Artists Studio: Rashaad Newsome

ABOUT THE WORK Rashaad Newsome is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice is deeply invested in how images used in media and popular culture communicate distorted notions of power and status. Whether it be in his series of compositions created by “throwing shade” or his various works documenting the dance form known as vogue, his interests lie in critiquing the popular appropriation of the dance, music, and vernacular expression developed in Harlem’s queer ballroom scene of the 1970s.

Running is a new immersive performance work by Newsome that evokes an abstract portrait of soul created through light and voice.

Running is centered on the musicology term for a singer’s improvised embellishment; a “vocal run” is a rapid series of ascending or descending musical notes sung in quick succession. Running is a vocal effect that spans a variety of musical genres from the 19th century to today. Newsome’s stirring performance features three local New York City vocalists performing an original score composed by the artist, which incorporates samples of vocal runs by Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Whitney Houston, Marvin Gaye, B.B. King, James Brown, and Kelly Price, among others.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS STUDIO With its exquisite melding of styles and mediums evident in the creative collaboration of Louis C. Tiffany and Associated Artists in the new Aesthetic Movement style, the Veterans Room represents the exuberance and innovation of exceptional young artisans approaching the decorative arts with a new vision. This season, the series adds a new voice to the eclectic styles found in the space, with performances by a diverse mix of musicians, composers, and artists that infuse their own work with a multitude of various references and source material, from Japan, India, and West Africa to the American South and Harlem. Curated by jazz pianist, composer, and MacArthur fellow Jason Moran, these interventions explore the culture of sound that can be visibly seen in the newly reopened space, while allowing these creative thinkers to actively explore bold new directions of global influence in contemporary music.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Dominique Eade and Ran Blake with Kavita Shah November 21 The influences and improvisational fluidity of jazz take center stage in a thrilling double bill of artists who infuse their sets with unique musical cultures and perspectives. Known for reshaping mostly familiar melodies into art songs with their genre-blurring mastery of jazz, blues, classical, folk, and gospel music, vocalist Dominique Eade and pianist Ran Blake showcase their strikingly unique harmonies, lyrical force, and evocative atmospheres with a set that includes songs from their latest release—Town and Country—as well as other standards, originals, and tributes. Kavita Shah seamlessly weaves together diverse cultural traditions into her jazz-based repertoire, from the Indian tabla and West African kora to African and Brazilian rhythms, placing seemingly eclectic songs, instruments, and artists in dialogue with one another to create a new type of jazz with global sensibilities that defies categorization. For her appearance at the Armory, Shah will be debuting the new work “Folk Songs of Naboréa,” a song-cycle for seven voices that imagines the folk music of a futuristic, post-nuclear society.

2017 ARTISTS STUDIO

IN THE NEWLY RESTORED VETERANS ROOM

Tuesday, November 21 at 7:00pm and 9:00pm Veterans Room, Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory

RUNNING Rashaad Newsome, Artist Kyron El, Aaron Marcellus, Devin Michael, Vocalists

SEASON SPONSORS

SERIES SPONSORS

The Artists Studio is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the city council, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Support for Park Avenue Armory’s artistic season has been generously provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Altman Foundation, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Achelis and Bodman Foundation, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, The Kaplen Brothers Fund, the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, and the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS Rashaad Newsome is a multidisciplinary artist whose work blends several practices together including collage, sculpture, video, music, computer programming, and performance, to form an altogether new field. Best known for his visually stunning collages housed in custom frames, Newsome’s work is deeply invested in how images used in media and popular culture communicate distorted notions of power. Using the equalizing force of sampling, he crafts compositions that surprise in their associative potential and walk the tightrope between intersectionality, social practice, and abstraction.

Newsome’s works oppose cultural essentialisms and lead into a realm of uncertainty, in which the symbols presented transform, but are nonetheless made tangible. He was born in 1979 in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he received a BFA in Art History at Tulane University in 2001. In 2004, he received a certificate of study in Digital Post Production from Film/Video Arts Inc. (NYC). In 2005 he studied MAX/MSP Programming at Harvestworks Digital Media Art Center (NYC). He has exhibited and performed in galleries, museums, institutions, and festivals throughout the world including The Studio Museum in Harlem, The National Museum of African American History and Culture, Whitney Museum, Brooklyn Museum, MoMA PS1, SFMOMA, New Orleans Museum of Art, Centre Georges Pompidou, The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, and MUSA. Newsome’s work is in numerous public collections including the Studio Museum in Harlem, Whitney Museum, Brooklyn Museum, SFMOMA, LACMA, McNay Art Museum, and the New Britain Museum of American Art. In 2010 he participated in the Whitney Biennial, and in 2011 the Greater New York exhibit at MoMA PS1. His many honors and awards for his work include the 2017-2018 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, 2017 Rush Arts Gold Rush Award, the 2014 Headlands Center for the Arts Visiting Artist Residency, a 2011 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, a 2010 Urban Artist Initiative Individual Artist Grant, and a 2009 Rema Hort Mann Foundation Visual Arts Grant. Newsome lives and works in New York City.

Kyron El is a Trinidadian native, who was raised in New York City. He has been singing since the age of three and his voice has always inspired the people around him. He started his career as a supporting vocalist for many of New York’s favorite artists, as well as singing on all his social media platforms accumulating over 30 million views on Vine and Instagram. Recently, he released his first single entitled “Beam Me Up” and is ready to take the next step in his career and embrace the spotlight – the sky is the limit.

