Biographies

Morgan Arnett was born in Pensacola, Florida and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2014 from the University of West Florida with a Presidential Talent Scholarship for Studio Art. She is a member of the College Arts Association, the Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society, and the Golden Key International Honors Society. She has worked collaboratively on a number of projects in her community and recently studied abroad in Beijing, China. She enjoys watching science fiction films, reading as many books as she has time to (especially short stories and horror novels), spending time near or in large bodies of water, and working in a notebook obsessively.

Jason Bernagozzi is a video, sound and new media artist living and working in upstate New York and is the co-founder of the experimental media arts non-profit Signal Culture. His work has been featured nationally and internationally at venues such as the European Media Arts Festival in Osnabruk, Germany, the LOOP Video Art Festival in Barcelona, Spain, the Beyond/In Western NY Biennial in Buffalo, NY, and the Yan Gerber International Arts Festival in Hebei Province, China. His work has received several awards including grants from the New York State Council for the Arts, free103point9 and the ARTS Council for the Southern Finger Lakes.

Jaz Palermo is a performance artist and gender illusionist working in western new york, in the realms of video and sound, and craft. Their work references high camp, theater, childhood, and memory in cathartic re-imaginings of life events and fantastical alter selves. When pressed for comment they said “I have chosen this dimension to spread the message of a future without bounds, museums without walls, and inter-galactic harmony, and you should consider yourself very lucky.” Their work exists in the internet under various aliases of Jaz Palermo, Normie Neutro, and Teenie Hams. Charlie Best is a multi media artist from Western New York. They use sculpture, textiles, video, sound, illustration, and printmaking to make work that cannot exist without collaboration. In between spaces and beings become realized, often through performance, object making, and ongoing, interrupted projects. They believe that any act of our lives, if we do it consciously and concentratedly to cultivate a collaborative attitude of listening, is art. This is where the work begins, dynamic and collaborative in nature, balancing in fantasy and quotidian possibility. Their zines, prints, and fabric works are locally known and shared worldwide. Together, Charlie and Jaz form Chaz, a nonlinear, nonscheduled, nonbinary artist amalgamation. Chaz’s performative practice involves live video processing, improvisation, the accordion, costume, glitter, poetry words, with the capacity to expand and exclude any material or process needed. Integral to Chaz’s creative process is not knowing which bathroom to use. Though small, Chaz will grow up, someday.

W. Michelle Harris is a digital media artist who uses code as a medium for engaging discussions as a Black woman in American culture. Harris creates installations (often interactive) and produces live-mixed visuals for collaborative performances. Her elegant and playful artwork (solo and collaborative) has been shown at such diverse venues as the Rochester Fringe, Baobab Cultural Center, Syracuse Community Folk Art Center, INSTINT, ACM SIGGRAPH, and World Maker Faire. Harris has a computer engineering degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a master’s degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She is an associate professor in the School of Interactive Games and Media at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Kyla Kegler: I am an artist currently based in Buffalo. My recent work is notably informed by a long-standing yoga, physical therapy and somatic research practice, a close involvement with the contemporary conceptual dance scene in Berlin, and an urgent relationship to art as my tool for socio-political activism and research. I choreograph artistic encounters that use time-based mediums such as video, sound, performance, instructionals, and installations, to facilitate tactile and sensual interactions.

Dana McKnight is a multidisciplinary Black/Queer Artist, Writer and the President/Founder of Dreamland Arts.

A native of Poland, Przemysław J. (P.J.) Moskal immigrated to the U.S. in 1990. In 2003 he graduated from Interactive Telecommunication Program at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University and began his career as a new media artist and consultant for a variety of non-profit and commercial projects. In 2011, he earned his Ph.D. in Film Art from The Cinematography and Television Production Department at The Lódź Film School in Poland under supervision of Prof. Stanisław Szymański. Dr. Moskal is an Associate Professor and director of the Digital Media Arts Program at Canisius College where he teaches courses in Interaction Design, Game Development and Animation as part of the Game Design concentration. His research and writing focus on design of interaction as a form of procedural rhetoric, procedural expressionism and artistic communication. Moskal’s interactive, digital art works, which are both screen based and installations, have been recognized and exhibited in the U.S., France, Brazil, Thailand, Canada, Germany, U.K., Portugal, China and his native Poland. He received grants from New York State Council on the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and his exhibitions were supported by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Art and Technology Foundation, New York Dance & Arts Innovations, Canisius College, Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, New York University, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, among others. You can view Moskal’s project on his website at http://www.laksom.com

Van Tran Nguyen is completing her Masters of Fine Arts and Emerging Practices at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is the first Biological Art teaching assistant at COALESCE Center of Biological art, a facet of the GEM (Genome, Environment and Microbiome) group. She also earned her Bachelor of Art and Biology at the University at Buffalo. In the fall of 2017 she will continue her education at Rensselear Polytechnical Institute as a PhD student in the Philosophy of Electronic Art Program. Tran Nguyen has exhibited throughout New York and had participated in the New York State Summer School of the Arts. She was born in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and her work investigates issues such as national identity and gender.

Elisa Peebles is an artist, activist and producer originally from the East Side of Buffalo, NY. After receiving a B.S. in Media, Culture and Communication Studies from New York University, Elisa has spent the past several years living, working and creating in Buffalo and New York City. Her most recent exhibition, Bodies of Light: Exit Strategy, at the gallery pop up Decolonize This Place, brought artists of color from both cities together around the themes of resistance and perseverance. Prior to this, Elisa created and co-directed the Buffalo Myth Project, and was a producer on the Sundance and SXSW – selected short Actresses, as well as several other independent and commercial short films. A hip-hop performer, Elisa was selected to perform at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 2015 Everybooty Pride Festival. She uses music, film, audio and other methods of storytelling to contemplate issues around collective memory, urban development, social justice, and the intersection of race, gender and sexuality. Currently, Elisa is a producer of the satirical webseries Dark Justice.