Upcoming Exhibitions
I’m here to entertain you, but only during my shift
Joiri Minaya
Curated by Corrine Y. Gordon
Opening Reception: Postponed until further notice
Exhibition Dates: To be determined
Baxter St at CCNY is pleased to present a solo exhibition of work by Joiri Minaya, organized by curator Corrine Y. Gordon.
Joiri Minaya sees her work as a reassertion of self, in which she uses her cultural background as a base to explore and reconcile her experiences of growing up in the Dominican Republic and living and navigating the United States. I’m here to entertain you, but only during my shift examines the construction of the female subject in relation to landscape, looking particularly at “tropical” environments. The exhibition features new works from her ongoing Containers series initiated in 2015, where Minaya takes photographs of women wearing custom head-to-toe printed bodysuits that mimic tropical flora and poses them in seemingly natural environments that have been altered by man. Theoriginal series stemmed from a Google search of “Dominican Women,” where Minaya found specific poses repeated throughout her findings and appropriated these poses through the structure of the bodysuits, forcing the performer to adopt the pose. By doing this, Minaya looks to the parallels drawn between nature and femininity, as both have been imagined and represented throughout history as idealized, tamed, conquered, and exoticized entities.
The title I’m here to entertain you, but only during my shift aims to establish a relationship between the viewer and the work, drawing attention to the performative nature of her subjects and the audience’s position as an active observer. It is also a line pulled from one of the original scripts Minaya wrote when she started to experiment with the series beyond photography. She converted the images into a performance, incorporating voice recordings and written text that were strategically paired to the location and bodysuits. As the series continues to be reimagined through new mediums, this exhibition will be the first to present collage alongside her continued photographs, video, and text.
GALOOT
Devon Leaver
Opening Reception: Postponed until further notice
Exhibition Dates: To be determined
The second exhibition from the Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York and the National YoungArts Foundation Residency Program, GALOOT, featuring an experimental short film by Devon Leaver, will open on TBD.
New York, NY – Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York, the non-profit artist-run organization dedicated to supporting lens-based artists is pleased to announce the second year of the residency program in partnership with National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts).
YoungArts | Baxter St Residency Program supports artists working in the mediums of photography, film, and video practices, by providing funding and workspace, culminating in an exhibition. The partnership with YoungArts further expands Baxter St’s efforts of engagement with emerging artists at critical points in their educational and professional careers.
As the second resident in the program, Devon Leaver (2011 YoungArts Winner in Film) will present her experimental short film GALOOT. The film, written and directed by Leaver, follows the journey of the titular character, a creature named Galoot, immersing the viewer in the experience of growing up on the autism spectrum. Leaver, who took inspiration from childhood writings and drawings, worked in partnership with her sister Brenna Leaver – who constructed and performed the character Galoot – to create this touching short film.