Photo credit: Sebastian Bach
STROBE WARNING: Video in back left corner of the Gallery
Exhibition on view: Jan. 26 - Apr. 30, 2023
Featured artists:
Ayanna Dozier
Ilana Harris-Babou
Meena Hasan
Lucia Hierro
Catherine Opie
Chuck Ramirez
Pacifico Silano
When I Am Empty features the work of seven artists that explore the myths of the American dream that govern and shape our personal narratives. The title of the exhibition comes from a prompt from the manufacturer on a Whatacup beverage container. Enlarged to bodily proportions by the late photographer Chuck Ramirez, the empty cup and phrase take on a new meaning, drawing attention to the spent, drained, state of Americans, physically and mentally. The message also communicates the inherent disposability of cheap, mass-produced goods and the larger structures and systems that belie economic mobility and how people are valued in our society.
The question of proper disposal elicited by the fast food cup hints at a larger overarching impulse for these artists with their work: what remains of pleasure and desire when something is emptied out? Can we see this moment of emptiness as also a site or place of potential? Drawing on Pop art and advertising aesthetics, the exhibition examines consumption through both its allure and contradiction, playing with ideas of mimicry, duplication, and violence. As Vince Aletti notes with Pacifico Silano’s photography, it is “intensely pleasurable, yet haunted by pleasure’s limits.”
When I Am Empty Please Dispose of Me Properly is curated by BRIC Curator Jenny Gerow with support from Artist Tahir Carl Karmali and Curatorial Intern Augusta Weiss.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Screening & Conversation: On Wed, Mar. 15 at 7PM, join us for a screening of film and video by Ayanna Dozier, Ilana Harris-Babou, and Buzz Slutzky. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A moderated by Re’al Christian, Assistant Director of Editorial Initiatives at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School. RSVP HERE >>
Coffee & Conversation: On Sat, Mar. 25 at 12PM, join artists Meena Hasan, Pacifico Silano, and Buzz Slutzky for a tour and discussion of their work in our spring Gallery and Project Room exhibitions. Free coffee will be provided. RSVP HERE >>
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Lucia Hierro, Essencialmente Essencial, 2021.
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Pacifico Silano, The Shadows, 2023.
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Pacifico Silano, Possession, 2023.
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Catherine Opie, Untitled #2 (Swamps), 2019 (left) and Untitled #9 (Swamps), 2019 (right)
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Ayanna Dozier, Forever Your Girl, 2022.
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From left to right: Chuck Ramirez: Whatacup (2002), Careyes: Blue Venus (2007), and Black Sack 1 (1998)
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Meena Hasan, Snakes and Ladders with 52 stars, 2022.
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Meena Hasan, Snakes and Ladders with 52 stars, 2022.
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Meena Hasan, Join or Die, Gyuan Chauper, 2022.
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Ilana Harris-Babou, Leaf of Life, 2022.
PHOTO CREDIT: Sebastian Bach
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ayanna Dozier (she/her) Born in Riverside, CA; based in Brooklyn, NY
Dozier had a solo exhibition at Evening Hours Gallery, NY, as well as exhibited in group shows in The Shed, Microscope Gallery, Fort Greene Park, and Westbeth Gallery, all NY, and The Block Museum, Chicago, IL. She has had film screenings at Alfreda's Cinema at Metrograph, Maysles Documentary Center, and Anthology Film Archives, all NY; Blow-up Arthouse Film Festival and Onion City Experimental Film & Video Festival, both Chicago, IL; BlackStar Film Festival, Philadelphia, PA; Femme Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA; Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Hawick, UK; Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York, UK; and Open City Docs Film Festival, London, UK. The artist has had residencies at Winter Workspace Arts Residency, Wave Hill, and MONO NO AWARE, and a Joan Tisch Teaching Fellowship at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She has received a Toni Beauchamp Award for Best Critical Art Writing, a commission from The Shed Open Call, and a Critical Minded Grant. Dozier holds a BA from Chapman University, an MA from New York University, and a PhD from McGill University.
Ilana Harris-Babou (she/her) Born and based in Brooklyn, NY
Harris-Babou has had solo shows at the Museum of Arts and Design, Open Source Gallery, and The High Line, all NY; Art Space, New Haven, CT; the Institute of Contemporary Art Chattanooga, TN; the Flint Institute of Arts, MI; Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; the Jacob Lawrence Gallery, Seattle, WA; and Kunsthaus Hamburg, Germany. She has exhibited in group shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Jewish Museum, the Queens Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and SculptureCenter, all NY; BRIC and The Chimney NYC, both Brooklyn, NY; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; the de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA; and the Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, GA. Harris-Babou has also shown internationally, at Kunsthalle Charlottenberg, Copenhagen, Denmark; West Space, Melbourne, Australia; Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi, UAE; Organ Vida, Zagreb, Croatia; Chiesa di San Giuseppe, Italy; La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain; Laundry Arts, London, UK; and Le Doc, Paris, France. The artist has had residencies and fellowships at BRIC, the Whitney Museum of American Art Education Department, the Museum of Arts and Design, Triangle Arts Foundation, Pioneer Works, and Creative Exchange at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. Her work is in the Whitney Museum of American Art collection. She is an Assistant Professor of Art and Luther Gregg Sullivan Fellow in Art at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. Harris-Babou received a BA from Yale University and an MFA from the Columbia University School of the Arts.