Aaron Marcellus is a singer, vocal coach, writer, musician, tap dancer, and actor. Born and bred in Atlanta, Marcellus has been entertaining crowds around the world for more than 20 years.

He got is start in gospel music, and recorded albums under the

the Warner Brothers label [Christian division] “Word Records.”

In 2011 he auditioned for “American Idol” and was voted Top 24. Sent on a world tour sponsored by the U.S. Armed Forces, he performed for thousands in England, Italy, Holland, Germany, France, Korea, Kuwait, and Japan. He has been featured in a Chapstick commercial, a role in a pilot for NBC’s “Next Caller,” and is a current cast member in New York City’s Off-Broadway hit Stomp. Marcellus can be found hosting a weekly musical act at a local burlesque and live music restaurant “Duane Park” and singing all over New York City – directing showcases, tap dancing, acting, and serving as a vocal coach. Most importantly, Marcellus is Founder and CEO of Surrender To Love LLC; a foundation that finically supports music and arts programs, and feeds hungry bellies.

Originally from Virginia, Devin Michael started singing at age three alongside his siblings at his community church where his father pastored. By age 12 he was writing music, directing, and teaching musical aggregations. At age 18 he was recruited to conduct a church choir of more than 200 members in New Orleans, where the city’s musicality evolved his own style.

He started recording as a solo artist and released his first EP Window to the Universe. After Katrina, he was selected, along with Michael McDonald, Wynonna Judd, and Eric Benet, to record the song of hope “Heart of America” as part of Habitat for Humanity’s campaign to provide relief for hurricane victims.

He later moved to Los Angeles and partnered with The Harmony Project, a nonprofit organization that serves inner city youth through the appropriation of music education. During his stay in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Toronto and New York, he has recorded for and shared the stage with Rod Stewart, Cyndi Lauper, Michael McDonald, Pharrell Williams, Wynonna Judd, Eric Benet, Jordin Sparks, The Jonas Brothers, Britney Spears, John Mayer, Timbaland, Brandy, Justin Bieber, Guy Sebastian, Sam Moore, Kirk Franklin, and The Roots. Devin has performed on major national television shows such as CNN, “The Today Show,” “Live with Regis & Kelly,” “Wendy Williams,” “Jimmy Fallon,” “Good Morning America” and “Saturday Night Live.”

He has toured with The Jonas Brothers, Britney Spears, Jordin Sparks, and Justin Bieber. In 2015 he took a break from touring in order to be a father to his three year old son. He is currently working on a new single and plans to release the work in early 2018.

Production Acknowledgements Sascha von Oertzen, Sound Designer Paul Howells, Lighting Designer Josh Pennington, Videographer Sonny Daze, DJ, Producer, and founder the independent record label Division 81 Special thanks to Blanche Newsome, Sr.

ABOUT THE VETERANS ROOM The Veterans Room is among the most significant surviving interiors of the American Aesthetic Movement, and the most significant remaining intact interior in the world by Louis C. Tiffany and Co., Associated Artists. This newly formed collective led by Tiffany included some of the most significant American designers of the 19th century at early stages of their very distinguished careers: Stanford White, Samuel Colman, and Candace Wheeler among them. The design of the room by these artisans was exotic, eclectic, and full of experimentation, as noted by Decorator and Furnisher in 1885 that “the prepondering styles appear to be the Greek, Moresque and Celtic, with a dash of Egyptian, the Persian and the Japanese in the appropriate places.”

A monument of late 19th-century decorative arts, the Veterans Room is the fourth period room at the Armory completed (out of 18). The revitalization of the room responds to the original exuberant vision for the room’s design, bringing into dialogue some of the most talented designers of the 19th and 21st centuries – Associated Artists with Herzog & de Meuron, Platt Byard Dovell White Architects, and a team of world-renowned artisans and experts in Tiffany glass, fine woodworking, and decorative arts.

The revitalization of the Veterans Room follows Herzog & de Meuron’s design approach for the Armory building, which seeks to highlight the distinct qualities and existing character of each individual room while interweaving contemporary elements to improve its function. Even more so than in other rooms at the Armory, Herzog & de Meuron’s approach to the Veterans Room is to amplify the beauty of the room’s original vision through adding contemporary reconstructions of lost historic material and subtle additions with the same ethos and creative passion as the original artisans to infuse a modern energy into a harmonious, holistic design.

The room’s restoration is part of an ongoing $210-million transformation, which is guided by the understanding that the Armory’s rich history and the patina of time are essential to its character, with a design process for the period rooms that emphasizes close collaboration between architect and artisan.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ The restoration and renovation of the Veterans Room was made possible by The Thompson Family Foundation, Inc., Susan and Elihu Rose, Charina Endowment Fund, Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz, Almudena and Pablo Legorreta, Assemblymember Dan Quart and the New York State Assembly, Liz and Emanuel Stern, Olivia and Adam Flatto, Kenneth S. Kuchin, R. Mark and Wendy Adams, American Express, Rebecca Robertson and Byron Knief, Amy and Jeffrey Silverman, the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Anonymous (2).

Cover photo: James Ewing