WOMEN, ART, AIDS AND ACTIVISM: HERE THEN, HERE NOW

For the Brooklyn Museum's lively First Saturdays programming, Visual AIDS hosted an intergenerational and multimedia evening of performance, presentations and dialogue highlighting the experiences of women artist-activists from the 1980s to the present. With Joy Episalla (ACT UP), Kia Labeija (GrenAIDS), Jessica Whitbread (AIDS ACTION NOW), Egyptt Labeija (TransJustice, Audre Lorde Project), Sue Schaffner and Carrie Moyer (Dyke Action Machine). Moderated by L.J. Roberts.

Coordinated in conjunction with the display of Visual AIDS' Play Smart safer sex trading card kits, featured in the Brooklyn Museum exhibition Agitprop!

PARTICIPANT BIOGRAPHIES

Joy Episalla is a New York-based artist working in photography, video and sculpture. She has exhibited in the United States and in Europe since the 1980s. Episalla is a founding member of the queer art collective fierce pussy. A longtime AIDS activist, she was a member of ACT UP, and currently serves on the board of Treatment Action Group (TAG). Last year, Episalla had a solo exhibition at Participant Inc. in New York and her work was featured in Greater New York 2015 at MoMA/PS1. Currently her work is featured in the touring Art AIDS America exhibition, which opens at the Bronx Museum on July 13, 2016 and the summer issue of OSMOS magazine. www.joyepisalla.com

Egyptt Labeija (Javon Egyptt) is a community activist, leader and show girl within the Trans and gender non-conforming community (TGNC). In 2009, Egyptt worked closely with TransJustice's welfare justice campaign, which helped in implementing policies for TGNC individuals at the Human Resources Administration (HRA). Shortly after Egyptt became the coordinator of Transjustice working closely to end the injustice that the TGNC community faces daily. Egyptt holds the title of Miss Jersey Classic 2016 and is a board member of Our Youth NJ/NY.

Kia Labeija, who comes out of New York ball scene’s legendary House of Labeija, is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in New York City and a Visual AIDS Artist Member. Her digital portraits re-imagine nonfiction events that explore the intersections of community, politics, fine art, and activism. She is a featured artist in the traveling exhibition Art AIDS America, where she stands as the only female artist of color living with and born with HIV. As a voguer she has performed and curated events in collaboration with MoMa PS1, The Brooklyn Museum, and AFROPUNK. She also co-founded the artists’ collective #GrenAIDS, which uses art and popular culture to connect with younger generations and foster a revival of HIV and AIDS reflection, one that celebrates life and love.

Carrie Moyer is a painter and writer who lives in Brooklyn. Her most recent exhibition, “Sirens,” was at DC Moore Gallery in Spring 2016. Between 1991-2004, Moyer and Sue Schaffner collaborated as Dyke Action Machine!, creating over 17 public art projects that appeared on the street, in the mail, in print and online.

L.J. Roberts is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY and Joshua Tree, CA. They are currently featured in Cock, Paper, Scissors at the ONE Archive in Los Angeles, and the traveling exhibition Queer Threads, as well as Agitprop! at The Brooklyn Museum. Upcoming shows include This Is a Portrait If I Say So: Identity in American Art, 1912 to Today at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. This past spring, Inflamed: A Litany for Burning Condoms, an experimental film LJ made in collaboration with Niknaz, Chaplain Christopher Jones, and Ted Kerr had its US premier at the Femmes Video Art Festival at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. In the fall LJ will teach in the undergraduate fine arts department at Parsons School of Design.

Sue Schaffner is a New York City-based photographer and part of the public art duo DYKE ACTION MACHINE! (DAM!), which she founded with Carrie Moyer in 1991. Her work has been widely published under the alias GIRL RAY and has appeared in Fortune, Entertainment Weekly, People, Esquire, Wired, and Glamour among others. Sue was one of the first recipients of the Creative Capital Foundation grant and regularly serves as an artist consultant in their professional development workshops.

Jessica Whitbread, as a queer woman living with HIV, explores her own sexuality and curiosity, often in public places, in hopes of making it easier for others to do the same. Jessica has a Masters from York University in Building Communities to Ignite Social Change.She works in the realm of social practice and community art, often merging art and activism to engage a diversity of audiences in critical dialogue.Her ongoing projects include LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN: Romance Starts at Home, No Pants No Problem, Tea Time, and PosterVIRUS (AIDS ACTION NOW!). Whitbread is currently the Global Community Relations & Mobilization Manager for the International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW), a board member of the Canadian HIV Legal Network, a member of the Steering Committee for AIDS ACTION NOW!, and a Visual AIDS Artist Member.