WHAT IT IS ABOUT YOU THAT CLOSES AND OPENS, Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, NEW YORK. Curated by Macushla Robinson.

It's hard to keep your head above the coffee table', 2014 and 'Not the Mama' 2019 are showing @shivagallery.art

Curated by @macushla_r

"Working across media including sculpture, film, textile, photography and performance, the artists in this exhibition foreground the body’s gestural repertoire in a series of unique encounters. In its own way, each represents an (in)expressive vector of gender. Gathered together, they express softness, tenderness, resistance, refusal, illegibility, diffusion, and invitation in turn.

The exhibition’s title is taken from a poem by ee cummings, in which he proclaims “i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens.” While for cummings, this closing and opening is amorous, the push and pull that the poem teases out is present in every moment of our social lives; we all close and open ourselves as we move through the world, in ways that are intimate, social and political. There is both tenderness and violence threaded through these works. To be closed or opened holds potential for both; perhaps it is the very possibility of violence that makes the act of being open so intimate. Within each work, the body communicates, subverts expectations, troubles definitions, affirms and/or redefines itself. These works evoke gestural languages in the very movement of closing or opening."

Images by @studiobirdhaus 🙏

Thrilled to be showing with these artists:
​Odette England
Zak Foster
Camilo Godoy
Sharon Hayes
Nadia Huggins
Clementine Keith-Roach
Danica I. J. Knežević
Freya Powell
Kenneth Tam

November 21, 2024 – February 20, 2024
Opening event: November 21, 2024

​Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
860 11th Avenue, New York, NY, 10019
Gallery hours: 10am – 5pm, Monday to Friday

Anya & Andrew Shiva Gallery

860 11th Ave, New York (corner of 11th Ave and 59th st)

Danica I. J. Knežević, It's hard to keep your head above the coffee table, Installation Video Performance, 2014 Image by Brandon Perdomo @Studiobirdhouse

Danica I. J. Knežević, It's hard to keep your head above the coffee table, Installation Video Performance, 2014 Image by Brandon Perdomo @Studiobirdhouse

Danica I. J. Knežević, Not the Mama, Video Performance, 2019 Image by Brandon Perdomo @Studiobirdhouse

Looking back - HOME GALLERY - Maintaining Rhythm 12 June 2024 - 6 July 2024.

In June this year, the lovely Anthony Bautovich from Home Gallery curated and brought together Hayley Megan French, Gilbert Grace, Holly Macdonald, Darren McDonald, and Kyle Murrell (Kyle appears at Courtesy of Defiance Gallery).

My work, Maintaining Rhythm, 2017, is featured in the booth. The video is on Instagram (below).

“...in Maintaining Rhythm, the performance expresses the ritualistic experience of caring for others. Multiple factors contribute to the preservation, deconstruction, nurture and dismantling of the self. The work symbolises the individual understanding of self, including the requirement to come together to care for family members...”

Pain Scale curated by Sinneart Meena at Sydenham International.

Enacting Dreams/Always Knitting was curated by Sinneart Meena at Sydneyham International.

Featuring Artists, Alannah Dair, Sehej Kaur and Amy Claire Mills.

Pain Scale is a group exhibition featuring four female artists who explore human experiences with chronic illness, pain and disability. These artists draw attention to bodily conditions and pull back the curtain on medical systems and systems of care to reveal their lived experiences, as both patients and caregivers. The works in this exhibition variously consider the relationships between bodies, culture and politics and the friction often experienced when encountering systems of care. Through personal narratives that stem from their everyday experiences, the artists offer valuable insights into what is often unseen and difficult to translate, interpret, or represent. They open conversations on shared experience and space for empathy, resistance and subversion. 

This show was a privilege, with important works speaking to fundamental human experiences.

@sinee.s @alannahdair @sfolio_o @danicaijk.@amyclairemills @sydenham_international

Obrat, Maribor, Slovenia.

Artists talk at Obrat Gallery, Maribor, Slovenia.

I wanted to share highlights from my solo show and artists' talk, Rhythms of Care/Ritmi Skrbi, at Obrat Gallery, Maribor, Slovenia, in 2024.

What a fantastic time it was to show my work and connect with so many amazing people. I will cherish it professionally and personally for the rest of my life. I can't stop smiling as I look at images from the show. It was a privilege to show my work and receive such moving feedback from such generous audiences—all in my grandmother's homeland. It is an experience.

I am looking forward to making work from this experience. Special thanks to The Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Scholarship from University of Sydney, Sydney College of the Arts for helping to make this happen. Caregiving is a part of all our lives.

Thank you,@Szűcs Teri, for curating the show. Your writing and mutual understanding of care have made this happen, and I am very grateful. Maja Pan, thank you for all your translating work and grounding energy. Thank you, @ren.gregorcic, for showing them my work in the first place.

I had a mentor, @lindylee.13, once tell me that your work is only 80% complete. There is another 20% that happens in the gallery. Well, with the magic of Lucija Smodiš and Borut Wenzel install and all that comes with it, it was 100% a fantastic experience. They understand art and what it takes on a deep leave. I am grateful for you both.

Sašo Gobec for the transfers. I'm your new friend from down under.

Thank you to the artists performing my work "I will follow, Just in case" Daria Khrystych Eszter Kállay and Martyna Miller

Thank you to Guest Room Maribor and Pekarna Magdalenske mreže for welcoming me into the community. I've learnt so much, and the kindness and knowledge will last me a lifetime. Thank you Urška Breznik and Simon Žlahtič

Also, thank Ana and Richard from the Australian Embassy and Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Vienna

If you have made it this far in reading, the show is open until the 5 August 2024. Images: Klara Šulek