NXTHVN Fellows 01, Tilton Gallery

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Founded by Titus Kaphar, Jonathan Brand, and Jason Price in 2015, NXTHVN is an ambitious ar t space housed in a former manufacturing plant in the Dixwell neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut.

Our mission is to cultivate a sustainable creative community that attracts and supports talent within and beyond New Haven. Immersed in the area’s rich intersection of art, academia, and history, NXTHVN’s exhibition space, black box theater, and co-working space further create an atmosphere of collaboration, inclusion, and social engagement.

A Note from the Founder As a graduate student in the Yale MFA program, I lived in New Haven for two years.

But it wasn’t until I moved back some time later with my family that I realized I hadn’t known the city at all. I now saw that Yale was an island, set apart from the city itself. The walls of the ivory tower feel impossibly high for most residents to ascend.

In moving back, I discovered a community in the Dixwell neighborhood that readily welcomed me in. Yale never felt like home, but New Haven is.

Demographically, New Haven is the United States’ most representative city—it is my ideal America. There is space for everyone here. New Haven thrived during the industrial revolution, and inspired a new generation of creatives, immigrants, and intellectuals to lay down roots and seek opportunity. This opportunity vanished in the wake of deindustrialization and the popular “urban renewal” programs, which had a devastating impact on local communities like those in Dixwell. I have lived here for 10 years now and can see the lingering impacts on my neighborhood that I was blind to as a student; New Haven’s postindustrial dilemma is America’s dilemma.

As an artist, creativity is my primary resource. I do not believe that art can solve all of the world’s problems, but I do know that creativity is the wellspring of innovative solutions. Founders Jonathan Brand, Jason Price, and I established NXTHVN to incubate the professional careers of artists, curators, and fellow creatives from New Haven and abroad, and to nurture their talent to further enrich the Dixwell/ Newhallville and Greater New Haven areas. With this publication, I am honored to introduce the 2019 NXTHVN Fellows: Zalika Azim, Felipe Baeza, Jaclyn Conley, Kenturah Davis, Merik Goma, Riham Majeed, Christie Neptune, Alexandria Smith, Vaughn Spann, and Ana Tuazon.

Titus Kaphar Founder & President, NXTVHN

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Introduction Tilton Gallery is very proud to present NXTHVN: First Year Fellows, an exhibition of work by the first group of Fellows to complete their year at this innovative and exciting new Fellowship founded by Titus Kaphar, Jonathan Brand, and Jason Price.

I am honored to work again with Titus, whose generosity of spirit pervades the mission and everyday functions of this enterprise. He provides mentorship and guidance, encouragement and enthusiasm to the NXTHVN Fellows, fostering the creativity of the next generation of artists and curators. Titus is a pioneer in creating a new institution that operates on a personal level and bridges the art world and the community in which it resides.

My late husband, Jack Tilton, and I had the pleasure of showing works by Titus at the beginning of his journey. In 2006 he participated in School Days, a group exhibition at Tilton Gallery of recent MFA graduates from Yale, Columbia, and Hunter. We have ever since followed and admired his work and his achievements. It is one of the remarkable pleasures in the art world to retain and renew relationships across the years.

The works in this exhibition are by a strong and varied group of artists, many of whom I had been interested in for a while. That they converged, all with studios at NXTHVN, spurred the first studio visit. Titus’ warm welcome, the artists’ receptive conversations, and the enthusiasm of the day gave birth to the idea of this show to launch both the new endeavor that is NXHVN and its first year Studio and Curatorial Fellows into the public eye.

All of us at Tilton Gallery would like to thank everyone at NXTHVN, all the Fellows themselves, Nico Wheadon, Executive Director, Sivan Amar, Operations Manager, Natalie Renee and of course, Titus himself for making this project so exciting and meaningful.

Connie Rogers Tilton Tilton Gallery

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Foreword

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MMXIX has been a year of profound transition,

artists Wardell Milan and Demetrius Oliver were there;

experimentation, transformation, and becoming.

Curators Lauren Haynes, Rujeko Hockley, Naomi Beckwith,

and Christine Kim were there. And by some miracle of

In January, NXTHVN—a new multidisciplinary arts

incubator in the Dixwell neighborhood of Greater New

circumstance, I was there, bearing witness to the importance

Haven—made the transition from bold concept to lived

of dialogue in bringing artistic practice to life. I am forever

reality. President and Founder Titus Kaphar’s exemplary

grateful to my own mentor, Thelma Golden, for hiring me

vision pulled into sharp focus as NXTHVN welcomed

and—in doing so—empowering me to find and exercise

seven artists, three curators, and four high school

my own professional voice in community with some of the

apprentices through its doors. Creative experimentation,

greatest thinkers and makers of our time.

critical dialogue, and tiered mentorship jolted a defunct

ice cream factory and glass manufacturing plant back to

the momentous change that it precipitated. In true Titus

life. And, six months later, the doors opened once more to

fashion, he kicked off our conversation with an existential

welcome me in as the inaugural Executive Director.

question—what are you thinking about these days and what

does the future hold for you? He caught me on a particularly

It’s difficult to trace the many conversations that

Fast-forward to that call in the summer of 2018 and

led to this cosmic convergence of people and ideas in

good day, and I responded, “Black entrepreneurship and land

Dixwell, but I’ll try because, in honoring this stunning

ownership. Oh, and building social and cultural institutions

exhibition at the Tilton Gallery and this successful

that respond in real time to social injustice and cultural

editorial collaboration between early career artists and

erasure.” At some point, it became clear that what Titus

curators, these details feel essential.

had been working on in New Haven alongside his fellow

Founders since 2015 had been somehow, simultaneously and

In the summer of 2018, I received a phone call from

Titus, a longtime friend, collaborator, and thought-

unknowingly, percolating in my mind as a dream, yet to be

partner on all things art and impact. I took the call

uttered aloud.

from my desk at the Studio Museum in Harlem—where

I proudly served as Director of Public Programs &

shrouded by construction fences that was NXTHVN, I was

Community Engagement—in an office only a stone’s

wearing four-inch heels because that’s how I live my life

throw from where he and I first met in 2007. Back then,

and, little did I know, Titus had welcomed me into an idea

Titus was an artist-in-residence bound for a prolific

still very much in a state of becoming. The experience was

career, and I was a curatorial assistant finding my footing

reminiscent of that first open studios of the year, where

in my first full-time job.

an artist-in-residence welcomes you into their near-bare

studio to discuss the future of a few marks punctuating an

When I think back on that time that we shared at

When I came to see the series of holes in the ground

the onset of our careers, what I remember most vividly

otherwise blank canvas. I was honored and likely vibrating

was our lunchtime conversations around the large, oval

with visible excitement as Titus talked me through his plans

conference table in the curatorial offices. Fellow resident

for filling these holes, transforming the neighborhood, and

building an arts institution poised to reinvent how artists

learn and lead.

catalogue in partnership with my new, New Haven Family.

