From the start of 2017, ArtsyWindow has been collaborating with the Experience Magazine, an independent virtual magazine established by creatives from the Bronx that focuses on Black and Latinx artists. Please read the long form article by ArtsyWindow below featured in the Spring 2017 female empowerment issue on theexperiencemag.com starting on page 62 in the virtual magazine. 

As part of my summer 2016 internship at the Brooklyn Museum, I choose to take on a personal project and interview a featured artist, VenusX. This article was posted on the museum`s Tumblr blog.
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Article by Kiara Ventura

Posted on BK Museum Tumblr

Jasmine Venus Soto says her job title is “VenusX,” that includes creating and building the GHE20 GOTH1K movement, being a DJ, curating, planning parties for people of all ages in New York City warehouses, and much more. Being born and raised in uptown New York City by an Ecuadorian father and Dominican mother, taught her how to be her own boss and value her education. Venus continues to challenge the public and support those who feel like they don’t belong through her unique point of views, music, style, and underground parties. And now she is bringing that to the Brooklyn Museum on July 28th at 6pm, as part of the Tom Sachs Boom Box Residency series, along with Acyde, Tremaine Emory, and NY Theo. All four DJs will be selling red velvet cake, USB mixes, and T-Shirts in Tom Sachs`s Bodega while switching roles and playing sets in the Presidential Vampire Booth throughout the night.
In preparation for this upcoming event, get to know VenusX a little more though this conversation I had with her over coffee.
Kiara: How would you describe yourself right now as you navigate through the music and fashion world?  
VenusX: Who I was when I started DJing and touring at 23 years old is different from who I am now. Before I was just living in the moment and now that I’ve been in the game for a while I realized that the industry is not equal. You really have to outsmart the system in order to survive it. The system is used to women being the sexual objects. They are not used to women who have their own definition of themselves that might not include men. I don’t go through the world using my femininity as a tool to get me access to places. I prefer to use my intellect. I prefer to use my ideas and creativity.
K: What is your daily routine like?
V: Lately I’ve working on opening my store next week. Before that I was on tour. I live two extremes. It`s either I work for 16 hours in the studio planning upcoming events and building my business, or I’m on tour and I just wake up, get on a plane, do a show, and do the same for the next few days. I don’t know how to live a normal life.
K: How do you handle your job as a DJ?
V: For me as a DJ, I need to be available because that is what DJing is about. It’s about providing that soundtrack so people can dance. People need to dance all the time. They don`t need to dance once a year when I drop an album. My job as a DJ is different from my job as a artist. I feel like it’s an intimate responsibility. I like DJing often and being reliable to a crowd of people who need that space and time to get some shit off their chest in a sweaty environment with great music.
K: There are many great things happening with GHE20 GOTH1K including that your store will open next week. What is your overall goal for GHE20 GOTH1K and what do you hope for its future?
V: I hope that GHE20 GOTH1K can become a go-to party, website, and store for people that they want to be a part of something that is more authentic. I have a system that might not make people rich, but it’s sustainable—it employs a lot of people and their good ideas. The intention is to constantly have a cycle where culture can be created. So we are motivating people to make music, design clothes, design their personalities, and to exist in the world that might not appreciate them or have a place for them.
K: You recently held a GHE20 GOTH1K party for all ages including Kanye`s creative director Virgil Abloh, last week you DJed at the Coney Island bumpers cars, and now you are coming to the Brooklyn Museum on Thursday which is open to everyone for free. I see this theme of accessibility across many of the events you’re involved in. Why is that important to you?
V: Sometimes people don’t understand culture unless you give them a taste of it. It’s not the same as being a commercial artist. I do some events for free because I believe that what I’m doing is important. If there is someone who goes to my event for free, maybe that will turn into them going to ten more shows after because they experienced it and they were so into it. This helps people understand that I really stand up for what I do regardless if I’m getting money for it or not. There’s always an opportunity to come the events I’m involved in and experience them one way or another.
K: How do you feel about the Brooklyn Museum and being a part of our DJ event on July 28th?
V: I’m really excited for it. I’m really excited to be a female on that lineup and to be recognized by these cultural forces. They can work with any rapper or DJ but instead they are supporting this specific movement. That’s very powerful because even with all the trending issues being brought up, there’s still not a lot of diversity in our world.
We still live in a heteronormative white world so if in the Brooklyn Museum Tom Sachs can bring three black men and a Dominican woman to play all different kinds of music. That’s powerful. Some kid out there who only knows of one person in the lineup and then discovers me there, might change how they see the world. In every lineup, you never know who’s going to walk away from it and what it’s going to inspire them to do.
K: You will be selling cake, USB mixes, and shirts in Tom Sach’s Bodega and performing a set in the Presidential Vampire DJ Booth. In this exhibition, the Boomboxes play a playlist curated by Sachs, his friends, and fans.  How do you feel about his work and becoming a part of it through your participation?
V: I think the concept is amazing and I hope that kids are more motivated to go to museums as a result of seeing such a cool event happen. I think that’s the whole point is to bridge music and sculpture in these spaces that are traditionally western colonized spaces. When you take art from where it’s from for people to perceive it, sometimes you lose a lot of people in that process. So I think it’s cool that he did this kind of exhibit where you can engage with it, it`s music, and the different personalities inside that space. I’m excited for it because I never performed at any setting that has been this curated down to the DJ Booth.
K: What can we expect from your set?
V: A world of sounds. My friend and I are working on a mixtape that is predominately Brazilian music and contemporary rap music from the U.S. so I`m probably going to be playing a nice mixture of that.
K: What vibes are you aiming to give off at this event? What do you hope it will accomplish?
V: Always good vibes but I also like to challenge people by playing things that they never heard before in ways that they never thought. I definitely don’t aim to please. I hope that my style comes across because sometimes DJs just play a lot of rap and that doesn’t mean that they don’t have other types of music. They may be playing one type of music because of the pressure from the audience. With that said, I’m going to try to be the wild card out of the four of us.

