A Black Woman's Art Show and... A White Man's...

About

Ayana Evans

A Black Woman's Art Show and...  A White Man's Exhibition

A Black Woman's Art Show and... A White Man's Exhibition will run from March 8 through March 17, 2019, at Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space. The exhibitions will be staged in two sessions: March 8 through March 10, A Black Woman’s Show and March 13-17 A White Man’s Exhibition. Performances will take place on Friday, March 8 at 7:30p and Sunday, March 17 at 4p. Additional events include a Black Brunch Artist Talk on March 10 from 3-5p and UnSafe Panel Discussion on March 15 from 7-8p.

Through these two exhibitions, 2018 AAI resident, Ayana Evans, will use performance, audience engagement, photography, monotype prints, wallpapers, and video to ask, “what happens if a Black artist doesn't have to sell their Blackness?” Specifically, the exhibitions consider the artist’s experience as a Black femme performance artist, often being expected to explain topics of race, gender, and visibility, while subjects of color theory and abstraction presented in the work are often overlooked or ignored and how this often results in differential treatment for the two categories of artists.

Performative public programming and installation of works will push given expectations of both the Black Woman Artist and the White Male Artist. By pointing to and reaching for the freedoms of a white man, Evans asks the same consideration that is extended to a cis white male counterpart be extended to her.

Part three of the 5-part Workspace ’19 exhibition series featuring new work by residents of AAI’s LES Studio Program.

Image: Karl Cooney

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Friday, March 8 at 7:30p
Opening reception & Performance

Sunday, March 10 from 3-5p
Black Brunch Artist Talk

Friday, March 15 from 7-8p
UnSafe Panel Discussion

Sunday, March 17 at 4p
Closing reception & Performance

Ayana Evans received her MFA in painting from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and her BA in Visual Arts from Brown University. She has attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture and the Vermont Studio Center. In 2015 she received the Jerome Foundation's Theater and Travel & Study Grant for artistic research abroad. Her residencies include El Museo Del Barrio (2016), the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (2018), and Artists Alliance Inc. (2018). Evans has also performed at the Barnes Foundation's "A Person of the Crowd; The Contemporary Art of Flânerie” which was a major performance art survey featuring artists such as, Marina Abramovic, Tania Bruguera  and William Pope L(2017); FAIP, an international performance festival in Martinique; as well as Ghana’s Chale Wote festival (2017), which drew over 30,000 people; and most recently, her first solo exhibition and performance at Medium Tings Gallery, "If Keisha Jumped Off A Bridge Would You Do It Too?"(2018). Her on-going performances/public interventions include: "Operation Catsuit" and "I Just Came Here to Find a Husband." She has curated performance art shows throughout the U.S and has worked in arts education for a decade. Evans is based in NYC and works as a professor at Brown University.

Artists Alliance Inc. is 501c3 not for profit organization located on the Lower East Side of New York City within the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center. Cuchifritos Gallery and the LES Studio Program are supported in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Cuchifritos Gallery programming is made possible by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts. We thank the New York City Economic Development Corporation and individual supporters of Artists Alliance Inc for their continued support. Special thanks go to our team of dedicated volunteers and interns, without whom this program would not be possible.