Thank you, Titus, for trusting me with your vision, and for

I returned to Harlem reinvigorated in my own work,

It was a true honor to work on this exhibition and

seeking to infuse it with a transparency similar to that

inviting me to help steer this ship alongside you. Thank

shared by Titus. As a leader in the Museum’s inHarlem

you, Jason Price, Founder and Board Chair, and Founder

initiative, which takes contemporary art and artists beyond

Jonathan Brand for helping Titus to build the infrastructure

museum walls, I began to reconsider how and when to

upon which NXTHVN’s program has been able to evolve

center artists in institutional processes such as exhibition-

and flourish. Thank you Christie Neptune, Kenturah Davis,

making or public programming. I was emboldened to

Jaclyn Conley, Merik Goma, Felipe Baeza, Alexandria

insist—with the full support of my team, co-workers, and

Smith, and Vaughn Spann for stepping out on this limb with

our newly-established Community Advisory Network—

us and creating such exquisite new bodies of work

that artists be present at the earliest stage possible of an

that set the bar high for what to expect from future

idea involving or relying on art to do the heavy lifting of

NXTHVN alumni.

engaging local community.

In the background Titus and I, as we are prone to do,

Ana Tuazon for your thoughtful interpretations of these

kept bouncing ideas off one another. Then, roughly a year

works, and for similarly enriching this evolving program

later, I made the difficult decision to leave my position at the

with your curatorial practice. Thanks to Sivan Amar,

Studio Museum to embark down this path yet paved. How

Natalie Renee, and Matthew Solomon, without whom

often is one confronted with the opportunity to both build

this catalogue would literally not be possible. And lastly,

and live their dream?

thanks to Connie Rogers Tilton and the entire gallery team

for so generously hosting this exhibition and supporting

This exhibition and catalogue manifest several

Thank you Zalika Azim, Riham Majeed, and

essential lessons from this personal anecdote of my

the production of this important editorial record of

professional career. The first is that relationships are

NXTHVN’s early history and growth. It is a true honor to

important, and that they must be nurtured over time. The

add our Fellows to the impressive roster of artists that have

second is that artistic ideas and art objects are made all the

exhibited at the gallery over the years.

more powerful by their ability to reach and affect others. In

pairing artists and curators early in their careers, NXTHVN

eyes on these ten arts professionals as they continue to

instills this value and projects a vision for collaboration

make waves and shift tides through their interpretations

that reminds all involved in the art industrial complex

of the world around us. I also urge you to keep your eyes on

that value is in fact created, and that we are all a part of

NXTHVN as we approach our grand public opening in the

that conversation. The third is that—while dreaming big

Spring of next year—this is only the beginning, and we’re

is important, especially in these times when reality is so

off to a fantastic start.

In closing, I urge anyone reading this to keep their

damn ugly—acting on these visions is what delivers us closer to impact, closer to each other, and closer to realizing

Nico Wheadon

the imprint we want to leave on the world.

Executive Director, NXTHVN

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First Year Fellows

artists

curators

Felipe Baeza

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Zalika Azim

40 / 46

Jaclyn Conley

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Riham Majeed

16 / 28

Kenturah Davis

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Ana Tuazon

10 / 16 / 34

Merik Goma

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Christie Neptune

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Alexandria Smith

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Vaughn Spann

46

Felipe Baeza

by Ana Tuazon

Humans fear the supernatural, both the undivine (the animal impulses such as sexuality, the unconscious, the unknown, the alien) and the divine (the superhuman, the god in us). - Gloria Anzaldúa Naj Tunich is an ancient Mayan cave that was rediscovered

the viewer’s attention is drawn more to the hands that grasp

in 1980 by a native Q’eqchi’ Mayan man named Bernabe

his body, the undeniable sense of security to be found in how

Pop, which contained artifacts, paintings, and drawings

these hands hold him, and the tenderness of their overlap with

that hinted at the ritual activity of the cave’s use. It is

the figure’s own hands. The image of the pair communicates

also one of the few Mayan archeological sites to contain

a relationship of intimacy and affection that falls between the

depictions of eroticism, including homosexual love and

earthly Eros—Gloria Anzaldúa’s “animal impulses”—and the

desire. The Mayans shared with other Pre-Columbian

divine love that exists beyond the flesh.

civilizations a belief in caves as places where mortal reality

gives way to the spiritual underworld and its deities. Some

writers and poets, a genre wherein Anzaldúa assumes high

of the ceremonial practices that researchers believe the

importance. Another piece from 2018, a collage titled my

Mayans engaged in, such as genital bloodletting or human

vision is small fixed to what can be heard between the ears the

sacrifice, evoke horror today; for the Mayans, though,

spot between the eyes a well-spring opening to el mundo grande,

these practices may have served as a means towards

takes its title from the first half of a poem by one of Anzaldúa’s

shedding fear of death through the very abnegation of

contemporaries, Cherríe Moraga, titled “Dreaming of Other

the corporeal—in order to become something other than

Planets.”1 Similar to Baeza’s Naj Tunich (Azul 2), this collage

human, to grasp at the supernatural.

depicts two figures with one grasping the other from behind,

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In Felipe Baeza’s Naj Tunich (Azul 2) (2018), queer

Baeza often takes inspiration from Chicana feminist

however, the embrace is much more intricate: both tender and

love is a supernatural and ancient love. The piece depicts a

forceful, it doesn’t offer such an easy resolution. This familiar

smooth, flat torso of a male figure, his chest and abdomen

cosmic blue-purple composes the body of the first figure,

held by interlocking hands—his own and those of a partner

appearing as an unearthly deity or demon (or possibly even a

who embraces him from behind. The two figures are barely

space alien). The alien figure seems to hold the red figure in

visible, etched outlines on a ground of bluish purple, with

place to allow leafy red branches to sprout from their mouth,

tiny flecks of white suggesting that the image we see has a

their size exceeding that of the body from which they grow.

connection to the cosmos. Though the foreground figure’s

Their eyes are open wide. Does this hurt them? Do they

penis is exposed, the scene is not a sexually explicit one—

want this?

Felipe Baeza, Naj Tunich (Azul 2), 2018, ink, twine, collage, and glitter on paper, 68” × 48” (172.72 x 121.92 cm), © Felipe Baeza. Courtesy Maureen Paley, London

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Felipe Baeza, My passion for the daily struggle, to render them concrete in a world, to render them flesh, keeps me alive, 2019, ink, flashe, graphite, cut paper, glitter, and varnish on panel, 16� x 12� (40.64 x 30.48 cm) 12

Felipe Baeza, Fugitive Host, 2019, ink, graphite, flashe, cut paper, glitter, embroidery, and varnish on panel, 9” x 12” (22.86 x 30.48 cm)

The second half of Moraga’s poem continues:

Moraga’s invocation of “relámpago strik[ing] / between the

relámpago strikes

legs” gestures towards a bodily impulse or inclination that is

between the legs

hosted violently within, at odds with the mind’s own direction,

I open against

explaining why the action takes place “against my will.” Baeza’s

my will dreaming

piece succeeds in reflecting this contradiction: it offers a

of other planets I am dreaming

vision—a dream—of becoming a different life form, something

of other ways

that is impossible to quantify as more or less than human, but is

of seeing

undeniably supernatural.

this life.

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1. Cherríe Moraga, “Dreaming of Other Planets,” The Last Generation: Prose and Poetry, (South End Press, 1993).

