ISCP Talk
May 21, 2024, 6:30–7:30pm

Artists at Work: Yoshie Sakai in conversation with Lauren Wolchik

For this Artists at Work, ISCP artist-in-residence Yoshie Sakai will be joined by curator Lauren Wolchik. Sakai will present on her practice including her immersive installation series KOKO’s Love and Grandma Entertainment Franchise. She will speak with Wolchik about her unique world-building which is centered on accessibility and nurturing human connection while critiquing capitalist productions of space and ways of being. They will also discuss Sakai’s extensive experience in artist residencies across the country. A Q&A with the audience will follow. 

Based in Gardena, California, Yoshie Sakai is a multimedia artist who works with video, sculpture, installation, and performance. Sakai has exhibited her work at the University Art Gallery, California State University Dominguez Hills; Verge Center for the Arts; Chinese American Museum Los Angeles; Torrance Art Museum; and Vincent Price Art Museum, all in California; and John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Wisconsin. Sakai is a recipient of ISCP’s 2024 Vision Fund Residency.

Lauren Wolchik is an independent curator, producer, and the Founder & Director of GLORIA’S, a project space that showcases work by underrepresented artists in New York City and beyond. Wolchik is currently the Director, Exhibitions at Pace Gallery, New York. She has produced events at institutions including MoMA PS1 and Pioneer Works, and was a Guest Curator at the Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency in 2019 and an Artist-in-Residence at Silent Barn in 2015. Wolchik curated Maliyamungu Gift Muhande: Kobikisa at ISCP in 2022.

This program is supported by Vision Fund; The National Endowment for the Arts; Jacques & Natasha Gelman Foundation; Hartfield Foundation; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso; New York City Council District 34; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; James Rosenquist Foundation; van Beuren Charitable Foundation; and William Talbott Hillman Foundation.
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Accessibility information: Please note that the entrance to ISCP has seven steps and a ramp, which is ADA compliant. There are seven artist studios and one exhibition space which can be accessed on the first floor of ISCP. There is an accessible bathroom on the first floor at the end of the hallway, up one step, where the artist studios are located. To access the second floor there is a staircase with a grab bar installed on the right side with 22 steps. The second floor has 22 artist and curator studios, one exhibition space, and a lounge where remarks by our guest speaker will take place. To access the third floor there is a staircase with a grab bar installed on the right side with 24 steps. The third floor has five artist and curator studios. ISCP  can access a freight elevator to bring visitors between the first and second floors on request.

ISCP can offer two reserved parking spaces on request for people with disabilities. Please email Veronica Sanchez at vsanchez@iscp-nyc.org to request a parking space and/or freight elevator usage.

6:30–7:30pm

Participating Residents

Exhibition
Through September 27

Crystal Yayra Anthony: A Glimpse of Us

Opening Reception: Tuesday, May 14, 6–8pm

The International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) presents A Glimpse of Us, the first solo exhibition in the United States of the work of Crystal Yayra Anthony. This presentation debuts a new group of paintings made by the artist during her recent residency at ISCP.

In these vibrant, expressive portraits, Anthony captures unguarded moments from everyday life. While initially known for rendering her subjects in the nude, in her latest works she explores another form of intimacy: the deeply felt connections to her friends in her hometown of Accra, Ghana. When creating these paintings in New York, far from family and friends, Anthony was overcome by profound feelings of nostalgia. Drawing upon memories and a personal archive of cell phone video footage, she depicts tender and lighthearted scenes of her closely-knit community. 

Anthony’s figures inhabit real-life settings infused with enigmatic elements—a dreamy purple interior unites three of the paintings, and in one large-scale work, the artist appears against a lush landscape with a candy-hued sunset. Brushy passages of sensuous color are combined with lyrical finger painting, a technique Anthony began exploring when looking at African rock art. Guided in part by the mentorship of Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo, she has developed her own stylized mark-making to add depth to her figures and celebrate Black identity. For Anthony, her candid portraits convey private instances in which she and her peers are freed from the societal pressures and expectations frequently placed upon them in Ghana.

