In celebration of Pride Month, KATES-FERRI PROJECTS is proud to present THE BREAKING ROOM, a three-person exhibition of Nan Collymore, Julia Jalowiec, and Pamela Sneed, between Thursday, June 8, and Saturday, July 8, 2023. Through collage, watercolor, video, cast iron and ceramic sculpture, and installation, the artists evade art world hierarchies with their mediums and approaches, while centering queerness and its inclusive potentialities in the show. Creating a welcoming and safe space for all, the artists will activate the exhibition with invitations to the public on Saturdays during the run of the show. 

         Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s oft-quoted 1994 Tendencies definition of queer notes that: “‘Queer’ can refer to: the open mesh of possibilities, gaps, overlaps, dissonances and resonances, lapses and excesses of meaning when the constituent elements of anyone’s gender, or anyone’s sexuality aren’t made (or can’t be made) to signify monolithically.” Queer theory has since expanded beyond gender and sexuality to offer an open mesh of possibilities for how society could function. Queerness imagines a future where the observed normativity is not the default, and the interlinked subjectivity is honored. Sneed, Collymore, and Jalowiec form and advocate for this unfixed proposal, materially. 

Sneed approaches the past as a way to pave the path forward by developing a Queer Black lineage through her watercolors of queer historical Black figures, such as Ma Rainey (1886-1939), Moms Mabley (1894-1975), Bessie Smith (1894-1937), and Big Mama Thornton (1926-1984). Incredibly, these performers survived the general erasure of Black women from history. It is not surprising that they were all entertainers, who stepped on stage and into the frame and into view, like the artist. Using archival images of them, Sneed merges her features with these greats in her large 18” x 14” tribute self-portraits to establish the intergenerational connection across time. 

Collymore integrates first-account slave herstory into her recent collages and video work. The artist includes excerpts and texts from the first published autobiography of Mary Prince (1788-1833) on her collaged stills from Haptic Cloth: A Film (2020). The short is a tribute and a remembrance of Collymore’s mother through items that remind the artist of her mother’s presence. She pulls a piece of jewelry or a watch face from the footage as the basis of her photo collage. Tenderly requesting audiences to stretch out the moments of observation, Collymore deepens the interwoven Black women’s narratives from Prince’s account to her mother’s and her own lived experiences. 

Sneed imprints her likeness and Collymore implants her memories in her work; Jalowiec infuses their personal journey into their interactive installation. Her narrative is embodied in text, found objects, cast iron, paintings, and ceramic components. By building furnishings to sit in and warm lighting that feels like being at a friend’s, Jalowiec brings healing, a sense of playfulness, and joy to their work. The hardships and illnesses she faced throughout her life provide Jalowiec with clarity in forming relatable expressions in her sculptural figures with heavily textured surfaces. They forge this welcoming, open-ended, and visible space to empower participants to find and exist in their queer mix of truths with no apologies. 

         Living in the queer margins of society carries precarious visibility and invisibility. As multiple states enact legislation that limits the rights and powers of the trans-community, this exhibition recommends a nonlinear radically humane course–one of egalitarian inclusion, just relationships, and thriving visibility. By reinserting and reminding audiences of queer joy, existence, and possibility, the three artists posit that today’s harmful norms are historical constructs that need not be the preselection of tomorrow. The BREAKING ROOM gives space for new personal and public histories that redefine and envision a new hereafter.

Nan Collymore is a mother an inter-disciplinary artist and an independent scholar. Her recent projects are Material-an experimental film series, a panelist with The Black Aesthetic curatorial collective atBlack Star’s Greaves Seminar, Contributing Editor of Contemporary and, and she sits on the Advisory Board of the Association of dress Historians.

Julia Jalowiec is a queer artist born in Dallas, TX. She holds an MFA (2022) from Columbia University in NYC and a BFA (2018) from Southern Methodist University. In 2019, she was named a Mercedes-Benz Financial Emerging Artist and was in residence at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. She was a 2020 Nasher Sculpture Center artist grant recipient. Her work has been exhibited at The Jewish Museum (NYC), Half Gallery (NYC), ChaShaMa (NYC), the Amarillo Museum of Art, Site131, RO2 Gallery, and more. She will be in residence at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture 2023.

Pamela Sneed is a New York based poet, performer and visual artist. She is the author of Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery, KONG and Other Works, Sweet Dreams and Funeral Diva published by City Lights in Oct 2020. Funeral Diva was featured in the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Lit Hub, Art Net  and more. Funeral Diva won the 2021 Lambda Lesbian Poetry Award. Funeral Diva was recommended by The New York Times alongside Baraka Obama’s memoir. Additionally in 2021, She was a finalist for New York Theater Workshops Golden Harris Award and received a monetary award. In 2021, she was a panelist for The David Zwirner Gallery’s More Life exhibit, and has spoken at Bard Center for Humanities, The Ford Foundation, The Gordon Parks Foundation, Columbia University, The New School, New York Public Library, The Brooklyn Museum, MOMA, DIA, NYU’s Center For Humanities. She has published in The Paris Review, Frieze Magazine, Art Forum, The Academy of American Poets and more. Her visual work was featured in the group show Omniscient at Leslie Lohman Museum and currently has visual work in a group show at The Ford Foundation. She won the 2021 Black Queer Art Mentorship Award for her leadership and literary talent. She  participated as a reader in the 2022 Whitney Biennial and is a narrator for Coco Fusco’s film, also in the 2022 Whitney Biennial . She has had keynotes at Yale University, Georgetown University and Park Avenue Armory. She has won a BOFFO residency on Fire Island in August 2022.  She is an online professor in the SAIC low-res program. She has been a guest artist for 6 consecutive years. She also teaches poetry and art across disciplines in Columbia Universities MFA in Visual Arts program. She has won a 2023 Creative Capital Grant in Literature.

Press Release Price List Art Works on View Nan Collymore, Julia Jalowiec & Pamela Sneed Exhibition on YouTube