2. Ibid.

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Felipe Baeza, Some drowned part of you prevailed, 2019, ink, graphite, flashe, cut paper, embroidery, and varnish on panel, 14� x 11� (35.56 x 27.94 cm)

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Jaclyn Conley

by Riham Majeed

In 1917, a statue of Abraham Lincoln by sculptor George Gray

and preserve its iconic nature. In their abstraction, spaces

Barnard erected in Cincinnati caused a stir over the President’s

are cacophonous, dense, and disjointed. Conley repurposes

visage. A physically accurate portrayal of the 16 president,

fragments of painted wood panel from previous scrapped works

Americans were outraged over the gangly, sensitive, and frail

to counter her quick oil painting with a slower, more calculated

likeness of the purportedly “powerful, unshrinking, heroic

process.

and triumphant Lincoln.” Standing in contrast to Barnard’s

In Office (2019), the silhouettes of Michelle and Barack

sculpture was the popular 1887 neoclassical sculpture by

Obama are immediately recognizable. Barack Obama sits

Augustus Saint-Gaudens, which depicted a “‘gaunt and tall…

holding a young Sasha (his youngest daughter), and his head

carelessly arrayed’ Lincoln whose ‘deep lines tell / His suffering

tilts upward to receive a kiss from his wife, Michelle Obama,

and unimagined woe.’” Debates ensued over the legitimacy

who in turn is standing in front of their eldest daughter, Malia.

of the egalitarian view of Lincoln in Barnard’s portrayal as

The walls of the room are painted in light and quick strokes

opposed to the more dignified Lincoln by Saint-Gaudens. Each

of yellow, orange, and white. This airy and sketchy space is

interpretation supported a myth about Lincoln, creating a

anchored by the figures of the Obama family, painted in rich

vessel for their ideals. Sociologist and Professor Emeritus at

blacks, blues, and whites and splashes of blue and red. Conley

the University of Georgia, Barry Schwartz, argues that these

draws attention to the intimate points of contact, such as

portrayals of the past aren’t reflective of present realities, but are

Barack’s hand on Sasha’s arm, Michelle and Barack sharing a

vehicles for making conceived realities meaningful.

kiss, and their daughters witnessing this tender moment. The

th

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Jaclyn Conley’s body of work references images of First

Obamas as a familial unit were often held at a high regard,

Families to explore the dynamics of American patriotism and its

and images of the family were revered as aspirational. Conley

accompanying myths. Raised in a border town between Canada

manages to uphold that regard even while abstracting the

and Michigan by an American mother, Conley experienced the

formal, conservative photographs of America’s First Family.

myth of the American Dream from both a critical and admirable

In Jackie and John Jr. (2019), Conley evokes the most

perspective. Now an American resident and mother to an

mythical family of the American presidency, the Kennedys

American son, Conley’s attention towards idealized American

of the Camelot era. Throughout the exhaustive coverage of

familial dynamics, like those of First Families, has culminated

this family in American media, Jackie Onassis and John F.

in her work as a series of paintings entitled All the President’s

Kennedy Jr. were no strangers to the lore surrounding their

Children.

family. A trauma to American Democracy, JFK’s death stunned

Conley sources her images from Presidential libraries

the nation, which consequently projected its ideals onto JFK

across the United States, and selects images of intimate

Jr. “’From the beginning, he belonged to us,’ claimed People

interactions between members of First Families from the

Weekly,”3 reflecting JFK Jr.’s symbolic esteem to Americans. By

Kennedy era to the present. Conley’s technical understanding

the time of his premature death in 1999, Carolyn Kitch argues,

of color and the materiality of paint are used to generate a

“The symbolic role that JFK Jr. has played for nearly forty years

different kind of likeness than portrayed in photographs.

allowed news media to cover his death… as ‘A Death in the

While her fast brushstrokes, use of color, and layering of paint

American Family’ and to discuss his life as emblematic of the

formally abstract the source image, they also serve to enhance

American character.”5 Conley memorializes these two crucial

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1. Schwartz, Barry, “Iconography and Collective Memory: Lincoln’s Image in the American Mind,” The Sociological Quarterly 32, no. 3 (September 1, 1991): 307–8, https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1991.tb00161.x.

2. Ibid. pg. 317

Jaclyn Conley, Office, 2019, oil on panel collage, 18” x 24” (45.72 x 60.96 cm)

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Jaclyn Conley, Amy and Rosalynn Lagos, 2017, oil on panel, 30” x 30” (76.2 x 76.2 cm)

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Jaclyn Conley, Jackie And John Jr., 2019, oil on panel collage, 20” diam. (50.8 cm diam.) tondo

figures of the American Dream in an intimate interaction.

existence of an American exceptionalist attitude, which is defined

Jackie holds up a then infant JFK Jr., without context as to

as “the idea that the United States has a set of characteristics

whether JFK was alive in this moment, in what appears to be

that gives it a unique capacity and responsibility to help make

their living room. Conley captures them on a circular surface,

the world a better place,”6 and reveal universally imperfect and

using collaged wood panel to piece the image together. In a

humane moments. The sanguine scenes draw viewers in with

vibrantly colored setting, Conley uses bright shades of green,

relatability along with a subtle sense of national nostalgia etched

blue, and pink to illuminate the unity of the two figures. Most of

into most American minds. Though the paintings and collages are

their skin is painted as outlines filled in with pale blue, and their

void of the myths surrounding an American identity, American

reflections on the glass table are filled in with shades of salmon.

eyes come primed with preconceived ideas surrounding the

Conley’s use of a lighthearted palette in this warm portrait of

history of a presidential subject and are forced to confront a

familial affection conjures a feeling of hope in the currently

fractured sense of the American Dream.

despairing myth that is the American Dream.

Conley’s display of intimate interactions between members

of iconographic American families attempts to reconcile the grim

3. Kitch, Carolyn, “‘A Death in the American Family’: Myth, Memory, and National Values in the Media Mourning of John F. Kennedy Jr.,” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 79.2, (June 1, 2002): 300, doi: 10.1177/107769900207900203.

4. Ibid. pg. 295

6. Levitz, Eric, “American Exceptionalism Is a Dangerous Myth,” Intelligencer, New York Magazine, 2 Jan. 2019, http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/01/american-exceptionalism-is-a-dangerous-myth.html.

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Jaclyn Conley, White House Elevator, 2018, oil on panel collage, 18 x 18� (45.75 x 45.72 cm)

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Kenturah Davis

by Ana Tuazon

At first glance, Kenturah Davis’s process seems like an exhaustive

than surface, rhythm of being. Her subjects refuse a quick read,

exercise in negation. Her portraits are created by using rubber

resist a fixed gaze. Though these are portraits, the people in them

stamp letters and carefully pressing black oil paint to the surface

are not “captured” for the viewer’s gaze; this blurring speaks to the

of a gridded piece of paper with varying degrees of intensity. Davis

dualities inherent within Black American experience.

uses the stamp letters to spell out a quoted piece of text as she

moves across the grid, and parts of these quotes also make their

(an as-of-yet untitled work at the time of this writing, see p. 23)

way into the title of the finished work. But that’s the only way one

takes its text from the American Congressional debate over passing

would know a text is being referenced at all: in the darker and

the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished

denser sections of the images she creates, the stamps have been

slavery except in cases where involuntary labor could be used as

layered so heavily that no one letter or word is legible; even in the

punishment for a crime. In this work, which comprises dozens

lighter-colored areas of the composition, discerning the text is

of square panels that take over a corner of Davis’s studio, the text

difficult. As the words accumulate, they also disappear, creating a

is spelled out in her own handwriting and is more legible than in

portrait of one of Davis’s friends, acquaintances, or herself.

her stamped pieces. Each sentence layers upon itself countless

Take, for instance, All Water has Perfect Memory (2019). The

Sometimes Davis includes herself in her work. A recent piece

times. Like the woman in All Water has Perfect Memory, Davis

work on paper, a diptych, is part of Davis’s ongoing series, Blur

captures herself in a posture between stillness and movement,

in the Interest of Precision, which takes its title from Fred Moten’s

which she says reflects “the in-between nature of the amendment.”

