Nasty & Full
Exhibition
The Keith Haring Theatre
October 5 – 31 | Tuesday – Sunday | 12 – 6pm
Free
Performance
The Keith Haring Theatre
October 31 | 8pm
Tickets
Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Nasty & Full presents the New York debut of a body of work four years in the making, site-specifically installed for the Keith Haring Theater at Performance Space New York. Through a fusion of voice, video installation, sculpture, and performance, Thomas seeks new pathways to understand and express the foundationally transient nature of being and becoming a doll—a trans femme so flawless and unbound she is no longer considered real.
Thomas’s artwork emerges from an iterative process informed by her writing and performance. Her practice is linguistic as much as it is bodily. With latex, paper bags, pillars and bricks of repurposed materials, Thomas thoughtfully builds a fluid space, black and blue, imbued with elements signifying care. This timeless world is for us, offering moments to acknowledge, reflect on, and move through realities that can feel oppressive and untenable, with self-fulfillment always in sight. Transfiguration for the artist is not a destination, but a tool that can act as a shield and life force, allowing us to move through worlds and show up wholeheartedly in our truth. Unique and unified, she will meet you there.
Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Nasty & Full culminates with the New York premiere and final run of the live performance from which this body of work originated, Come Hell or High Femmes: The Dolls Rise, on Halloween night (October 31).
Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Nasty & Full is curated by Isis Awad as Executive Care*.
Funding: Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Nasty & Full is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Photo: Keioui Keijaun Thomas, Come Hell or High Femmes: The Era of the Dolls, Abrons Art Center, 2023. Photo by Christopher Sonny Martinez. Come Hell or High Femmes was made possible with funding from The MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, and Mellon Foundation.