Gabriella Mirabelli on John Eric Broaddus with Marcelo Gabriel Yáñez

Gabriella Mirabelli on John Eric Broaddus with Marcelo Gabriel Yáñez 

Sunday, August 2, 6pm at PARTICIPANT INC 116 Elizabeth St floor one, New York, NY 10013

In the late 1990s, while interning at Other Pictures, artist Gabriella Mirabelli was given a box of materials pertaining to the book artist John Eric Broaddus: hours of audio recordings and several minutes of footage that were remnants of an unfinished documentary begun by filmmaker Jonathan Mednick. Work on the Broaddus film began in the late 1980s and production stopped due to lack of funding and time. After Broaddus’ death in 1990,  research and film production was further complicated due to the fracturing of his archive. Moved by what was in the box, Mirabelli took on the project to finish the documentary, completing Books of Survival: The Art of John Eric Broaddus in 2000. Mirabelli’s film still stands as the most expansive historicization of Broaddus's work to date. Beyond its monographic approach, it also uses Broaddus’ story to document how AIDS dismantled the interdisciplinary arts community of the Lower East Side in the 1980s and 1990s. Join us for a conversation between Mirabelli and exhibition curator Marcelo Gabriel Yáñez wherein they will discuss, with film and audio clips, Broaddus’ street performances, costumes, and artists' books. 

Gabriella Mirabelli is a painter based in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, working primarily in acrylics. Her work centers on water and waterways explored through landscape and natural subjects that move between impressionist and abstract realist approaches. She returned to studio practice after an eighteen-year pause during her tenure as CEO and co-founder of ANATOMY, an Emmy Award-winning creative agency. Since resuming her practice, she has exhibited widely across the Northeast, and her paintings are held in private collections in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain. 

Marcelo Gabriel Yáñez is an art historian, photographer, and archivist based between New York and Puerto Rico. He is the author of The Disappearance of Landscape: Paul Thek in Oakleyville, forthcoming from MATTE Editions and The Watermill Center in September 2026 and Newspaper (Brooklyn: Primary Information, 2023). He is currently compiling a small edited volume titled The Gate Hill Cooperative Tapes. He works part-time between the Archives of American Art and the Department of Art History at New York University. He holds a Ph.D. in Art History from Stanford University.

PARTICIPANT INC is located at 116 Elizabeth Street, floor one, between Broome and Grand Streets. The closest trains are the J/Z (Bowery) and the B/D (Grand); the closest wheelchair accessible stop is the 6 (Canal). Entry is on grade and the gallery is barrier free throughout with an all gender, wheelchair accessible bathroom. Service animals are welcome.