2018 essay collection, Stolen Life. The composition extends over

It promises freedom for many, but crucially, it continues to

two panels, with the upper panel showing a woman in a denim

further the possibility of imprisonment. The piece, she says, is her

vest glancing down over her shoulder, long dreadlocks swinging

wondering “how we live with all of the implications of that text,

in midair behind her. The panel below shows the same woman

how we coordinate our movements to navigate it, in daily life and

with her head turned, as if she’s completed the arc of motion that

interactions with authorities,” posing the broader question,

began above her. The angle of her hair forms a perfect reflection

“how does language choreograph our movements?”

of itself; we might wonder whether she is dancing. That Davis

renders such lifelike movements from rubber stamp letters is

Site of Memory,” that when a body of water floods onto land, it

nothing short of magic—made possible only through a sustained,

is water “remembering where it used to be,” and that “all water

precise attention to detail and texture. Like other works in Davis’s

has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it

Blur... series (which are all based on long-exposure photographs

was.” In that essay, Morrison reflects on her self-given imperative

she takes of her subjects), All Water has Perfect Memory captures

to fill in the “unwritten interior life” that has historically been

a subject in an unfixed state, communicating their innate, rather

missing from narratives of slavery in her own work. She says

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It was Toni Morrison who wrote in her 1990 essay, “The

Kenturah Davis, [not yet titled], 2016-2019, ink, china marker, aerosol paint on Kozo paper, 100� x 200� overall (254 x 508 cm)

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Kenturah Davis, work in progress. The artist employs the Shifu process of transforming paper into thread, which is then woven on the loom pictured here into a textile of her own design.

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Kenturah Davis, All Water Has Perfect Memory..., 2018, oil paint applied with rubber stamp letters and graphite grid on embossed Mohachi paper, 2 panels: 29” x 45” (73.66 x 114.3 cm) each, 58” x 45” (147.32 x 114.3 cm) overall

she must “move from the image to the text” in order to illustrate

and from interiority. Visual information is translated into textual

what had for so long been left unsaid in these accounts that were

information (and vice versa). The act of reinscribing texts from

often self-censored by Black authors in order to avoid alienating

thinkers like Morrison and Moten into the portraits she creates

white audiences. This becomes a personally meaningful project

embodies a form of meditation on both the text and the subject,

for Morrison because, she argues, “These people are my access to

and the result is that Davis’s own presence in the final image, her

me.” Davis’s practice, similarly, is one of building access points to

intellectual and emotional insights, become manifold.

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Kenturah Davis, All Space Between Ground and Sky, 2019, oil paint applied with rubber stamp letters on embossed and debossed Kozo paper, 3 panels: 30” x 40” (76.2 x 101.6 cm) each, 90” x 40” (228.6 x 101.6 cm) overall 27

Merik Goma

by Riham Majeed

Merik Goma’s pursuit of photography expanded after he

technical standpoint is painterly in its execution. In addition to

graduated from State University of New York at Fredonia

using Baroque Dutch narrative structuring, Goma’s images are

with a degree in Psychology. His practice started “as a way to

extensively researched, tuning every detail with fine care. Dim

start a conversation, or more so a moment with strangers”.1

and smooth lighting make way for a dreamlike atmosphere,

For Goma, photography provided a more creative alternative

providing a palpable texture to surreal environments.

to psychology studies, allowing him to observe channels of

In Untitled #9 (see p. 31), part of Goma’s As I Wait series,

communication and observations of individual inclinations

objects such as the phone, typewriter, assorted paper, and

and beliefs through visual means. Coming into Merik Goma’s

desk lamp suggest a professional working space. These objects

studio, there are often two points of entry. The first entry is

broach a historical moment, one prior to the age of instant

to a workspace where props and sets are discovered, built,

communication. The figure—a woman whose face is only

and assembled to create wholly new environments. The

partially shown, with shadows lining her face—is half cast in

second is a physical space built by the hands of the artist, an

light by the overhead lamp, with what could be presumed to

imaginative manifestation of his, your, and our psyche.

be the moonlight seeping through the window. The objects

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Using the style of tableaux vivants, the nineteenth

typical of an office space are not representative of the subject’s

century performative genre that involves restaging

worries. Instead, she reaches her hand in water, to perhaps

masterpieces of sculpture and painting, often to illustrate

make a call on the phone, but the water acts as a barrier. An

moral and literary themes, Goma’s photographs typically

open doorway, yellow roses—which are typically received

depict lone subjects captured in contemplative moments

with warm reception, a token of friendship, remembrance, or

of emotive effect.2 Art historian, critic, and curator Jennifer

love—a window, and a telephone perform as symbols of the

Fisher describes the genre of tableau as “practices performed

outside world, one that is seemingly unreachable. As literary

on the self to transform the self—indicat[ing] both techniques

theoretician Jan Mukarovsky suggests, semiotics allows the

of existence and an aesthetics of becoming.”3 In his particular

“aesthetic object” to exist “in the consciousness of the whole

experience of viewing art, Goma has always taken note

collectivity.”5 Symbols provide the grounding to Goma’s

of the way he projects his preconceived notions and past

narrative, which is usually never readily available to the

experiences onto the works.4 His carefully crafted stagings

viewer. Instead, Goma intends viewers to approach his work

come to visual fruition in his photographs, which urge

with their individual cultural and social biases, not his own. In

viewers to reconsider their own biases and assumptions.

structuring the narrative, Goma references Dutch Mannerism in

In a sense, the dramatically stylized tableaux vivants of his

its inclination to create two spaces within one frame. The first

photographs are mirrored in the viewer, where they exist

frame sets the viewer as voyeur, with an open doorway directly

within and take part in shaping that narrative. Goma’s

in the foreground. An open doorway acts as one entry point,

1. Merik Goma in email discussion with the author, September 2019.

2. Fisher, Jennifer, “Interperformance: The Live Tableaux of Suzanne Lacy, Janine Antoni, and Marina Abramovic,” Art Journal 56, no. 4 (1997): 28, doi:10.2307/777717.

Merik Goma, Spaces, Backyard, 2015, C-Print, 20” x 30” (50.8 x 76.2 cm)

but Goma echoes the Dutch technique of doorsien, meaning to

anywhere in the world, an individual reaches out for help but

view through, as a second entry point.6 Doorsien typically uses

to no avail, and to our knowledge has come to a halt in this

doorways, curtains, or naturally seeming spaces of landscape to

very moment.

offer a view into another picture. Doorsien is employed within

In Untitled #11 (see p. 33), Goma incorporates a similar

the frame behind the figure, the image of a ship, suggesting a

language of symbols. A window, in this case being the only

second entry point to the narrative. The ship is set in turbulent

light source, illuminates a man sitting sideways and facing

waters, a symbol of immense distress, placing the central

away from the camera. He holds a live plant with an unlit

figure in need of assistance. On a calm, quiet night in an office

light bulb in its center. Again, a framed image hangs on the

3. Fisher, 28.

4. Merik Goma in email discussion with the author, September 2019.

5. Anne D’Alleva, Methods & Theories of Art History (London: Laurence King, 2005), 36.

6. Hollander, Martha, An Entrance for the Eyes: Space and Meaning in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art, University of California Press, 2002, 16.

