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Jenson Leonard: GLAND PRIX
May 27, 2022– August 29, 2022
Opening Friday, May 27, 2022 at Squeaky Wheel
On view through August 29, 2022, Tuesday and Wednesdays, 12–5pm and by appointment.
Click here to download the GLAND PRIX Strategy Guide (V. 3.00)
Squeaky Wheel is excited to present a new solo exhibition by new media artist Jenson Leonard. 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.
Featuring a drum and bass soundtrack, the newest work by the Philadelphia based new media artist and poet functions as a manifestation and reflection of the embodied effects of settler-colonial violence. The work is emblematic of Leonard’s singular, joyous, and concentrated work: Using the visual tactics and language of viral internet memes, and wrapped within racing iconography, GLAND PRIX considers and draws from pop culture, medical racism/medical apartheid, the video game Gran Turismo, Achille Mbembe’s notion of necropolitics, anime aesthetics, and much more to raise awareness, invite conversation, and reflect upon the cumulative, cellular burden of chronic stress and traumatic life events.
The opening of the exhibition will feature remarks with the artist in person. A “Strategy Guide” for the exhibition provides a walkthrough of the exhibition with visual and audio descriptions, explanations of Leonard’s key references, and a newly commissioned essay by Cameron A. Granger.
The exhibition is on view Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 12–5 pm and by appointment. To make an appointment, email ekrem@squeaky.org.
This project was made possible through support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Public programs
POSTPONED – Tuesday, May 24, 6–8:30 pm : Workshop | Meme workshop with Jenson Leonard (in-person and virtual).
Friday, May 27, 7 pm: Opening | GLAND PRIX with Jenson Leonard (in-person)
Wednesday, June 15, 12 pm ET: Artist talk | Jenson Leonard and American Artist in conversation. Virtual – Click here to register.
Friday, August 26: Screening | Jenson Leonard’s Workflow, followed by a conversation with Jenson Leonard and Johann Diedrick (in person and virtual). Click here to register.
About the artist
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.
About the writer
Cameron A. Granger came up in Cleveland, Ohio alongside his mother, Sandra, inheriting both her love of soul music, and habit of apologizing too much. A video artist, he uses his work as both a site for memory making, and as means to strategize new ways of remembrance in our age of mass media. His recent projects include “The Get Free Telethon” a 24 hour livestream community fundraiser sponsored by Red Bull Arts, “Pearl” a body of collaborative works with his mother at Ctrl+Shft in Oakland, and “A library, for you” a traveling community library most recently housed at ikattha project space in Bombay, India. He’s a 2017 alumni of the Skowhegan School for Paint & Sculpture and a current artist in residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem.
