Buzz Slutzky and Greg Newton present Chalkboard.

No grades.

No degrees.

No goals.

All are welcome.

No prerequisites.

Art histories

Humor as critique

Silence as strategy

Failure

Impotence

Insincerity

Inauthenticity

Queers

Buzz explores comedic critiques of history. What role does humor play in art? Does humor strengthen art’s power, or do punchlines trivialize meaning? How have artists used humor to question power and make our own narratives? Why would one be historically accurate when one can be ~hysterically~ accurate?

Greg explores anti-expressive tendencies in the art world of 1950s-60s New York and the lives of the artists who chose not to express themselves. Getting personal with silent (quiet) subjects. The appeal of the negative, then and now.

Suggested donation of $10 to benefit the Bureau.

No one turned away for lack of funds.

Chalkboard has the potential to become a series.

Buzz Slutzky is a non-binary transgender artist, writer, and performer whose practice incorporates drawing, painting, sculpture, and video. Their visual art and writing often play between autobiographical and historical content. As a performer, Buzz has mixed stand-up comedy and musical comedy under the persona Stoni Butchell, among others. Buzz studied visual art and social movement histories at Sarah Lawrence College and received their MFA from Parsons Fine Arts. They currently teach film and visual art at CUNY College of Staten Island and SUNY Purchase College.

Greg Newton studied religion and art history at Hunter College. He completed his coursework and examinations for a doctorate degree in art history at CUNY Graduate Center. After having his dissertation topic approved—”The Emergence of Monochrome Painting in 1950s New York”—Newton aborted his pursuit of the degree and a career in academia. He co-founded the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division in 2012 with his partner, Donnie Jochum.