29

Merik Goma, As I Wait: Untitled #6, 2019, C-Print, 40” x 60” (101.6 x 152.4 cm)

30

Merik Goma, As I Wait: Untitled #9, 2019, C-Print, 20” x 30” (50.8 x 76.2 cm) wall, a drawing of a female figure, and a painting of a female figure

Developmental scientist Jaan Valsiner states, “facts are

sits on an easel. Details, mostly in shadow, are difficult to make out

not ‘givens’ as such; they are facts only as they are interpreted

in the room, and offer a melancholic appearance. In this photo,

to be such.”8 Ultimately, Goma’s photographs are unique to each

Goma’s use of doorsien is displayed through a still life on a nearby

viewer’s own truth. Goma’s images operate to remind the viewer

table. The still life of a skull and both living and dead flowers

of the manner in which they are assigning meaning to objects

make the work a memento mori, “an artwork designed to remind

and figures. What do our interpretations say about ourselves and

the viewer of their mortality and of the shortness and fragility of

our relationships with others? What are our entry points into new

human life”7 and a commonly used symbol in Dutch paintings.

narratives? By asking these questions, Goma hopes we recognize the

Through the writer’s interpretation, Goma constructs a somber

biases we hold and discover new truths in ourselves.

scene, one that asks the question: what are they waiting for? The memento mori providing the answer: a resolving end.

7. Tate, “Memento Mori – Art Term,” Tate, January 1, 1997, https://www.tate.org. uk/art/art-terms/m/memento-mori.

8. Marsico, Giuseppina, and Jaan Valsiner, Beyond the Mind: Cultural Dynamics of the Psyche, Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 2018, 28.

31

32

Merik Goma, As I Wait: Untitled #11, 2019, C-Print, 40” x 60” (101.6 x 152.4 cm)

Merik Goma, Memento, 2019, C-Print, 20” x 30” (50.8 x 76.2 cm) Photograph of still life featured in As I Wait: Untitled #11 33

Christie Neptune

by Ana Tuazon

Christie Neptune is profoundly interested in critiquing social

ownership,” information that adds to the complex interplay

constructs. How she explores these concepts couldn’t be

between subject and object, animator and animated. “Planet X

more direct: Neptune relocates social constructs from their

is a state of consciousness,” Neptune says, explaining how the

place in the unseeable realm of psychology and makes them

idea for the project began to germinate after a trip to Boston left

visible, sometimes even tangible. Her art probes the ways

her feeling unsettled within. “My personal experience was rather

in which human experiences differ based on how signifiers

extraterrestrial,” she continues, “I was overwhelmed by a sense

of class, race, and gender are expressed by subjects, often

of ‘otherness.’”

using herself in the work to confront the failures of a world

attempting to unravel itself from entrenched legacies of

aesthetic and conceptual concerns Neptune has dealt with

colonialism and white supremacy.

repeatedly in her work, revealing her interest in using her own

In Neptune’s project, The Exploration of Planet X

lived experiences as material to interrogate the rigid order of a

(2016), which exists across multiple digital media, including

world that often exposes its coldness and cruelty to historically

animated videos and an interactive website, she explores

marginalized subjects. Neptune cites interests in compositional

an imagined “conscious space” through an Afrofuturist

theory, process-driven performance, and the oscillation of

narrative. Neptune structured the videos she made for this

constructive and destructive forces as common threads within

project as a television series, releasing new episodes every

her creative output; these threads can be discerned in her video

three weeks as part of a residency with Hamiltonian Gallery

piece, She Fell from Normalcy, which was on view at the artist’s

in Washington D.C. These episodes were then uploaded to the

2016 solo show at The Rubber Factory, a gallery in New York’s

website www.eoplanetx.com. At the start of the first episode,

Lower East Side. The video, like Planet X, uses a speculative/

a bright pink cube begins to travel across a strange landscape,

science fiction narrative to explore the psychologically damaging

eventually taking on the corporeal form of a human face—

effects of an oppressive environment. Two Black women are

which some viewers will recognize as Neptune’s. However,

trapped within a white cube; they are given commands by a

the character on the screen is not her; rather, it is an alter

disembodied voice, first to “disassociate” as harsh noises play,

ego named Alec, a being who begins their existence as a cube

and then to “find a crack in the wall”—any means towards

(what Neptune describes as “nonobjective matter”), and then,

escape. Critic Mira Dayal, reviewing the exhibition for Artforum,

as Alec is sculpted to take on Neptune’s features, they begin

interprets the piece as a confrontation with “tensions deeply

to speak about understanding themself as a Black subject.

embedded within art history—namely, representation and

At one point, in the voiceover that Neptune has added, we

oppression within gallery spaces.”

hear this statement: “I am always looking… to see myself in

my own eyes. In this visual exploration of self I am seeking

experience is explored through a method that is as personal

34

The Exploration of Planet X encapsulates many of the

In Neptune’s practice, racialized (and namely, Black)

Christie Neptune, Sitting Like Gordon With Bare-Back, Indigo and Shutter Release in Hand, 2018, digital chromogenic print, 20� x 20� (50.8 x 50.8 cm), edition of 3

35

Christie Neptune, Exposing My Limits Behind America’s Curtain, 2018, digital chromogenic print, 24” x 36” (60.96 x 91.44 cm), edition of 3

36

Christie Neptune, Head Bowed in Assembled Construction, 2018, digital chromogenic print, 36” x 24” (91.44 x 60.96 cm), edition of 3

and introspective as it is rational and conceptually rigorous.

bias is. In Unpacking Sameness (2018), the artist encounters

Neptune’s approach recalls the work of Adrian Piper, whose

“The Colorline— a fictitious, man-made construct legitimized

works Self-Portrait Exaggerating My Negroid Features (1981)

by patent and trademark,” which she represents with fake

and Self-Portrait as a Nice White Lady (1995) challenged

documents from U.S. regulatory offices. Though works of

viewers to think about race as more of a social construct

fiction, they also serve to transform the abstract into the real,

than a set of inherited traits. Though as a racially ambiguous

connoting that “The Colorline” might as well be trademarked,

person, Piper was able to make these kinds of provocations

patented, or registered, because it still functions today. For

about what it means to racially “pass,” this doesn’t make the

Neptune, identity does matter; acknowledging this is the

construct she was operating within any less real. Neptune

first step towards dismantling a system that makes it matter

takes a different approach to showing just how tangible racial

so much.

1. Christie Neptune, http://www.eoplanetx.com/about.html 2. Miray Dayal, Review of Christie Neptune solo show at the Rubber Factory, Artforum, February 2018.

37

Installation View, Christie Neptune: She Fell From Normalcy, The Rubber Factory, New York, NY, November 18 – December 14, 2017. Image Courtesy of the Rubber Factory, New York, NY.