July 16th, 2016 was an emotional day. It wasn`t about having wine and viewing art. It was about connecting with one`s emotional side, appreciating that we all have flaws, and relating to one another. The day revolved about positive and negative emotions, secrets, and confessions. Nicole Bello (Artist Bello Ame) painted works based off of anonymous confessions that people have submitted to her. We gathered confessions by posting a white board in the bathroom during her last art show and inviting people to write in a open Google Doc through Facebook. We mostly received confessions that were unexpected, deep, and moving such as "I`m with a person I don`t love," "I want to change my gender," or simply "I love myself." Each submission was inspiring since the public was confident enough to share a part of themselves with us and this sense of openness was depicted during the show.

In terms of setting up the space, my goal was to make the viewers feel like they were in a setting that was private and secretive, as if they were reading a diary that wasn`t theirs. To convey these feelings, I covered the the whole ceiling with confessions that people have submitted. I wrote the introduction text, painting labels, and ceiling confessions all by hand to make the text seem more personal. Each painting was labeled with the confession it was based off of and placed with other works it related to either in theme and/or color. 

​To emphasize the theme of confessing, I invited artists to perform poems and songs that were personal. To include the audience into the show, I invited the visitors to share their confessions as well. The audience anonymously wrote their confessions on a piece of paper, I then collected them, and handed them out to a random person. Then everyone got the chance to come up to the mic, read the random confession they received and simply respond. The results were so moving and emotional. Many people gave advice and related to the confession on some level. The environment felt so open and comfortable that many visitors ended up talking and connecting with one another. Curating the art and the events of this show was satisfying because I know that I was part of the process of deeply impacting the visitors. Nicole Bello and I didn`t simply display art for them to look at but we gave them a deep art experience that hopefully impacted how they viewed one another and the world.

Part I
GOLD DUST
When visiting the Museum of Transit I felt like I just stepped out of a time machine and into a 1910s New York train station. The trains had vintage ads trying to sell ladies stockings, shaving cream for war bonds, "The Folding Brownie" camera, and more.
 Our tour guide, Pauline, mainly focused on the different types of trains and how the New Yorkers at the time shaped how the trains were made and how they functioned. One of the trains that she mentioned, the IRT 1917 Low Voltage Trailer, had beige woven seats, small fans on its ceiling, leather holders for passengers to balance themselves, red floors, and three doors on either side. What was fascinating about the tour was that our group got to sit down in each train as she talked. Seeing so many people sitting in these vintage trains gave me a glimpse of what it would feel like to ride these trains in the past.
I felt like I was in an art installation which transported me into a different time. Many were engaged by this tour because it connected to our daily lives and now we see trains differently. Each train and its advertisements gave me hints of what appealed to New Yorkers at the time. One advertisement focused on trying to sell Gold Dust washing powder and struck me with its negative messages. It says, “WOMEN WILL EVENTUALLY GET THE RIGHT TO VOTE--FOR GOLD DUST.” Next to this message is a complete cartoon of two dark skin toddlers in red tutus washing dishes. The simple design tells us that they were trying to make a clear statement. I found many things wrong and disrespectful about what this advertisement was communicating. Firstly, it mocked the efforts of the women rights movement to gain the right to vote during the early 1900s. It`s communicating that women should not be concerned with politics and focus on housework by “voting” for a dish washing powder instead.

