Leah Dixon, The Invention of The Wheel, 2019
Please join us on Sunday, November 17th, for a conversation with Williamson Brasfield, Leah Dixon, and Jane Ursula Harris, moderated by Azikiwe Mohammed, about the works and themes in Dixon's show, The Invention of The Wheel, on view at Gloria’s through November 24th. The immersive installation—comprised of sculpture, painting, architecture, text, and video—constructs the atmosphere surrounding an original fictional narrative about the true inventor of the wheel and how this young woman's ancient innovation continues to cycle through our contemporary age of acceleration and interconnectivity.
As part of her larger practice, Dixon builds structures, performances, and spatial interventions in order to address mythologies that have shaped her consumption of sociopolitical events as an American woman. Her work culminates in architectural forms that reference fallen monuments, games, the military, nightlife, and public meeting places, and the audience is often invited to interact, mechanizing and confronting these constructions. Dixon builds all of her work by hand via labor-intensive processes, enabling her to physically and materially protest, reconfigure, question, and play with propagandized forms.
Gloria’s will open at 12pm on Sunday, November 17th, and we encourage you to visit the show prior to the talk at The Footlight, conveniently located across the street from the gallery. To RSVP and to become a Gloria’s member, please visit our WithFriends page.
WILLIAMSON BRASFIELD's work exists at the confluence of sound, object, and image making. He has a BFA from Penn State University, and an MFA in painting from Yale School of Art. He participated in the 9th Nicaraguan Biennial of Contemporary Art, and has shown his work at Abrons Art Center, Beverly's, and Cuchifritos in New York City, at The Overlook Place in Chicago, and at Malagana Macula in Managua, Nicaragua. He lives and works in New York City.
LEAH DIXON is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in New York City. She received a BFA from The Ohio State University, her MFA from the School of Visual Arts, and was a fellowship resident at The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Dixon has shown widely both nationally and internationally, including The IX Biennial of Visual Art of Nicaragua, curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud; a solo exhibition at Ludlow 38 MINI/Goethe-Institut New York; and recent shows at The Austrian Cultural Forum in Berlin, CONDO Mexico City with Parque Galería, and The Knockdown Center Fourth World Festival. She is currently a teaching fellow in sculpture at New Mexico State University. In addition to her studio and site-specific practices, Dixon is also a founder and co-owner of Beverly's NYC.
JANE URSULA HARRIS is a writer who has contributed to Artforum, Art Journal, Art in America, Bookforum, The Believer, Cultural Politics, Flash Art, Huffington Post, The Paris Review, Time Out, New York, and Vice/GARAGE, among other publications and journals. Her essays are included in catalogues such as Participant Inc.'s NegroGothic: M. Lamar; Hatje Cantz's Examples to Follow: Expeditions in Aesthetics and Sustainability; Phaidon's Vitamin D: New Perspectives in Drawing; Universe-Rizzoli's Curve: The Female Nude Now; and Twin Palms' Anthony Goicolea. Harris is currently an art history faculty member at the School of Visual Arts.
AZIKIWE MOHAMMED's artwork has been shown in galleries both nationally and internationally. A 2005 graduate of Bard College, where he studied photography and fine arts, Mohammed received the Art Matters Grant in 2015 and the Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Grant in 2016. He is an alumnus of Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, NY, and Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, NJ. His work has been featured extensively in magazines, including VICE, i-D, Artforum, Forbes, BOMB, and Hyperallergic. Mohammed has presented a number of solo exhibitions in venues including The Knockdown Center, Maspeth, NY; SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA; Ace Hotel, Chicago, IL; IDIO Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; as well as multiple solo offerings at Spring Break Art Show, New York. He has participated in group exhibitions at MoMA PS1, Queens, New York; Antenna Gallery, New Orleans, LI; Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, among others. He lives in New York and currently has his studio at Mana Contemporary as part of the Mana BSMT program.