Christie Neptune, She Fell From Normalcy, 2016, 3-Channel HD Video, video still

39

Alexandria Smith Zalika Azim

for those of us who cannot indulge

a singular daisy,2 whose yellow disk acutely fills the very center of

the passing dreams of choice

the painting. Its white, seed-like petals, symmetrically dispersed

who love in doorways coming and going

amidst the beings, leaves a barren space at the center of its brim.

in the hours between dawns

Cradled within an ovarian-shaped funnel, the precarious floret

looking inward and outward

seems to beam with the prospect of a new beginning, distributing

at once before and after

light to the otherwise dark scenario.

seeking a now that can breed

futures1

her probing at the complexities of Black identity, through the

—Audre Lorde, A Litany for Survival

ultilization of a tonally rich color palette including deep blue-

Employing color as an enlightened protagonist and trickster,

blacks, purples, maroons, high yellows, and oranges, piques the In Alexandria Smith’s painting, The Intuitionists (2018), two

viewers experience and relationship to the various elements

lilac figures are depicted in the foreground of the frame.

depicted within her work. Anagogic and amorphous, Smith’s

Mirroring each other in stature, the beings are seen kneeling,

characters embody multiple states of being as manifestations

heads bowed but attentive, the figural structure that they

of hybridity and duality that simultaneously challenge

create is forged at the crux of a pyramidal form situated just

heteronormative gender roles. Invoking a mysticism akin to

above the canvas center. With legs serving as their only limbs,

Yoruba Ibejis (wooden dizygotic statuettes from Southwestern

their faces are featureless with the exception of a singular eye

Nigeria) or the works of Cuban artist Belkis Ayón, whose

placed at the most bulbous portion of their domes. Equally

emblematic collagraphs draw upon iconography from the secret

reflected just behind them, another set of limbs and breasts

Abakuá fraternal society to address societal conditions, the artist’s

are masked in their close proximity to the hues depicted

figurative hambones allude to a divided self while underscore the

in the background. Within the work, one can’t help but

complex realities of humanity.3

recognize the importance of their gaze. Looking outward and

simultaneously inward, their eyes meet that of the viewer’s in

a combined spirit and are referred to as Taiwo (having the first

a kaleidoscopic axis, muddling concepts of time and space.

taste of the world) and Kehinde (arriving after the other). Like

these effigies, Smith’s recurring mirrored figures counteract and

With mind’s eyes that are said to provide enlightenment

Irrelevant of gender, in Yoruba culture the Ibejis symbolize

beyond ordinary perception, the characters appear ever

balance each other. Perhaps alluding to the artist ’s sequence

aware of their proximity to the viewer—or rather their reality

for developing her characters, Taiwo respectively is recognized

to that of humanity. Serving as a base for the two mirrored

as curious and adventurous, while Kehinde is acknowledged as

characters, a wooden platform provides the rooting place for

reflective and deliberate—characteristics that visually manifest in Smith’s allegorical scenes.

40

1. See Audre Lorde’s “A Litany for Survival,” in The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde (W.W. Norton & Company: New York): 1978, TK page. Smith titled her 2018 exhibition after the poem whereby she draws on concepts and sources in popular black culture and literature.

Alexandria Smith, The Intuitionists, 2018, acrylic, oil, and enamel on canvas, 49” x 64” (124.46 x 162.56 cm)

Demanding that we reflect upon ourselves and the ways in

topographies work to foreground her characters. Continuing to

which we relate to the world around us, Smith’s paintings evoke

subvert the tradition of the canvas as flattened plane, newer works

the work of various predecessors—the spirited colors of William

including You got to keep runnin’...sometimes (2019, see p. 44)

T. Williams, the cultural awareness of Aaron Douglas, the mystic

come together through collaging various components onto the

contemplation of Wangechi Mutu, and the materiality of Benny

canvas. Here a singular character is presented seemingly in full

Andrews. Through her process, Smith isolates and repetitively

stride, with a determination that is felt, if not seen, through erect

builds upon her environments, evoking landscapes whose

hair and engaged legs. Depicted in the upper left corner, a beam

2. Daisy florets are grown universally (with the exception of Antarctica) and can only reproduce through the cross pollination of two variant flowers. Throughout religion and history in many cultures, the flower has represented childbirth and new beginnings.

3. The Abakuá was an Afro-Cuban secret society founded in 1836 with roots stemming from the Cross River region of southeastern Nigeria.

41

Alexandria Smith, Meeting of the Minds, 2018, acrylic and oil on canvas, 93” x 75” (236.22 x 190.5 cm) 42

Alexandria Smith, Instructions for Being, 2019, oil on canvas, 84” x 132” (213.36 x 335.28 cm)

Alexandria Smith, You got to keep runnin’...sometimes, 2019, acrylic, oil, and fabric collage on panel 60” x 72” (152.4 x 182.88 cm) 43

44

Alexandria Smith, The Seekers, 2019, oil on panel, 36” x 48” (91.44 x 121.92 cm)

emitting a vibrant yellow-orange hue descends down and onto the

Clayton Powell, Jr. who once said, “Press forward at all times,

character’s path. The light being discharged from an undisclosed

climbing toward that higher ground of the harmonious society

source further highlights Smith’s use of velvet, which accentuates

that shapes the laws of man to the laws of God.”4 Conceivably, it

the character’s shadow and provides a stark contrast to the four

is through this quote that we might consider Smith’s work as a

bricks placed at the threshold of an archway. With hair tips subtly

practice that transcends mythology, one that calls to the forefront

highlighted, one might ponder whether the character is racing

not only the power of our shared experience, but also summons us

towards youth—or perhaps alluding to wider aspirations for social

to unapologetically manifest a new global heritage. To obtain this,

change through acquired knowledge and lived experience. This

in her poem A Litany for Survival, Audre Lorde prophesied

depiction, although more speculative in nature, is reminiscent of

we must do so by “looking inward and outward at once before

Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series (1940-1941) and Branly Cadet’s

and after.”

Harlem Sculpture (2005) of former New York congressman Adam 4. Cadet , Branly. “The Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Memorial Higher Ground.” 2005, www.branlycadet.com/adam-clayton-powell-jr-memorial.

45

Vaughn Spann

by Zalika Azim

Upon entering Vaughn Spann’s NXTHVN studio, one is transported into an alternate universe where art and earth matter collide, resulting in beautifully striking paintings that are as expansive in dimension as they are in significance.

Derived from iconography which influenced his adolescent years, Spann paints from a meditative place, one that situates value on sentiment rather than the particular instant. This way of working links Spann to antecedent abstractionist artists such as Frank Bowling and Alma Thomas, whose vibrant, acrylic-based works were inspired and extended through memory and their postcolonial geopolitics.

Interestingly linked to Thomas, whose Earth series (19681969) depicts a constellation of earth-colored paint daubs strategically set to imagine cherry blossoms, flower beds, and other greenery from airborne planes,1 Spann’s connection to land and space are also informed by recollected visits to

Vaughn Spann, Transmitting Frequencies to the Ancestors, 2019, mixed media on canvas, 84” x 84” (213.36 x 213.36 cm)

his grandmother’s home in Alabama. This link is furthered through symbolic references to city landscapes such as

spaced pillars, three illuminating poles act as vertical highways

New Jersey, where the artist grew up. Converging elements

to the most northern and southern segments of the canvas. Upon

of urban and rural landscapes, his recurring use of brick-

closer inspection, the viewer might find that textured hints of red,

like grids and earth matter work both in grounding and

orange, and yellow pigment resembling embers in a fireplace act

disorienting the viewer.

as a base to overlying coal-like paint. What presents on first glance

In his Dalmatian series, Spann translates flawed

as black clouds set about a white sky takes form as a collection of

social realities into formalism and reflects on symbols

atmospheric depictions of purebred Dalmatians. Spann’s bountiful

representative of American stability and affluence. Stemming

application of paint interrogates class and capital, calling into

from adolescent aspirations2 attributed to his exposure to

focus concerns interlinked with citizenship.

popular media, in his work Dalmatian No. 10, black and white

abstract forms are set against densely packed mounds of

to diffuse the boundaries between the personal and political. In

char-colored paint. Separating the dollops into four evenly

his recent solo exhibition, Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, the artist

46

1. See interview of the Artist. E.M., “The late Spring time of Alma Thomas” (Washington Post, Apr 15, 1979) “Summers we spent with my maternal grandfather, who lived across the Chatahoochee River in Alabama. My Earth paintings are inspired by the display of azaleas at the Arboretum, the cherry blossoms, circular flower beds, the nurseries as seen from planes that are airborne, and by the foliage of trees in the fall.”

