When the Children Come Home is a special project. Although it is not my first solo show, it’s the first expansive survey of my work, exploring ideas of home and its intersections with geography, diaspora, LGBTQ+ culture, and autobiography. The project features recent work that references deeply and personally meaningful sites in Philadelphia. More than 30 large paintings, drawings, and objects, including an immersive, site-specific installation, are included in the exhibition.
Back in October, as part of the Philadelphia show, you and others did a live performance, incorporating original scores, costumes, and music. Is performance a large part of your creative practice?
Yes, I performed green,howiwantyougreen at the ICA Philadelphia and the Poetry Foundation in Chicago. green,howiwantyougreen is an experimental operatic performance piece based on Sonnets of Dark Love, the last 11 poems by the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. They were banned for 50 years following his assassination in 1936. Featuring four voices, a reader, and a musician, the bilingual Spanish and English libretto fuses references to popular culture, queer slang, and Latino and Black gay culture to explore love and desire in dark places.
I wrote this piece eight years ago with music by my long-time collaborator, Daniel de Jesús. Performance and interventions have been a large part of my work for over 15 years. The paintings and performances exist in the same world: They engage and breathe the same air; they just have different sounds and interactions.
How do you manage your own work and teaching? Do the two overlap, or do you keep them separate?
I am very present and in the moment when I’m in my studio and in the classroom. I also like sharing my research, studio, and professional practice with my students. Being an artist can be very abstract to many people. It’s essential that students learn what it is to have an art practice.
What was your path to a career that embraces academia and art production?
Years ago, artists invited me to teach a painting class. It was a rewarding way to support my practice, share my experience, and mentor a new generation of artists.
Any advice for students interested in following a similar trajectory?
Develop your artistic voice, work hard, and love what you do. Build a community of artists and surround yourself with like-minded individuals.
What are you teaching in the spring semester?
I am teaching Graduate Studio and Figure Painting this spring.
What is special about teaching at the School of the Arts and in New York?
We have an incredible faculty, all teaching in an interdisciplinary program where the lines between ideas, mediums, and studio practice are blurred. Students are mentored by scholars and leading figures in their craft and discipline. The school being in the city creates many opportunities for students to engage, participate, and become exposed to numerous artists, scholars, and institutions, unlike any other place in the country.
