Opening Reception: Tuesday, May 22, 6–8pm

Sound Gestures is a solo exhibition of work by Sonia Louise Davis, recipient of The New York Community Trust’s Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund residency at ISCP. Davis will present a new site-specific installation in ISCP’s Project Space, drawing from her multi-year focus on improvisation, with considerations of music, movement, struggle, assembly and transcendence. Informed by her musical training as a jazz vocalist, collaborative community-based projects, and readings of critical race and feminist theory, Davis incorporates mediums ranging from works on paper, fabric and glass, to collaborative writing, to live performance. Often working from the generative form of the score, the artist states, “I understand improvisation as a responsive and rigorous practice of active engagement with the world around me.”

A solo performance by Davis featuring live vocals and movement will take place at 6:45pm on July 31.

Sound Gestures includes a limited edition poster with text by Davis and Greta Hartenstein, Senior Curatorial Assistant at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Sonia Louise Davis (born 1988, New York City) has performed at the Whitney Museum of American Art and published in Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory. Residencies and fellowships include the Laundromat Project, Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and ACRE. Recent exhibitions include Visitor Welcome Center, Los Angeles; and Sadie Halie Projects, Minneapolis. An honors graduate of Wesleyan University (BA, African American Studies, 2010) and an alumna of the Whitney Independent Study Program (2015-16), Davis lives and works in Harlem.

Sound Gestures is coordinated by Juliana Cope, Director of Development and Programs Manager.

This program is supported, in part, by The New York Community Trust Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.