hello, world! at ArtSpace New Haven

Gun Tower and Big Gulps featured in hello, world! , curated by J.R. Uretsky, on view at ArtSpace New Haven from December 4 – March 5

 Press release from hello, world!:

hello, world! is an exhibition that explores how a queer identity can function as a clear projection of self while simultaneously resisting and reframing normative definitions of identity. The complex, humorous and deeply personal approaches each artist brings to the exhibition offers a visual syntax of queer experiences.  The title hello, world! reminds us that language is learned, tested, reframed and hopefully -- hacked.
Artists
Genesis Baez , Emmy Bright, Eduardo Restrepo Castaño, Brian Christopher Glaser , Nicki Green, E.E. Ikeler, Sakura Kelley, Local Honey, Alee Peoples, A.K. Summers, Nabeela Vega

Press Coverage: 

Yale Daily News 12/11/15 Naik, Rohan Wigging out in "hello, world!"
Artscope Magazine 1/5/15 Martins, J. Fatima Challenging Gender Expression at Artspace

Spread in Coorain Devin's Calendar Project

June, digital collage of Coorain Devin

June, digital collage of Coorain Devin

Interview with Coorain on the Humble Arts Foundation blog

Press release from the project:

Queer Artist To Release Extravagant Calendar
This January something with a little more glitter will be adorning office cubicles and kitchen nooks- a stunning calendar, produced by a team of 16 artists. Coorain, a video and performance artist who is portrayed in every image, views the project as a collaboration of the finest art. Each artist was given creative control, “although I gave them plenty ideas, I chose strong, interesting artists with their own vision.” This collaborative process is a thread that runs through much of Coorain’s work- they host a talk show on local community cable stations and the internet that features artists, musicians, and other cultural producers. “I think I freaked some people out by making a television show as artwork, but it’s been successful in ways I never expected.”
The roster of included artists includes Boston-based heavyweights, like Sandrine Schaefer, who just completed a summer-long exhibition at the ICA and current Brother Thomas Fellow, and Caleb Cole, a 2015 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow, along with a few relatively unknown artists, like Risa Horn and Joyce Taihei, a recent MassArt graduate whose lush images are dark, yet colorful. “Taihei is so great,” says Coorain, “She uses long-exposures to capture rainbows that the human eye can’t see.” Revealing what can’t or isn’t typically seen is also a big reason Coorain is making this calendar. As much as a few of these artists have begun to make a name for themselves, most are working second or third jobs to support themselves. Any profits Coorain receives will be shared equally with all the artists, many of which land on the LGBT spectrum. “We’re in a cultural moment where people talk big about tolerance and acceptance, but when I look at mainstream culture, gender is heavily policed. I want people to see there are more options.”

More project details can be found here.

Makeover! at Sübsamsøñ

Two-Fer featured in Makeover! at Sübsamsøñ, organized by the Boston LGBTQIA Artist Alliance (BLAA) and was on view from October 7 – 24, 2015. Press release from the exhibition: 

Sübsamsøñ and the BLAA are proud to present Makeover!, a group show of 18 Boston-affiliated/based artists whose work considers reshaping, modifying and updating the self. The pieces range from portraiture and performance to sculpture and abstraction. 

With the loss of a permanent space at the former MALE Center, Boston LGBTQIA Artist Alliance (BLAA) is undergoing a makeover and re-examining its own identity and mission. The pieces come from a broad spectrum of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Asexual viewpoints. These artists recognize queer identities as inherently open to change, and that growing into a queer identity is a form of makeover. The work acknowledges a freedom and empowerment in the ability to constantly re-invent oneself. At the same time, other pieces dwell on the vulnerability required for these moments of change - in both cases, the work captures a specific point in a metamorphic journey.

Makeover! features a variety of artistic approaches and media, including artists:Casey Ausman, Fred Ata and Melissa Boyajian, Caleb Cole, Giancarlo Corbacho, Robyn Day, Lauren Gillette, Brian Glaser, Madge of Honor, James Helenski, Dylan Hurwitz, Geena Matuson, Juan Jose Barboza-Gubo & Andrew Mroczek, Rosie Ranauro, Lenny Schnier, Tom Maio, Robert Siegelman

About BLAA:
Over the years the Boston LGBTQIA Artist Alliance (BLAA) has put on 15 events, including 7 exhibitions, with associated potluck gatherings, artist talks and free film screenings. BLAA was born out of the desire to unite and elevate the visibility of Boston-area LGBTQIA- identified artists, as well as from the frustration of the lack of a dedicated space for LGBTQIA- identified artists to share their work. BLAA has previously - perhaps unintentionally - catered to a primarily white gay male-centric audience, and it is the hope of its new leadership to live up to its mission of inclusivity. It is our hope that our newest exhibition, along with upcoming associated programming will serve to bring us closer to this goal.

FEELERS at the Boston Center for the Arts Mills Gallery

Veronica was installed as part of the 24th Drawing Show: Feelers, curated by Susan Metrican, at the Boston Center for the Arts Mills Gallery.

Press release for the exhibition:

The Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) presents Feelers, the 24th installment of the BCA Drawing Show, this year featuring work by 56 artists. In Feelers, curator Susan Metrican considers the possibilities of existing in a two-dimensional reality through drawing’s inherent encounter with flatness.
The exhibition draws its title from Edwin Abbott Abbott’s novel Flatland, a 19th century sci-fi examination of dimensions in which Abbott describes a two-dimensional world occupied by geometric figures. Metrican notes that in this novel, “the squares, octagons, straight lines and so on are all governed by the rules of their flat world, and their behaviors and customs reflect their limited reality as they can comprehend it.  In Flatland, to be a ‘feeler’ is to determine one’s surroundings by reaching out to touch it with appendages.”
It is this kind of touching, testing and searching that unites the work in the exhibition. Feelers brings together a group of artists, works and practices that feature artists’ sensitivity to materials, subject matter and the ability to use feelers to explore through practice and ideas.  Using the principles of drawing as its ground, the show opens up to gestures of flatness, line, touch and emotion. In Feelers, the work considers the line that is drawn between the experience of the three-dimensional world or the multi-dimensional interior world to a separate and exterior surface.

Feelers was on view from October 9 – December 20, 2015

Veronica at Boston City Hall

Veronica, Digital collage of shampoo advertisements printed on polyester voile, 18 x 6 x 6 feet

The Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture hosted Emerge: Boston’s Arts Festival on Thursday September 10, 2015. The one-night event featured several visual arts showcases throughout Boston City Hall. Installation artists included Brian Glaser, Corinne Spencer, Cyrille Conan, Basil Kincaid, Coorain Devin, Kenji Nakayama, and performance art team Loreto P. Ansaldo and Aparna Das.

In addition to presenting work by emerging and established artists from both the local and national art scene, the new event explored the civic role of art and design by positioning City Hall as a place that actively fosters cultural events and community dialogue.

The temporary installations were installed at Boston City Hall from September through October 2015.