Held in conjunction with Steven Anthony Johnson II: Getting Blood from Stone, the artist will speak with exhibition curator Re’al Christian and guest speaker TK Smith.

They will discuss Johnson’s art within the broader contexts of drawn portraiture as a symbolic language and its place within an evolving Black Southern Gothic tradition. Getting Blood from Stone presents drawings of family photographs that the artist has collected. According to the exhibition curator, the pictures are never quite complete—the painstaking detail in each sitter’s facial features contrasts with loose gestural backdrops, calling our attention to the subject while never truly revealing the full narrative of the scene unfolding. In this talk, Smith, Johnson, and Christian will consider modes of reframing Blackness and darkness as the protagonists of their stories through dream-like vignettes, as well as the relationship between Black subjectivities, historical narratives, and the surreal. 

Steven Anthony Johnson II is a draftsperson, interpretive archivist, storyteller, writer and curator living in Brooklyn, NY. They received their BFA in 2015 from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and MFA in 2017 from the New York Academy of Art. Utilizing the language of drawing, animation, and photo-documentary, their work attempts to make peace between the religious, intellectual, and humanistic ideals in relation to Blackness and “Otherness.” In so doing, they hypothesize the counter-narrative necessary to de-emphasize whiteness and “light” as the focal point of our shared intercultural narrative. Their drawings and installations utilize traditional techniques, memory, and photography to examine the intersections of Afro-ambiguity, Black mundanity, and the right to self-representation. Johnson was a 2022 artist in residence at ISCP sponsored by The New York Community Trust’s Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund. 

TK Smith is a Philadelphia-based curator, writer, and cultural historian. His curatorial projects include Roland Ayers: Calligraphy of Dreams, the 2021 Atlanta Biennial exhibition Virtual Remains, and Zipporah Camille Thompson: Looming Chaos. His writing has been published in Art in America, Monument Lab Bulletin, and ART PAPERS, where he is a contributing editor. In 2021, Smith was invited as inaugural writer-in-residence at the Vashon Artist Residency, and he was a 2022 recipient of an Andy Warhol Arts Writers Grant. Currently, Smith is a doctoral student in the History of American Civilization program at the University of Delaware, where he researches art, material culture, and the built environment.

Re’al Christian is a writer, editor, curator, and art historian based in Queens, NY. She is a contributing editor at ART PAPERS and the Assistant Director of Editorial Initiatives at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School. Her work explores issues related to identity, diasporas, media, and materiality. Her essays, interviews, and criticism have appeared in Art in America, Art in Print, BOMB Magazine, and The Brooklyn Rail. She has written catalog and exhibition texts for CUE Art Foundation, DC Moore Gallery, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., and Performa, and has participated in public programs with Dieu Donné and the Rubin Foundation. Her recent solo and collaborative curatorial projects include The earth leaked red ochre at Miriam Gallery and The Black Index and Life as Activity: David Lamelas at the Hunter College Art Galleries. 

• Four visitors are allowed in the galleries at a time, and appointments are required. Please write to info@iscp-nyc.org to schedule an appointment.
• All visitors are required to maintain social distancing, keeping six feet from anyone not in their party.
• Masks or face coverings are strongly recommended but not mandatory.
• Hand sanitizer will be available for visitors.
• If you have fever, chills, cough, muscle pains, headache, loss of taste or smell, or think you may have been exposed to COVID-19 prior to your visit, please contact us to reschedule.
• An inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 and other infectious conditions exists in any public space where people are present. Those visiting the International Studio & Curatorial Program voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19, other infectious conditions, and other hazards that may be present in a public space.

This program is supported, in part, by The New York Community Trust’s Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund; Hartfield Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York City Council District 33; New York City Council District 34; New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Legislature; The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; and William Talbott Hillman Foundation.