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The cartoon image of the toddlers washing dishes tells us that the Gold Dust company supported racism, discrimination, and slavery. These twin toddlers were the company's trademark and usually appeared in many of their print media along with the slogan “Let the twins do the work.” It's a shame how Gold Dust used these discriminatory tactics in attempt to sell their product.


Part II
LADY PINK
Born in Ecuador but raised in NYC, Lady Pink is known as one the leading female graffiti artists and painted subway trains from 1979 to 1985. Her work, The Death of Graffiti, shows how the MTA handled their issue with graffiti--by removing it. I chose this image because I admire Lady Pink`s work. The image depicts a time in the 1980s and shows how Lady Pink emotionally felt about her art being removed from train cars.

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In the painting, one train car is filled with color graffiti and even says “PINK” on it while the other is bare. The sky is dark and light pink and hovers over the city setting. The intense and deep hues gives the work a heavily emotional vibe. In front of the colorful train car is a naked women standing on top of a huge pile of spray cans. Her arm seems to be reaching towards the plain white train car. The painting may depicts how when the MTA removes Pink`s art she felt like she her stripped bare of her talent. By removing her work, the MTA is devaluing her art and skill. This was also experienced by many graffiti artists. This continuation of graffiti removal discouraged many artists of the time and that's when train graffiti began to die out.
Posted by Kiara Ventura

For some reason I imagined that Socrates Sculpture Park would be a small park filled with Greek sculptures and fancy fountains. I was wrong. It's actually a spacious park with large contemporary works that emphasize the ideals of sustainability and supporting the earth's ecosystem.
Jess Wilcox, the director of exhibitions, introduced us to their current exhibition, LANDMARK. According to the park, LANDMARK is “a series of artist commissions and projects that transforms the land both physically and symbolically.” She highlighted that since the museum`s audience is mainly local, they try to exhibit works that physically change through time to keep the locals engaged. The show works with the earth and its ecosystems, while changing its form.
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Two works that particularly fascinated me were Meg Webster`s Concave Room for Bees and Jessica Segall‘s Fugue in B♭. Concave Room for Bees is a circular earthwork made out of soil that creates an enclosed space. On top of the soil are a variety of organized plants and flowers that are all pollinizers. This then connects to Fugue in B♭, which is a recycled piano from the piano factory that used to be near the park.
Visitors can see the insides of piano and honey bees flying inside making a beehive that conquers the piano`s strings as time passes. These bees often visit Concave Room for Bees to collect nectar. Ultimately, the bees are the connectors and the facilitators in the communication between the two works of art. When creating shows, curators always strive to create conversations and connections between the works of art and Socrates Sculpture Park definitely accomplished that here. I admired how this exhibition includes works with a purpose that support each other and the ecosystem while giving the visitors a constantly transforming show.

Last month, I worked on a major project with my close friend and upcoming artist, Nicole Bello. I had the pleasure of curating her first art show which took place at her apartment on April 29th 2016 in the Bronx. Since this event was her opening debut as a painter, I wanted to emphasize the tool of the paintbrush so I hung about 50 paintbrushes from the ceiling using clear string and tape. I utilized her living room TV by displaying the exhibition opening text and a slideshow of Bello working on her pieces. On the other side of the room, I set a Photo Booth area where the visitors can have fun posing for the camera with a poster saying "BELLO AME" that served as their background. 

The works that were exhibited revolved around the conversations the artist, Nicole Bello, had with friends. The show also featured open mic performances and ended off with bids on the pieces. Overall, the show was successful considering that out of 16 works, 14 were sold.