Mining the broad history of activism, Spann utilizes his work

Vaughn Spann, Marked Man (Mitchell), 2019, mixed media on panel, 60� x 48� (152.4 x 121.92 cm)

47

Vaughn Spann, An Enemy in One’s Own Home (He was a Veteran), 2019, mixed media on canvas, 84” x 84” (213.36 x 213.36 cm)

48

Vaughn Spann, Dalmatian Paintings, installation view at Night Gallery, 2019. Image courtesy of the artist and Night Gallery.

summons memories of his adolescence, linking it to that of his

son is cast into the structure of a green clay-like substance. With

children’s youth through the classic 18th century bedtime prayer

arms and legs sprawling, one might be startled by the likeness

of the same name. Consisting of 12 seperate parts, in his work

of Spann’s Marked Man paintings. Building upon his canvas to

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, a vibrant volcanic rock-like structure

produce mountainous terrains, the centralized utilization of the

encases a Polaroid3 photograph of a young girl pictured at rest.

symbol X acts as a formalist structure. These formations existing

With her mouth slightly agape, hands clasped (as if in prayer) and

between abstraction and figuration suggest deeper, allegorical

propped between her face and the white pillow she lays upon, the

contexts that evolve across time and culture. Calling into the

image of the sleeping child presents a moment of vulnerability.

canon the landscape of social action that has unfolded in the

Matching the fragility of the captured event, the photograph

United States, his reflections on the injustices inflicted upon black

displaying signs of inherent disintegration prompts a deeper

communities further allude to the impact inevitably experienced

consideration into the stark contrast that exists between the artist’s

by the families linked within those communities. The works

choice of materials and the looming factor of time and finality. In

encapsulating Spann’s personal family photographs exemplify

this, the dense black matter hugging the outermost portions of

the substructures linked to his observations as a family man—an

the framed image becomes an agent capable of crystallization, as

experience of deep joy and fear. His absence from much of this

much as it threatens to erode the site of Spann’s resting daughter.

archive is one that can be read as serving as a reminder to the blind

On the other hand, the mass could be understood as a bestowed

eye of prejudice and indifference. To this the artists use of material

anchor,4 one that actively connects the body to earth, both in life

and consideration of land are called back into focus. Regarding

and death.5

the symbiotic connections between nature and humans, Spann

Similarly, in another component of the work, Now I Lay Me

Down To Sleep, an image depicting Spann’s slumbering infant

2. Night Gallery. “Dalmatian Paintings.” Night Gallery Press Release. 26 Apr. 2019. http:// www.nightgallery.ca/exhibitions/vaughn-spann/about. Accessed 7 Oct. 2019.

prompts us to consider our commonalities, further urging us to renounce acts of inhumanity. Of his exhibition Scorched Earth and

3. Polaroid images are not archival and instead were designed for instant gratification - to record a moment but not necessarily for that moment to live on in a museum. Due to the nature of their making Polaroids yellow, fade, or become brittle overtime.

49

Photo Credit: David Castillo Gallery

Installation view, Vaughn Spann: Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, David Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL, September 12 – November 9, 2019. Courtesy David Castillo Gallery. Photography by Zachary Balber.

50

Vaughn Spann, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (detail), Mixed media, polaroids on wooden panel, 10 x 8 inches. Courtesy David Castillo Gallery. Photography by Zachary Balber.

The Weeping Sun,6 the artist quotes: “the world is in perpetual rot,

his work presents new methods for examining space, time, and

global warming, natural disasters, mass terrorism, and corrupt

social concerns. Emblematic, beautiful, and pliant, Spann’s wide

governments… the earth is on fire and the sun is crying.”

breadth of materials including sand, paint, terry cloth, and gravel

reinforce the terrain-like dimensionality felt and seen in many of his

Spann’s practice is one of necessity. Set within an expanding

trajectory, it is at once sculptural and abstract—diffusing the

paintings. These materials challenge the canvas, allowing for a wide

boundaries between symbolic and literal. Pointing towards the

platitude of analytical readings, while inviting global dialogues as far

inseparable nature of art, politics, and individual subjectivity,

reaching as the works are geographically placed.

4. “The rock” is referred to in numerous African American traditional spiritual songs, performances and cultural narratives. For example “Sinnerman,” recorded by Nina Simone in 1965 chronicles the tale of a sinner attempting to take salvation under a rock on Judgement day.

5. The Amplified Bible. Eccles, 12.7.

6. Kaikai Kiki Gallery. “A Message from The Artist [on the occasion of his solo exhibition].”

Scorched Earth and The Weeping Sun. Kaikai Kiki Gallery Press Release. 30 Aug. 2019.

51

About the Fellows Studio Fellows Each year, NXTHVN selects early-career artists from a

Felipe Baeza Felipe Baeza, born in Guanajuato, Mexico, employs painting and collage to examine how memory, migration and displacement work to create a state of

competitive pool of applicants to receive a professional studio

hybridity and fugitivity. Baeza received his BFA from The Cooper Union for

space and a generous stipend to cover material expenses

the Advancement of Science and Art in 2009 and MFA in Painting from Yale

throughout the Fellowship year. In addition to participation in

Memoria, Fortnight Institute, New York, NY (2019); FELIPE BAEZA, Maureen

a culminating group exhibit, Studio Fellows have the unique opportunity to form new creative partnerships within the art

School of Art in 2018. Recent solo exhibitions include La Emergecia de Hacer Paley, London, UK (2018), and a forthcoming solo exhibition at The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, CA (2020). Recent group exhibitions include Nobody Promised You Tomorrow: Art 50 Years After Stonewall, Brooklyn Museum, NY

communities of Greater New Haven and New York City. Studio

(2019); Queer Forms, Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

Fellows are required to commit to a minimum of 20 hours of

(2019); Demolition WoManhood, Commonwealth and Council and Skibum

studio time per week and 5 hours of mentoring with their high

Gallery, Mexico City (2018). In addition to receiving the NXTHVN Studio

school Apprentice. Additionally, Studio Fellows are required to engage in a series of group critiques, studio visits, and professional development workshops.

Curatorial Fellows

MacArthur, L.A.(2018); No Longer Yours, The Mistake Room/Anonymous Fellowship, Baeza has been the recipient of The Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant (2018), The Josef & Anni Albers Foundation Traveling Fellowship (2017), and a forthcoming residency at the Rauschenberg Residency, Captiva, FL (2020).

Jaclyn Conley Jaclyn Conley is a Canadian-born artist based in New Haven, CT. Conley has

The NXTHVN Curatorial Fellowship Program selects early-career

exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including The Painting Center

curators from a diverse pool of applicants to receive a generous

and NurtureArt in NY, Projective City in Paris, Wynick-Tuck Gallery in Toronto,

stipend and develop skills in exhibition planning and logistics.

in residence at the The Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver,

Curatorial Fellows engage in a series of group critiques, studio visits, and professional development workshops. For the first year of this program, the Curatorial Fellows are working under the guidance of experienced curators to organize NXTHVN’s inaugural exhibition, which will open at NXTHVN’s space in early 2020.

and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in CT. Conley has been an artist Canada, and the Vermont Studio Center. Conley is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Connecticut Office of the Arts Fellowship, Canada Council for the Arts Project Grants in Visual Arts, an Elizabeth Greenshields Award, and a Fellowship from the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation.

