Cast of Characters: an Immersive Exhibition by Liz Collins

The Bureau of General Services — Queer Division

June 14—September 16, 2018

Opening Reception: Friday June 15, 2018, 6—9 PM

2018 W 13th St, Rm 210

New York NY 10011

Wallpaper designed by Liz Collins, produced by 4Spaces. Portraits by / top row: Shelley Marlow, Cassils, Lani Asuncion / middle row: Dietmar Busse, Martine Gutierrez, Zanele Muholi / bottom row: Nao Bustamante, Hannah Barrett, Paula Allen

The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center are proud to present Cast of Characters, a dramatic transformation of the Bureau by artist Liz Collins featuring a salon-style exhibition of portraits by 100+ LGBTQ artists. Inspired by lavishly decorated and richly ornamented nineteenth-century libraries and salons, this immersive installation brings vibrant colors, dynamic geometric patterns and lush textures to the Bureau’s utilitarian aesthetic of plywood and cardboard. The exhibition will transform the Bureau into a warm, bright lounge, inspiring contemplation and conversation, beckoning visitors to linger, look and read.

Made possible by a grant from The Kors Le Pere Foundation and by individual donations to the Cast of Characters Kickstarter campaign.

This show includes a recent graduate of Parsons Fine Arts, and many of our wonderful faculty members, highlighted below:

Anna Parisi is a recent graduate of the Parsons MFA Fine Arts Program, Class of 2018. She is is a Brazilian artist born in 1984 and based in Brooklyn whose practice is mostly centered in sculpture and performance. She earned a BA in communications from Pontifícia Universidade Católica (PUC-RJ) and her MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design. Through her research and work, Anna investigates the violent and traumatic experience of the erasure of black, female-coded and historically oppressed bodies. She is interested in provoking and creating a dialogue between distinct African Diasporas, working through ideas of decolonization of the mind. By expediting the process of corrosion on metal to reveal layers and layers of violence, oppression, and neglect, she gestures towards deconstructing racism and misogyny by pushing the material into its full erosion. Her interests lie in exploring ways of resistance to structural violence through the dismantling of racial hegemonies in her pieces. Anna has exhibited in Westbeth Gallery, Smack Mellon, Artigo Rio, Musée de l’Elysée Lausanne amongst others.

Aziz + Cucher Anthony Aziz (b. Massachusetts) and Sammy Cucher (b. Lima, Peru) have been been living and working together since 1991. They are both members of the Fine Arts faculty at Parsons School of Design/The New School in New York. They are based in Brooklyn.

Andrea Geyer is Assistant Professor of New Genres at Parsons School of Design, in the Art Media and Technology department. She is a multi-disciplinary artist un-sensing the construction and politics of time. With a particular focus on those who identify or at some point were identified as woman, her works use photography, performance, video, drawing and painting to activate the lingering potential of specific events, sites or biographies. In her work, she continuously tries to find new ways to materialize the entanglement of presence and absence in the face of ideologically motivated omissions. She believes that art should be a site to offer the possibility of re-orientation(s) towards a current moment. She lives and works in New York.

LJ Roberts is currently part-time faculty at Parsons Fine Arts. They are a visual artist who creates large-scale textile installations, incredibly detailed embroideries, screen prints, artist books, and collages. Their work investigates overlaps of queer and trans politics, activism, protest, and craft. LJ’s work has been shown in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, and Australia at such venues as The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, Yerba Buena Center of the Arts, The 8th Floor, Museum of Arts and Design, Vox Populi, The Orange County Museum of Art, The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, The Powerhouse Museum, The Oakland Museum of California, The DePaul Art Museum, The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at The University of Southern California, The Bowdoin College Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art where their work is in the permanent collection.

The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division is an independent, all-volunteer queer cultural center, bookstore, and event space that opened in New York City in 2012 and has been hosted by The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center since 2014. We aim to foster a community invested in the values of mindfulness, intellectual curiosity, justice, compassion, and playfulness. The Bureau seeks to excite and educate a self-confident, sex-positive, and supportive queer community by offering books, publications and art and by hosting a wide variety of cultural events, including readings, performances, film screenings, book discussion groups, and workshops. We provide local and visiting queers and friends with an open and inclusive space for dialogue and socializing.

Find more about Cast of Characters via The Center: The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center.