greater New York as a center for the arts, but also highlights the distinct and creative methods of performance art - with Week #3 live performance art pieces by: Cai Qing, Arahmaiani Feisal, Gao Zhiyan, and Kuan Ying-Chen.
ABOUT CAI QING
Cai Qing, PhD, was born in China and is currently a German citizen, artist, curator and art critic who is active in the field of contemporary art and performance art.
He is also involved in education at fine-art academies, leading workshops and teaching courses in contemporary art.
PERFORMERS
ARAHMAIANI FEISAL
Born in 1961 (Bandung, Indonesia) Feisal is an artist, activist, poet and writer.She has long been internationally recognized for her powerful commentaries on social, political, cultural and environmental issues. And has been working as a guest lecture in Passau University, Germany in the last 10 years (teaching every summer semester – except 2020-2021 just do it online). She also used to teach in Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (2006-2008). Her own identity as Muslim mediates between Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and animist beliefs. She has been working with communities dealing with environmental, social-political and cultural issue in Indonesia and abroad. Creating a long term community base art project called “Flag Project” since 2006 (she has been working with Islamic boarding school community in Yogyakarta). Then working with various community in Indonesia and abroad. And since 2010 she has been working with Tibetan monks & the lay people in Tibet Plateau dealing with environmental issue till today.
GAO ZHIYAN
Gao Zhiyan (English translation: Grace), also known as Gao Ya and Mr. Ya. Artist, poet, and freelance art creator. She has participated in exhibitions in New York, Italy, South Korea, Turkey, and Zhuhai, Beijing, and Shanghai in China. she has had two solo exhibitions. Her works involve painting, installation, performance, poetry, and commentary. multiple fields.
KUAN-YING CHEN
Kuan-Ying Chen was born in Keelung, Taiwan, in 1989, is currently an artist and doctoral student at the Institute of Art Creation and Theory, National Tainan University of the Arts. Focusing on social culture and public issues, Kuan-Ying is obsessed with several problems: the relationship between art and political power of environment, the interaction of fine art and the public, and how the art turn on new dialogue, either inside or outside the system. Through diving into the very bottom of the society, he discovered the possibility and ruminant of creativity, where people input publicity and dialogue. (Delete it according to your needs)
Ivo Ivanov (Bulgaria)
Ivo Ivanov is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural manager based in Sofia, Bulgaria. His interests and education are in text, theatre, performance, sound and image manipulation and digital art. Collaboration and understanding artistic thought flow and practice is one of his life’s main objectives. As is presenting contemporary art and independent culture to broader audiences.
He has been playing and making music professionally since the end of the last century. Under the moniker Yves O, he experiments with live visuals since 2005. Award-winning artist and participant in numerous events and festivals on several continents.
Co-founder of Studio Dauhaus, one of the first independent art spaces. Curator and organizer of some of the most avant-garde events in Bulgaria, among which is the Sofia Underground international performance art festival.