In addition, this event simultaneously prepared Bello for her next art show at the end of June called, "Confessions." With the help of Bello and her manager, Nelson Medina, we set a huge whiteboard in the bathroom and small boxes with pieces of paper beside them to invite the visitors to anonomously write down their deepest secrets. Bello is now in the process of painting these secrets and attempting to communicate these secrets in a visual form. Just like her first show, Bello is attracted to making her works participatory.

As an aspiring curator, I noticed that while I was putting together this event, I was simply excited and content. That`s how I knew that I would like to work on more events like this in the future. It was a pleasure to collaborate with Nicole Bello and we are currently planning more shows for Summer 2016. 

As for now, please enjoy a video recap of the Bello Ame art show below. Thanks for reading!
-KV

As part of our NYU Multimedia project, my friend, Catalina and I had to produce profile pieces about each other.  For this project we exercised our new skills on how to give interviews, use Adobe Premiere, and take B-roll (lots of B-roll). This video is about my journey in the art and journalism world. Hope you like it! -KV

“We have too many criminals trapped in the system. We have lost little black boys and girls. Miseducated parents following the cycle of the domino effect...Too many black communities are in poverty but not one...I said not one is a comfortable place to lay in,” 22-year-old Devante Tate, also known as Poetically Acclaimed, spoke into the mic at NYU`s Night of Soul on February 5th. 
 The Night of Soul was sponsored by African Heritage Month at NYU. Its committee planned events throughout  the whole month of February “to share and embrace the many facets of the African Diaspora, its history and culture.”
 While singers and spoken word poets were performing, two painters, Anthony and Monty, were creating multiple works of art on the stage. Some of these works were of a multi-colored lion, an abstract sunset, and a dark skin woman with an afro crying as a bomb blew up behind her.
 As each performer came up to the stage the host, who goes by the name Miss Bizzy Bahdee, read their background and their social media handles were projected onto the wall behind them. Whether it was through singing, rapping, or poetry, most of the performances spoke about fighting injustices towards black communities and/ or were simply appreciating urban culture.
 Miss Bizzy Bahdee said, “I just wanted to make sure the audience is here to listen to the art and that there is a positive atmosphere. That's what I like about this event...is that it's all positive and about expression.”  ​

“I don't appreciate how the media upholds certain people [like the rich] because of their status and not because of the quality of their art. There are people who put their blood, sweat, and tears into their art and I feel like I am one of those people,” Julianna Cepeda, a 20-year-old Dominican artist from Manhattan, said.

“Honestly, I haven't seen mainstream media coverage on us [Latinas] or people of melanin [of color] at all. If I do, I would have to dig deep for it. I feel like the media does not cover us in general because American media is whitewashed. Most of the people who are controlling media are not in our best interest.”

According to “The Latino Media Gap,” a report on the state of Latinos in the US Media by Frances Muntaner from Columbia University, the participation of Latinos in the mainstream media is “stunningly low” [Muntaner 1]. “When Latinos are visible, they tend to be portrayed through decades-old stereotypes as criminals, law enforcers, cheap labor, and hypersexualized beings,” Muntaner wrote. Perhaps the popular media does not want make it visible and let the public know that some Latinos are even artistic beings.    ​

This theme of representing identity and culture also appeals to other Latina artists as well.
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Alize Santana, a 19-year-old Puerto Rican and Ecuadorian fine artist who grew up in the Bronx, attends the School of Visual Arts on 23rd street in Manhattan. She mentioned that she is one of the very few Latinas attending this school and that it is important to include themes of her culture in her work. However, the art critics at her school think otherwise.

“The Bronx is a big part of my work. I also explore themes of feminism and poverty. I went to a predominantly white high school and it made me realize how much of a Latina I was because everyone around me were so different. As I got older, I embraced it,” she said.

“It’s important to include my identity in my art because I do not see it very often. There are not many Hispanics in my school. I need to put it [my identity] out there. But some people aren't so accepting. During one of the critiques of my work for school, some would [verbally] beat me down and say ‘I don't see why it is necessary to include your culture in your work. Aren't we all the same?’”

Many Latina artist refer to their culture in their artwork as a way to distinguish themselves. Journalism plays a role in this process by informing the public about the artwork these Latina artists are producing. “Within the Latino community, I have to say there are so many artists that have been working for decades and decades and have had really minimal visibility in the mainstream. They are only known to their own community,” Taína Caragol, a writer and curator from the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, said in an interview with Latina.com. The line of communication between the public and the existing Latina visual artists is interrupted by the lack of media coverage of this group in the mainstream media.