Crystal Yayra Anthony is a self-taught artist based in Accra, Ghana. She was a resident at ISCP from December 1, 2023 to February 29, 2024. Her work has been exhibited at museums and galleries around the world including Kunsthalle Krems, Austria; PM/AM Gallery, London; Dot Ateliers, Accra, Ghana; Gallery OCA, London; and Mitochondria Gallery, Houston, Texas.

This exhibition is curated by Melinda Lang, ISCP’s Director of Programs and Exhibitions.

Crystal Yayra Anthony: A Glimpse of Us is supported by Tauck Ritzau Innovative Philanthropy; Dennis Elliott Founder’s Fund; Hartfield Foundation; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Legislature; James Rosenquist Foundation; van Beuren Charitable Foundation; and William Talbott Hillman Foundation.
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Accessibility information: Please note that the entrance to ISCP has seven steps and a ramp, which is ADA compliant. There are seven artist studios and one exhibition space which can be accessed on the first floor of ISCP. There is an accessible bathroom on the first floor at the end of the hallway, up one step, where the artist studios are located. To access the second floor there is a staircase with a grab bar installed on the right side with 22 steps. The second floor has 22 artist and curator studios, one exhibition space, and a lounge where remarks by our guest speaker will take place. To access the third floor there is a staircase with a grab bar installed on the right side with 24 steps. The third floor has five artist and curator studios. ISCP  can access a freight elevator to bring visitors between the first and second floors on request.

ISCP can offer two reserved parking spaces on request for people with disabilities. Please email Veronica Sanchez at vsanchez@iscp-nyc.org to request a parking space and/or freight elevator usage.

Opening Reception: May 14, 2024
Download Press Release (PDF)

Participating Residents

ISCP Talk
April 30, 2024, 6:30–7:30pm

Artists at Work: Cullen Washington Jr. in conversation with David Max Horowitz

For this Artists at Work, ISCP artist-in-residence Cullen Washington Jr. will be joined by curator David Max Horowitz. Washington will present on his painting practice and speak with Horowitz about the relationship between his works and the legacies of abstraction, the centuries-old tradition of using light as subject matter, and finding inspiration from the natural world. Their conversation will begin with a discussion about Washington’s thinking around matter and light in his paintings, which he calls terra-chroma. A Q&A with the audience will follow. 

Cullen Washington Jr. is a New York-based artist originally from Louisiana. He creates abstract paintings that convey the feeling of the divine in nature. Washington has exhibited work at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Michigan; Queens Museum, New York; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas; Saatchi Gallery, London; and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Washington is the first recipient of ISCP’s Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Residency.

David Max Horowitz is an Assistant Curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, where he organizes exhibitions and supports the management of the museum’s collection. He was the curator of Jean Dubuffet: Ardent Celebration (2022) and Marking Time: Process in Minimal Abstraction (2019–20), as well as co-curator of R. H. Quaytman + ×, Chapter 34 (2018–19). He was also part of the curatorial team on Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future (2018–19), Agnes Martin (2016–17), Guggenheim Collection: Brancusi (2017–20), and Guggenheim Collection: Early Modernism (2016–17). 

This program is supported by Helen Frankenthaler Foundation; Hartfield Foundation; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso; New York City Council District 34; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; James Rosenquist Foundation; van Beuren Charitable Foundation; and William Talbott Hillman Foundation.
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Accessibility information: Please note that the entrance to ISCP has seven steps and a ramp, which is ADA compliant. There are seven artist studios and one exhibition space which can be accessed on the first floor of ISCP. There is an accessible bathroom on the first floor at the end of the hallway, up one step, where the artist studios are located. To access the second floor there is a staircase with a grab bar installed on the right side with 22 steps. The second floor has 22 artist and curator studios, one exhibition space, and a lounge where remarks by our guest speaker will take place. To access the third floor there is a staircase with a grab bar installed on the right side with 24 steps. The third floor has five artist and curator studios. ISCP  can access a freight elevator to bring visitors between the first and second floors on request.

ISCP can offer two reserved parking spaces on request for people with disabilities. Please email Veronica Sanchez at vsanchez@iscp-nyc.org to request a parking space and/or freight elevator usage.

6:30–7:30pm

Participating Residents