Meena Hasan (she/her) Born in New York, NY; based in Brooklyn, NY
Hasan has had solo shows at Launch F18 and Violet’s Café, both NY; Rhode Island School of Design Memorial Hall Painting Dept. Gallery, Providence, RI; Lee Gallery, Miami University, Oxford, OH; and Mariboe Gallery, Peddie School, Hightstown, NJ. She has exhibited in group shows including those at David Zwirner, Center for Book Arts, Nathalie Karg Gallery, Greene Naftali, Essex Flowers, CatBox Contemporary, Passenger Pigeon Press, Zürcher Gallery, all NY; deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum and Fruitlands Museum, Lincoln, MA; Chace Center, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; 0.0 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Left Field Gallery, San Luis Obispo, CA; and Anahita Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran. She has had residencies at 6BASE and the American Academy in Rome. Hasan is an Assistant Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. She received a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA from the Yale School of Art.
Lucia Hierro (she/her) Born in New York, NY; based in the Bronx, NY
Hierro has had solo shows at Wallworks and Elizabeth Dee Gallery, both NY; The Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Sean Horton (Presents), Dallas, TX; Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; David Klein Gallery, Detroit, MI; Primary Projects, Miami, FL; Casa Quien, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and Fabienne Levy Gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland. She has exhibited in group shows at El Museo del Barrio, the Bronx Museum, the Children’s Museum of the Arts, the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling, International Print Center New York, and George Adams Gallery, all NY; the Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA; and Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA. The artist received a 2022 LatinX Artist Fellowship Grant and has had residencies with Casa Quien, Red Bull Arts Detroit, Fountain Head, and the Bronx Museum’s AIM Fellowship. Her art is in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; El Museo del Barrio; Pérez Art Museum Miami; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; the Rennie Collection; the JP Morgan Chase Art Collection; and the Progressive Art Collection. Hierro received a BFA from Purchase College, SUNY, and an MFA from the Yale School of Art.
Catherine Opie (she/her) Born in Sandusky, OH; based in Los Angeles, CA
Opie has had solo exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY; the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, OH; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL; the Portland Art Museum, OR; and the Centro Internazionale di Fotografia, Palermo, Italy. She has exhibited in group shows including those at The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, all NY; the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; The San Diego Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, all CA; and the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. Opie has also exhibited internationally, including shows at the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Naples, Italy; the Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany; the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark; the Seoul Museum of Art; and the National Museum in Warsaw, Poland. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography, a United States Artists Fellowship, and awards such as a Smithsonian Archives of American Art Medal and a Women’s Caucus for Art President’s Award for Lifetime Achievement, among others. Opie’s work is in collections including the National Portrait Gallery in the Smithsonian Institute; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; The Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Carnegie Museum of Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia; and others. Opie is the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Endowed Chair in Art at UCLA. She earned a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. The artist is represented by Lehmann Maupin in New York, NY and Regen Projects in Los Angeles, CA.
Chuck Ramirez (he/him) Born San Antonio, TX, d. 2010
Ramirez work has been shown in a retrospective at the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX, in addition to other solo shows at Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum and the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, both San Antonio, TX; Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, IL; Centro de La Imagen, México City; Blanca Berlín Galería, Madrid, Spain; and Galerie Khadrberlin, Berlin, Germany. His work has been exhibited in group shows at El Museo del Barrio, NY; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; the San Antonio Museum of Art, the McNay Art Museum, and Blue Star Contemporary, all San Antonio, TX; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX; the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts and the Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AK; the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT; the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL; and the Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN. He was an artist-in-residence in the International Artist in Residency Program, Artpace. Ramirez’s work is in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum; the Whitney Museum of American Art; El Museo Del Barrio; Pérez Art Museum Miami; the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the San Antonio Museum of Art; the McNay Art Museum; the Art Museum of South Texas; the New México Museum of Art; the Orange County Museum of Art; the Maison Européenne de la Photographie. Ramirez received a BA in Design from San Antonio College. The artist is represented by Ruiz-Healy Art in New York, NY and San Antonio, TX.
Pacifico Silano (he/him) Born in Brooklyn, NY; based in New York, NY
Silano has had solo exhibitions at The Bronx Museum of the Arts’ The Block Gallery and Island, both NY; Houston Center for Photography, TX; Melanie Flood Projects, Portland, OR; Monti 8, Latina, Italy; and The Eye Sees, Arles, France. He has exhibited in group shows including those at The Bronx Museum of The Arts and the International Center of Photography, both NY; The Andy Warhol Museum and Future Tenant, both Pittsburgh, PA; Transformer, Washington D.C.; Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland; and Somerset House, London, UK. Silano has received awards including The Paris Photo / Aperture Foundation Shortlist for First Book Prize; the Rencontres d’Arles Book Award Shortlist for Artist Book of the Year; The Silver List, Silver Eye Center for Photography; and The Black List, Carnegie Mellon. He has had residencies at Silver Art Projects Studio; the Bronx Museum of the Arts, AIM AT 80 White Street; the Lower East Side Printshop, Key Holder Residency; Light Work; and Baxter Street, CCNY, as well as fellowships at BRIC and the New York Foundation of The Arts. His work resides in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, the International Center of Photography, Musée de l’Elysée, the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Library, among others. Silano received a BFA from the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts.
Venue Information:
The 3,000 square-foot Gallery in BRIC House has soaring 18-foot ceilings that permit major exhibitions focusing on emerging and mid-career artists and curators.
Beginning Nov. 1, 2022, attendees of any BRIC House programming will no longer have to show proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter the building. Masks are encouraged but not required in all BRIC operated spaces. If you have questions regarding this protocol, please email Safety@bricartsmedia.org