“As a Latina, I feel like I have to put more work in to be known. I think there should be more media coverage on Latina artists, because we deserve it,” Santana said.

Check out Julianna Cepeda`s work through her site here and instagram, @uzumaki.gallery
Check out Alize Santana`s work through her site here and instagram, @wutevaaa

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By Kiara Ventura

Columbus is the 15th largest city in the US and according to Neighborhoodscouts.com, its crime index is rated a 8 out of 100; 100 being the safest. Hearn said that the neighborhood he grew up in, the Northeast Side, has a high population of African Americans and low-income minorities. He is one of the very few of his neighborhood to leave and attend a college outside of the state. His attendance at NYU was also made possible by the MLK scholarship. ​

Hearn, along with with other AAP members, visited the Bronx Lighthouse school every two weeks to meet up with their mentees. He became Diallo`s mentor during the fall of 2015 and even though the mentorship program ended in November, they still plan to keep in touch. “From meeting with Chris, I learned to always do my best. Not just pass by with all Cs or get passing grades. I learned to always try to do better...He has a good heart. He is always there for me,” Diallo said as he looked down at his khaki uniform pants then up at Hearn.
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 Even though, Mamadou felt like Hearn has been there for him, Hearn`s hometown has felt otherwise. His community back in Ohio seems to have a tough love relationship with him because he chose to leave it. The rapper even responds to his community's negative reaction with his song, “HOLLYWOOD CEEZ,” included the 500 miles album. “I went 500 miles just to try and make a name. I came back to my city and they said I`m not the same. They said I changed. When I ask them to explain, they just say that I went Hollywood. Hollywood! Hollywood!” the song goes.

He explains that “his people” reacted in this way because he was no longer accessible to them due to his busy schedule here in NYC. Even his mother, Teagan Hearn, commented on his big move. “There are two sides of me,” she said. “One side of me really hates it. But the other side of me, the logical side, is really happy for him. Even though I am a worrier, I believe that he will do just fine.”
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When talking about his community, the young rapper repeatedly stressed,“I did not leave because I did not like it, I left because I loved it.” He stressed that he loves his city and community so much that he desires to go back and inspire others to go after their life goals, especially “for the children.” “I`ve felt like I owe it everything because it raised me and the people within it put me in the position that I'm in now,” Hearn said, “The ceiling for my people is set so low that I just want to bring back information and the belief that they can really get out there and go accomplish their dreams.”
 
To find out more about Chris Hearn and his work, visit ceeztheworld.com.

    The second room, my personal favorite, made me feel like I was on a foreign planet. Everyone was given 3-D glasses to see the special lighting effects of the space. The room was filled with strings of green lights hanging from the ceiling and the best part was that you get to walk through them.
    Get ready to have some fun while moving around in the next section. As soon as you step inside, a circle of light would be projected on the floor surrounding your feet. Run, jump, and dance while the lights on the ground move with you. And of course, I had to take a video of my friends running like little kids across the room for Snapchat.
    If you like looking through kaleidoscopes, then the upcoming room is made for you. Here, you would feel like you just stepped into one. Moving graphics of cherry blossoms were projected onto the ceiling. Every inch of the room (except the floor) was covered by diamond shaped mirrors. And you know happens when there's mirrors- selfies! So it was no surprise that many were taking mirror selfies and hipster solo pictures for the gram (including me). ​

     Last but not least the final section was all about interacting with your sense of smell. The smells of lavender and vanilla filled the air as a cloud that changed colors was displayed in the middle of the room. Honestly, the scents did not appeal to me at all and were too overwhelming. However, the cool thing about this room was that it was lit by a pinkish purplish light. So if you ever wanted to be in the Hotline Bling video, then this is the perfect place to dance like Dominican Drake.
    Finally, my nose was overwhelmed some more at the gift shop which had smelling stations where you could smell all the scents that were infused in each room. Also, here is where you can buy each scent in candle form and go to a kiosk that would take your picture and tell you your mood. I was told that my mood was “confident.” The picture would then be printed out and each print has a scent on it. Now I know what confidence smells like.
    Mood and emotions played a central theme here. This is the first time where I visited a museum and felt like the space focused on triggering the visitors’ feelings and senses. I felt curious and excited when entering each section because I did not know what to expect. My experience mostly consisted of taking many instagrammable and snapchattable moments while smelling a variety of strong scents and lasting less than an hour. Not to mention, this whole visit didn't cost a dime. It was fun, affordable, and a museum experience that is set apart from the rest. The Museum of Feelings can truly say that it is a living work of art that goes far beyond visually interacting with its visitors.

Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey St (themuseumoffeelings.com). Mon–Sat 11am–9pm, Sun 11am–7pm. Through Dec 15. ​

7. You can get an amazing view of Manhattan's West Side from the 8th floor balcony.

Hey, that's me! Taken by: MA

8. Instead of simply signing the right hand corner of his piece, artists such as John Court chose to uniquely sign with his thumbprint too.

13.  This is not just a tower of old televisions. This is a tower of ART. 

To find out more about the Whitney Museum click here.

Making the most out of your art exhibition visit

By Kiara Ventura

I know what you are thinking. You just set your eyeballs on the work of art and voila, you have looked at art. This article is not about the simple act of putting your eyes on a work of art but rather about how you can make the best out of your experience with a piece and take in some understanding of what the artist was trying to convey (whether it be an image and/or an idea). My goal is to try to make you spend at least 5 minutes in front of a work of art rather than a few seconds.

Keep in mind...
Firstly, let me just put this out there; I believe that we will never fully understand a work of art. A work of art will never be fully understood unless you were the one who created it yourself. Each work of art was made by a certain person, in a certain place in the world, in a certain culture, and in a certain time period. Therefore, we as art observers will never know every thought and intention that was going through the mind of an artist when they created their work. There are many artworks from ancient worlds that are not fully understood simply because we can only get glimpses of what their societies were like through the literature and/or artifacts they have left behind. We will never know why an artist chose to give his canvas a rough spiky texture rather than a smooth flat texture or choose crayon as his medium rather than acrylic paint, etc. We can only be certain of the artist's choices and views only if they revealed their exact thought process behind their work.

Tip: When you are looking at a piece you should not comment, “The artist felt happy because...” or “The artist chose this color because...” Instead, keep an open mind and try saying, “The artist may have felt happy...” or “Maybe the artist chose this color because…” Keep an open mind when trying to understand art. When your interpretation comes out as a fact, you are more likely to not think about other possible interpretations. Remember that you are not in the artist`s shoes. But also remember that most artists produce art for others to see and interpret on their own.

When entering the JAMES ‘SON FORD’ THOMAS: The Devil and His Blues exhibition at 80WSE, I was greeted by a clay skull that had tin foil outlining its eyes and real human teeth in its mouth. I was amazed and examined each crooked off-white tooth. At ten years old, Thomas made his first skull to scare his grandfather and carried on in creating them into his adult years. I studied the wide array of clay figures on display: sweet birds, one dark snake, a sparkly fish, a gold hand, and a wide array of skulls. I sensed an eerie feeling throughout this exhibition. I even sensed hints of sadness (or blues) within the sweet birds and the sparkly fish. In fact, Thomas believed in ‘hoodoo,’ which is an African American folk spirituality that gave significance to animals.

After watching two short documentary films called James “Son Ford” Thomas: Artist and ‘Sonny Ford:’ Delta Artist, I began to see how his life as a musician and sculptor went hand in hand. It seems like the feelings or ideas he sang about also translated into the works he sculpted. The theme of death kept recurring in my mind especially in the second section of the exhibition displaying a wide array of suited men in coffins with the name ‘SON THOMAS’ engraved in some.

By Kiara Ventura

   When walking into the Grey Art Gallery, one would be greeted by a large red text on a deep blue wall reading, Tseng Kwong Chi: Performing for the Camera. Now who is Tseng Kwong Chi? And how does he incorporate the art of performing with photography?

   Tseng Kwong Chi was born in Hong Kong during 1951. While growing up, his father fought in the Nationalist Army against Mao Zedong and the Communists in China. Him and his family fled to Shanghai, then Hong Kong, and immigrated to Vancouver in 1966 due to the communist takeover. Chi attended the University of British Columbia and decided to continue his education in Paris. He studied painting, graphics, and found his calling for photography at the Ecole Superieure D’Arts Graphiques (ESAG). After being educated in Paris, he moved to the Big Apple`s downtown area in 1978 with his sister, Muna Tseng, who was pursuing her dance career.

