Wednesday, April 15, 12 pm ET
Free or suggested donation
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Access information: ASL interpretation and automated captions provided

Jenson Leonard is joined by American Artist for a virtual conversation on the occasion of Leonard’s exhibition GLAND PRIX. GLAND PRIX is a multiple-screen video exhibition to explore the stressors and somatic effects that racial capitalism and white supremacy have on Black life. Learn more about the exhibition here.

The live artist talk will be accessible to audiences for 24 hours after the event. Squeaky Wheel members will have access for 72 hours. Not a member? Sign up here.

This event was made possible through support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

About the artists

Jenson Leonard, b. Detroit, Michigan, and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America. Lives and works in New York, United States of America. Initially a poet, Jenson Leonard became interested in memes during his six-year tenure as a cook at a Belgian waffle kiosk. He found himself drawn to the immediacy and reach of instant publication on social media, the confluence of which exacerbate the arguably inherent power of the image for those who see. His early work used the canonical Twitter meme format, but developed into the more ornately parodic style that predominates in the left-leaning corners of Facebook. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Pratt Institute. He has completed residencies at Obracadobra (Oaxaca, Mexico), Squeaky Wheel (Buffalo, NY) and Pioneer Works (Brooklyn, NYC). His work has been featured in VICE Motherboard, Juxtapoz, AQNB, and Rhizome.

AMERICAN ARTIST makes thought experiments that mine the history of technology, race, and knowledge production, beginning with their legal name change in 2013. Their artwork primarily takes the form of sculpture, software, and video. Artist is a 2022 Creative Capital and United States Artists grantee, and a recipient of the 2021 LACMA Art & Tech Lab Grant. They are a resident at Smack Mellon in Brooklyn and a former resident of Red Bull Arts, Abrons Art Center, Recess, EYEBEAM, Pioneer Works, and the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. They have exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art; MoMA PS1; Studio Museum in Harlem; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland; and Nam June Paik Center, Seoul. They have had solo museum exhibitions at The Queens Museum, New York and The Museum of African Diaspora, California. Their work has been featured in the New York Times, Artforum, and Huffington Post. Artist is a lecturer at Parsons, NYU, UCLA and a co-director of the School for Poetic Computation.

Banner image courtesy of Jenson Leonard. A digital image with two giant wheels, a logo stating “GLAND PRIX: The Bio Labor Simulator” over a field of flames. On the left of the image is a portrait photograph of Jenson Leonard, a portrait of a brown skinned person smiling while wearing glasses and a yellow sad face emoji hat. On the right is a portrait photograph of American Artist, a brown-skinned person wearing a white hoodie, blue puffer jacket on a red curtain backdrop. On the bottom is the text “In conversation: Jenson Leonard & American Artist”. American Artists photograph by Myles Loftin.