PAST CONVERSATION
Gwen Smith and Aike Akhigbe
Date:
Artist:
PAST CONVERSATION
Gwen Smith and Aike Akhigbe
Join us for a conversation between Aike Akhigbe and 2022 Baxter St Resident Gwen Smith on Thursday, January 19th from 6:30pm – 8pm in the gallery. Gwen Smith will present a set of machine learning experiments trained by creative technologist Aike Akhigbe teaching the artificial intelligence to be smarter and more inclusive when it comes to the stoke around Black women and surf culture.
Prompting the computer with Smith’s The Chance Whale collage paintings and polaroids made this summer during her Baxter Street residency Smith came up with the concept of The Beachness of Blackness from the fractured Black American perspective to the sweet the African core. The piece aims to express Black Euphoria and the depths of creativity and freedom gained from oceanic revelry.
RSVP to the conversation here.
Baxter St Residencies are supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Chance Whale is on view through February 01, 2023 at 126 Baxter St.
Aike Akhigbe is a creative technologist and experience designer interested in making communicable the material effects of phenomena – cultural, technological or environmental on social interactions through engaging experiences. Combining a background in architecture with immersive media, her practice spans immersive storytelling, interactive environments, and connected experiences. Aike is a graduate of the NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program. She also holds a Bachelor in Architecture and a Bachelor’s in Fine Art from the Rhode Island School of Design
Gwen Smith (b. 1968) received her BA from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1990, moved to New York City in 1991 and studied at the International Center of Photography. In the ‘90s, she first worked as a Photography Assistant and as a Photography Research Editor for publications including Vogue and The New Yorker,until she became a mother in 2004. Smith’s photographic practice has been ongoing, though her primary focus for the past 18 years was on raising her son River Steinbach. Founder of The Black Woman Project (Vol. 1 & 2) published in 2020, Smith has pursued a multidisciplinary approach to her art making. Smith was an 2021-2022 Artist in Residence at the Center for Book Arts, in NYC. In November of 2021 she debuted her photo collage paintings ORIGIN at Justine Kurland’s Studio. The Chance Whale is Smith’s first solo exhibition in NYC.