   When taking a right into the gallery after reading its inviting wall text, one would see an array of photos showing Mr. Chi in front of various tourist sites, all part of the “East Meets West Series.” These black and white works show Chi with his head up high as the Twin Towers, Hollywood sign, the Eiffel tower, and the Notre Dame Cathedral all served as his one of his many backgrounds. I personally admired the photo where Chi snapped a photo of himself jumping in front on the Brooklyn Bridge as his mouth was open and his arm was up as if he was about to rocket into the NYC skies. Even though he constantly changed his background, his “Mao suit,” black mysterious sunglasses, and adventurous character remained present in each piece. Looking closely, one would notice the black device in his hand that enabled him to be his own photographer in the push of a button, which is why some call him the inventor of the “selfie.” 

   In the “Expeditionary Series,” the settings are more natural, grand, and breathtaking. A work that I spent a good amount of time studying was taken in 1987 Puerto Rico where Tseng stands at the far distant end of the photo. The ocean with calm cool waves takes up most of photo while the shining sun illuminates Tseng`s small figure that stands near a cliff. At a first glance, Tseng may not be spotted. Throughout this series, my friend and I even made a game called, “Spot Tseng!” since there seems to be a theme of Tseng blending into the natural settings due to his far distance from the camera. However, his attire and Chinese inspired look set him to seem out of place against natural environments. He was also able to accomplish these photos with the help of two assistants.

   I soon got a glimpse of his journalistic and lively social life in the upcoming sections. He was once a freelance writer for the Soho Weekly News and in one of his articles he created a project in which he invited political figures that were against gay, feminist, and abortion rights to pose in front of a crumbled American flag, as part of the “Moral Majority Series.” Tseng, who is gay himself, expressed a sense of irony when he posed with some of these conservative Christian politicians. Along with his hand held button, Tseng also covered a story in which he took pictures with celebrities at the Metropolitan Museum of Art`s Costumes of China, the Chi'ng Dynasty exhibition preview party where he was initially an uninvited guest but gained access because he wore his iconic “Mao Suit.”

   “The Downtown Scene” and “Portrait of Friends” displays Tseng`s wide array of friends which led me to wonder, “how did he make so many friends?” He took shots of renowned artists who broke the norms of the art world such as Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and his closest friend, Keith Haring. In these photos, they are shown lounging in their respective studio settings that reflect their abstract artistic styles. The art of performance really comes alive in his covering the NYC downtown scene where in one of the photos Tseng confidently wears a dress, puckers his lips, and puts his hand on his hip as he poses for the camera. The gallery also provided a photo slideshow, which shed some light on Muna Tseng dancing and posing with a partner against a super galactic background. 

   In the downstairs gallery are photos Tseng shot with visitors of the Riis Park and Lifeguard ball in the early 1980s. When entering the downstairs section, one would be greeted by a group photo of Tseng on a beach with people dressed in bathing suits as a lady, whose nipple is falling out her one piece, has her hand on Tseng shoulder and his head on her buttocks. In this series, Tseng is smiling through it all. The end of the exhibition truly sheds light on Tseng`s collaborations with Keith Haring. Some his shots display Haring in the process of creating a subway drawing and painting on the body of Dancer Bill T. Jones. The exaggerated life size photo of Bill T. Jones`s bare body covered in spiral abstract designs made me wonder about all the talents that came together to form this one artwork; Haring's artistic style, Bill T. Jones`s sharp body form that almost mimics that of Haring's iconic figures, and Tseng`s talented eye that captured the perfect moment.

   At the end of my visit, I was sad to find out that Tseng died of AIDS at age 39 in 1990. But I was also surprised to find out that these photos were all taken within a decade, starting from 1980. This exhibition is just a glimpse of his many works which all seemed like they took a lifetime to create. A lifetime of adventure, experimentation, and pure fun.

This exhibition was curated by Amy Brandt, a curator at the Chrysler Museum of Art, and is being shown at NYU`s Grey Art Gallery till July 11, 2015.

INFO:
Performing for the Camera by Tseng Kwong Chi
Grey Art Gallery
New York University
100 Washington Square East
New York, NY 10003

For more info visit:
http://www.nyu.edu/greyart/