Kenturah Davis Using text as a point of departure in her drawings, sculpture, and performances, Davis explores the fundamental role of language in shaping how we understand ourselves and the world around us. This manifests in a variety of forms including drawings, sculpture, and performances. Davis was commissioned by LA Metro to create large-scale, site-specific work that will be permanently installed on the new Crenshaw/LAX rail line, opening fall 2019. Her work has been included in institutional exhibitions in Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Davis earned her BA from Occidental College and her MFA from Yale University School of Art.

52

Merik Goma

Zalika Azim

Merik Goma is a photographer based out of Buffalo, NY, focused on shooting

Zalika Azim is an artist and curator based in Brooklyn, NY. Conceptualizing her

both fine art photography as well as commercial and editorial work. Goma’s

practice through photography, installation, performance, sound, and text, her

artwork takes on a critical view of human conditioning, often trying to show

work investigates the ways in which memory, migration, movement, and the

the way we project ourselves onto others with our personal biases by setting

body are negotiated throughout the African diaspora. Azim’s work has been

scenes and creating narratives that jar and provoke. There is often a thread of

exhibited nationally and internationally, including The Dean Collection, The

uneasiness in his work, instilling the sense that something important has just

International Center of Photography, Dorsky Gallery, Diego Rivera Gallery, the

happened or is just about to unfold.

Instituto Superior de Arte, and The African American Museum in Philadelphia.

She has completed solo projects with The Baxter Street Camera Club of New

Christie Neptune

York and SOHO20. Azim recently held professional positions at The Studio

Christie Neptune, born in Brooklyn, NY, is an interdisciplinary artist working

Museum of Harlem, the Walthier Collection and MoMA, NY. She has assisted

across film, photography, mixed media and performance arts. Neptune

on curatorial projects and publications at The Walther Collection, and as the

investigates how constructs of race, gender, and class limit the personal

2014–15 Friends of Education Twelve-Month Intern in the Department of

experiences of historically marginalized and stigmatized individuals. Critically

Photography at The Museum of Modern Art. Azim holds a BFA in Photography

aware of both self and subjectivity, Neptune illuminates the personal and

and Imaging from the Tisch School of the Arts and a BA in Social and Cultural

emotional aftermath of a society that disregards and delegitimizes those

Analysis focused in Africana, Gender and Sexuality studies from NYU.

that endure the brunt of historically upheld supremacies. Neptune’s films and photography have been included in shows at VOLTA, NY (2018), The

Riham Majeed

Rubber Factory, NY (2017), A.I.R. Gallery, NY (2016), Union Docs, NY (2015),

Riham Majeed is an Arab-American non-profit professional and emerging

and Rutgers, Institute for Women and Art (2014). She has been featured in

curator based in New York City. She previously held a position at the American

publications including Artforum, Hyperallergic, The Creators Project, Juxtapoz

Folk Art Museum, and is currently in the development department of the arts

Magazine, and The Washington Post. Neptune is an alumni of More Art’s

education organization, ArtsConnection. She received her Bachelors of Art in

Engaging Artists Residency, The Hamiltonian Gallery Fellowship, The Bronx

Art History and Psychology from Fairfield University, where her research focused

Museum of The Arts: Artist in Marketplace (AIM), and Smack Mellon studio

on exclusionary art historical conventions placed upon Black artists of the 20th

residency through the New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship.

century. Her work as curatorial fellow at NXTHVN is her curatorial debut.

Alexandria Smith

Ana Tuazon

Alexandria Smith is a mixed-media visual artist based in New York and London.

Ana Tuazon is a writer, curator and 2019–20 resident at the Core Program at

She earned her BFA in Illustration from Syracuse University, MA in Art Education

the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She completed an MA in Art History and

from New York University, and MFA in Fine Art from Parsons School of Design.

Criticism at Stony Brook University in 2018, where her research centered on

Smith is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Queens Museum/

the practices of women of color within and outside of feminist art traditions.

Jerome Foundation Fellowship, a Pollock-Krasner Grant, the Virginia A. Myers

In addition to co-curating NXTHVN’s inaugural exhibition opening in 2020, her

Fellowship at the University of Iowa, and the Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship

other curatorial work includes the 2018 Southeast Queens Biennial, co-curated

(2013 – 2015). She has been awarded residencies at MacDowell, Bemis,

through art nonprofit No Longer Empty’s curatorial lab. She has presented at

Yaddo, the LMCC Process Space, and the Skowhegan School of Painting

conferences including the College Art Association and Theorizing the Web, and

and Sculpture. From 2016-18, Smith was co-organizer of the collective,

she has written for publications including Temporary Art Review, Hyperallergic,

Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter (BWA for BLM). She also recently

and Art Practical.

mounted her first solo museum exhibition entitled, “Monuments to an Effigy” at the Queens Museum from April through August 2019.

Vaughn Spann Vaughn Spann earned his BFA from Rutgers University in 2014 and MFA in Painting from Yale School of Art in 2018. He has been invited to participate in numerous exhibitions including The Rubell Family Collection, Mennello Museum of American Art, Reginald Lewis Museum, Night Gallery, Half Gallery, David Castillo Gallery, and The Newark Museum. He is a recipient of the esteemed Alice Kimball English Traveling Fellowship. Most recently, Spann’s work was featured on the cover of New American Paintings (Issue No. 135).

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Partners

Designed to increase equity and access to arts education, NXTHVN programs are fully-funded through generous donations from our supporters.

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Burger Collection, Hong Kong Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT) Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (CT DECD) Creative Capital Deborah Berke Partners Ford Foundation JP Fletcher Foundation Rauschenberg Foundation RISC Foundation Stonesthrow Foundation The City of New Haven United Way of Greater New Haven Special thanks to our Board Members, Dwight Hall at Yale, and Carrie Mackin

Published on the occasion of the exhibition NXTHVN: First Year Fellows November 5, 2019–January 18, 2020 at Tilton Gallery, New York Copyright © 2019 NXTHVN, Inc. nxthvn.com Curators: Zalika Azim Riham Majeed Ana Tuazon Artists: Felipe Baeza Jaclyn Conley Kenturah Davis Merik Goma Christie Neptune Alexandria Smith Vaughn Spann Edited by Sivan Amar, Natalie Renee, and Nico Wheadon Design by Matt Solomon Photography by Christopher Gardner Published by NXTHVN and Tilton Gallery

NXTHVN 169 Henry St. New Haven, CT 06511 hello@nxthvn.com www.nxthvn.com

Tilton Gallery 8 East 76th Street New York, NY 10021 212-737-2221 www.jacktiltongallery.com

Published on the occasion of the exhibition NXTHVN: First Year Fellows November 5, 2019–January 18, 2020 at Tilton Gallery, New York Copyright © 2019 NXTHVN, Inc. nxthvn.com Curators: Zalika Azim Riham Majeed Ana Tuazon Artists: Felipe Baeza Jaclyn Conley Kenturah Davis Merik Goma Christie Neptune Alexandria Smith Vaughn Spann Edited by Sivan Amar, Natalie Renee, and Nico Wheadon Design by Matt Solomon Photography by Christopher Gardner Published by NXTHVN and Tilton Gallery

NXTHVN 169 Henry St. New Haven, CT 06511 hello@nxthvn.com www.nxthvn.com

Tilton Gallery 8 East 76th Street New York, NY 10021 212-737-2221 www.jacktiltongallery.com