The Studio Museum in Harlem is thrilled to welcome E. Jane, Elliot Reed, and Naudline Pierre as the next cohort of its catalytic Artist-in-Residence program. As part of the Museum’s foundation and the impetus for its name, the program has long served as a pivotal and formative influence on the trajectory of its artists’ careers. The artists selected each year speak to a moment in history and to exciting possibilities for the future of art.
This cohort of residents includes the first Internet artist and pop star in the program’s history, a performance artist, and a painter. This unique intersection comes in a moment of polarization in America, seldom quelled by the limitless plane of digital interrelations. As such, their individual practices propose fresh perspectives and speak to the multiplicities and ever-changing realities of the black experience. In October 2019, the artists will begin working toward their culminating exhibition while honing a deeper critical eye on their respective practices throughout the yearlong program. The exhibition, to be held at MoMA PS1 in summer 2020, is part of a multiyear partnership between the institutions. Conceptual artist E. Jane (b. 1990, Bethesda, MD) uses digital imagery, sound, performance, sculpture, and installation to interrogate conceptions of personhood and the ways in which subjugated bodies navigate the media and cyberspace. Jane operates across both digital and physical realms through their stage persona, MHYSA, an under-
ground pop star who appears live in performance, and through Jane’s Lavendra/Recovery (2015–present), an iterative installation. MHYSA explores the iconography and influence of celebrity, and the performativity of gender, as informed by Jane’s embrace of writer Alice Walker’s womanism, an inclusive feminism that centers black women. The artist is interested in creating alternative worlds that resist the influence of colorism and stereotypes about black femininity and womanhood while engaging new media materials as a means of furthering this conversation both on- and offline. Opposite Top: E. Jane Photo: Courtesy the artist
E. Jane, Alive (Not Yet Dead) (Self-Portrait), 2015 Courtesy the artist
Opposite Left: Naudline Pierre Photo: Nathan Bajar Opposite Right: Elliot Reed Photo: Provvidenza Catalano
Introducing the 2019–20 Artists in Residence
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