Nine features the artists who took part in the Queens Museum studio program between 2015 and 2017. Although the artists were selected as individuals, certain ideas link the work in this exhibition. In the first gallery, Andrew Beccone, Chris Bogia, Karolina Sobecka, and Alina Tenser each re-envision objects from the realm of learning and display to ask questions about the limitations of the body and of knowledge. In the second gallery, formal issues in artmaking—such as surface, dimension, monumentality, movement, and material—mix with questions of identity in works by ruby onyinyechi amanze, Gloria Maximo, Denniston Mikalson, Tuo Wang, and Bryan Zanisnik. In the case of almost all of the artists, the artworks on view were made while they were part of the Studio Program.

Parallel to the Studio Program exhibition, collaborative presentations and performances will be presented by the current cohort of Social Practice Queens. Students in Social Practice Queens (part of the Queens College/Queens Museum MFA program) share a studio at the Queens Museum. Collaborative presentations and performances arose out of the current cohort and will be presented parallel to Nine.

Social Practice Queens (SPQ) is a unique MFA Concentration and Post-graduate Certificate Program bringing together the resources of an academic research institution, Queens College (City University of New York: CUNY), with the long-standing community-based activism of the Queens Museum. As part of the partnership, students in the program share a studio at the Queens Museum. For this exhibition, Social Practice Queens presents a series of events on reimagining and reformatting social organization. Artists include Alix Camacho Vargas, Floor Grootenhuis, Paula Frisch, Tara Homasi, Zaid Islam, Jeff Kasper, Julian Phillips, Erin Turner, Uno Nam, and Pedro Vintimilla.

June 11, 1-5pm: Art As A Tool For Resistance

• Resistance Theater led by Julian Philips and Zaid Islam. Workshop and activity book on resistance with photos by Islam.
• How To Protest: A Tool Kit with Floor Grootenhuis, Tara Homasi, Zaid Islam: What do you need to bring to a protest? What are follow up actions?
• Debtbank by Alix Camacho Vargas and Jeff Kasper: A surreal bilingual (Spanish/English) resource desk where you can ask question or answer your neighbor’s queries about debt.

June 25, 1-5pm: Building Shared Identities

• Mosaic Metaphor led by Paula Frisch and Pedro Vintimilla: Participants piece together a mosaic and social sculpture.
• Estructuras Penetrables led by Alix Camacho Vargas and Jiemin Yang: Participants reshape and transform wearable buildings or interiors as more actors join in.
• Collecting Gestures Of Empathy performed by Floor Grootenhuis
• You Don’t Know performed by Uno Nam: A musical performance with moving images.