How do we know what we need you to know: Intimate access and collective care

Exhibition: November 1, 2019 – January 9, 2020
Opening Reception November 1, 2019, 7 to 10 PM

The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division and Queer|Art|Mentorship are proud to present How do we know what we need you to know: Intimate access and collective care, the 2018-2019 Queer|Art|Mentorship Annual Exhibition, curated by current Fellow Jeanne Vaccaro. This special exhibition will present new work by the graduating Fellows of the 2018-2019 Queer|Art|Mentorship program, Queer|Art’s celebrated year-long intergenerational creative and professional development program, now entering its ninth year.

The exhibition will include new works of film, literature, performance, and visual art by J. Bouey, Candystore, Daniel Chew, Xandra Clark, Sarah Creagen, Cristóbal Guerra, Russell Perkins, Ripley Soprano, and Natalie Tsui. Many of the artworks on view will be shown as fragments of larger bodies of work or works still in process, offering glimpses of each artist’s broader practice in ongoing formation.

A central theme of the exhibition targets the process of cultivating intimate and collective forms of access. In Vaccaro’s words, this has meant “building trust by being honest about what we need to make art and be together, what we can and can’t tolerate, what holds us back, and what can propel us forward. It is about the work it takes to manage togetherness across difference and through desire. It is about making transparent the everyday and historical as sites of possibility and reinvention, and it is about needing each other—all of us—to do the work of transforming our aesthetic and political worlds.” The Annual will be accompanied by a publication, designed by Jade Marks, edited by Jeanne Vaccaro, and produced by Queer|Art.

Works:

Candystore: I’m Sitting on My Butthole (installation)
Sarah Mihara Creagen: Sex, Botany, and BDSM (works on paper)
Cristóbal Guerra: Otro Archipielago / Another Archipielago (mixed media)
Nancy Brooks Brody & Russell Perkins: A Different Light (proposal documents and archival materials)
Russell Perkins: Monday 22 July 2019 (newsprint)
Ripley Soprano: harmreduxxcommunism (harm reduction materials)
Natalie Tsui: Me, Or Perhaps Someone Else (video installation)

How do we know what we need you to know is a component of Queer|Art’s 2018-2019 Queer|Art|Mentorship Annual Exhibition, which opens on November 1 in conjunction with the 2019 Queer|Art|Prize, and continues through January 9 at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Community Center in the West Village (208 W 13th St). The two-month exhibition includes multiple components in a variety of gallery-based and time-based art formats, including a special presentation of the 2019 Queer|Art Community Portrait Project, featuring more than 40 newly commissioned portraits of Queer|Art’s diverse and vibrant intergenerational artist community by photographer Lola Flash.

The 2018-2019 Queer|Art|Mentorship Annual kicks off with The Annual Party on Friday, November 1 from 7-10pm, hosted by theater artists Mashuq Mushtaq Deen and Xandra Clark, who have worked closely together throughout the past year as Mentor and Fellow. The evening will also include the awards announcements for the 2019 Queer|Art|Prize, now entering its third year with support from HBO. Queer|Art|Prize annually awards two artists, selected through a national nominating process, with $10,000 prizes (one for Sustained Achievement and the other for Recent Work). The night will conclude with a dance party as DJ Jasmine Infiniti brings the epic night of queer revelry and celebration to a close.

The Annual Party will take place in room 301 of The LGBT Community Center.

RSVP is required for The Annual Party, tickets here

QUEER|ART|MENTORSHIP supports a year-long exchange between emerging and established artists in five different creative fields: Film, Literature, Performance, Visual Art, and Curatorial Practice.

Tickets are NOT required to attend the opening reception at the Bureau. 

Please note that the Bureau will be closed from 6 to 7 PM on Friday, November 1, 2019, for a Q|A|M VIP preview of the exhibition.  

Image: Nancy Brooks Brody and Russell Perkins, A Different Light, Proposal for the Courtyard of The LGBT Community Center, NYC, 2019 gouache on inkjet print

Exhibition-related programs:

Tuesday, November 5, 7 PM: Russell Perkins & Nancy Brooks Brody: A Different Light

Thursday, November 7, 7 PM: Cristóbal Guerra, Ripley Soprano, and Candystore: How We Need

Thursday, January 9, 2020 6 PM: Closing Reception: Queer|Art Karaoke Party