When you visit the website for HOUSING, a space for art located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY, you will notice a list of local businesses that they advise visitors to engage with if planning to attend. While it may seem strange at first, this list is just one intentional aspect of a space that aims to foster an arts platform for public use and dynamic engagement with artists of color from and outside the surrounding community.
Established in Summer of 2017 by Eileen Isagon Skyers, KJ Freeman, and Nathalie Encarnacion — who took over the lease of the previous gallery American Medium — HOUSING arrives at an exciting time in the ongoing offer of works by artists of color. The team works outside the master narrative of institutions that have routinely excluded underrepresented artists and looks to challenge the preconceived and prepackaged notions of work made by artists of color.
I sat down for a Q&A with creative director Eileen Isagon Skyers to learn more about HOUSING and its vision.
Eileen Isagon Skyers / Photo by Kimari Hazward
“We were left wondering why we should struggle to insert ourselves into the master narrative of institutions that have supported a convention of artistic ‘success’ that has routinely excluded us.”
Why the name HOUSING?
Calling the space HOUSING was somewhat strategic. Rather than use a conglomerate of our own surnames, we wanted the very name of the gallery to convey that we are providing a space for the actual public, considered collectively. We neighbor New York City Housing Authority’s Louis Armstrong II and Stuyvesant Gardens. In terms of search engine optimization, those who Google us are confronted with the numerous realities of the residents who have occupied, and shared, this neighborhood long before we opened here.
What were some of your motivations for opening this gallery at this point in time?
We felt that, in this particular moment in cultural history, there has been a palpable sense of urgency and fervor when it comes to the creative vision of artists of color (which we can all admit has been long overdue). We were left wondering why we should struggle to insert ourselves into the master narrative of institutions that have supported a convention of artistic “success” that has routinely excluded us.
So, while part of what motivated the space was this opportunity to engage with our neighboring community, we were also investing in a space where both artists and people of color could congregate, experiment, or manifest different ways of being a capital “A” artist.
Who is part of the HOUSING team? How did you come together and what are some of your roles in the day to day work of the gallery?
The HOUSING crew has definitely fluctuated since its inception, and we’d be remiss not to share our gratitude for everyone who has been willing to lend a hand with the installation or documentation of works through our time here.
It’s been so overwhelming to witness the response of people who have dedicated their time or resources to support the space. Officially, HOUSING is comprised of myself (Eileen Isagon Skyers – Creative Director), KJ Freeman (Director and Owner), and Nathalie Encarnacion (Operations Director), since September 2017.
KJ Freeman / Photo by Kimari Hazward
Being one of the few galleries with an explicitly intentional mission to feature and uplift artists of color, what is the curatorial process like?
In the art world at large, there are so many expectations that people of color are pressured to fulfill. Beyond having a coherent body of work, our practice is thought to serve a particular purpose — to sustain the very imagination of the art world by providing exactly what it already feels it deserves: an easy, preconceived package of blackness, or queerness, or identity politics, more broadly. Our successes within these structures are so often postured as a cultural anomaly.
The curatorial vision at HOUSING brings together emerging artists and established ones, people at varying entry-points to the arts, with different experiences, many of whom are familiar with one another on the internet. We want to challenge the art world status-quo by presenting discerning perspectives by artists of color that are rarely, if ever, shown elsewhere.
As folks in the team with their individual artistic practices, how has your own experience as an artist in these times informed the need to put energy into making a space like HOUSING come to fruition?
I operate as both an artist and writer, and, in a curatorial and communications capacity, for brands and cultural institutions, like museums — all of which has informed my perspective toward HOUSING. I was fortunate to begin studying art at an early age, and I’ve since watched how art objects are valued or criticized, written up, or placed in canonized institutions. I’ve also watched how class, access, and privilege manifest in the success or valuation of an artist or art space. Moving through these institutions myself, and recognizing the lack of representation, and isolation, that they each issue as “normative” has been exhausting. All of our efforts at HOUSING have been made to shift that trajectory, to move the needle, if only a little.
Since your opening, what have been some gratifying experiences with artists you’ve worked with or shows you’ve put on?
Honestly, some of my fondest memories in our space have been during install or in the late hours of an opening when the music is on, and people can just freely interact. One time a passerby stopped in after-hours with her daughters after leaving the grocery store. Moments like that are when it really feels gratifying.
Some people just cross a permeable boundary that, I feel, contributes to the larger socio-cultural discourse of the space.
What’s coming up for the gallery? Any events or shows to keep an eye out on? How can we keep up with what is happening at the space.
It is actually now our mission for HOUSING to continue programming that extends beyond, and outside of, the Bed-Stuy community. We want to explore ways to broaden our reach and therefore, the reach of the artists we support, which is far more imperative than our attachment to any particular geographic radius.
The next exhibition will open March 17, featuring works by Bahareh Khoshooee and Aruni Dharmakirthi, followed by a solo exhibition by Jibade-Khalil Huffman in April 2018. We will also be hosting a Spring benefit on April 13th in support of our re-opening in the fall.
For more information please visit housing-art.info.
Editorial Credits:
Author: Cristobal Guerra
Photography: Kimari Hazward
Senior Photo Direction: Asher Torres
Become a Posture Member
Support independent media and become an official Posture member! Membership includes our special annual print edition ($20 value), free and/or discounted entry to all Posture events in NYC (including upcoming mixers, panel discussions, and networking opportunities), special offers from our partners, personal updates from the Posture team, and more. Learn more here.
