2024 Spring Salon

Join us for TOPAZ ARTS' 2024 Spring Salon! Enjoy a free afternoon of creativity and performances, featuring Abang-guard (Maureen Catbagan + Jevijoe Vitug), performer Mary Prescott, spoken word and book signing with Warren Lehrer. The event kicks off on Saturday, June 1st, 2024, 2-6 PM. Come meet the artists and participate in our 2024 Spring Salon!

From 2-4pm features Abang-guard’s (Maureen Catbagan + Jevijoe Vitug) Museo de Pintados, a participatory performance platform along with a special workshop, Pinta Pintados. Influenced by indigenous tattoo mark-making in the Philippines, Pinta Pintados is a temporary tattoo workshop using impermanent ink markers, facilitated by Queens-based artist Jevijoe Vitug. Participate in this museum display format that invites the public to showcase their tattoos, animating Pintados gestures. Pintados is a term used by Spanish colonizers in the 16th century to describe indigenous people with tattooed bodies in the Philippines.

From 4-6pm features performances, with a new work-in-progress by Mary Prescott, a Thai-American interdisciplinary artist, composer, and pianist. Followed by Warren Lehrer Double Book Launch/Signing, featuring multimedia performance/readings by Lehrer with Palestinian-American actor/author Najla Said (Jericho's Daughter), and actor/author/EarSay co-founder Judith Sloan (Riveted in the Word), followed by a short Q&A with the artists. Jericho's Daughter is Lehrer's anti-war, feminist reimagining of the biblical tale of Rahab, illuminated with images by painter Sharon Horvath, bound in a dos-à dos binding. Lehrer's first fully electronic book, Riveted in the Word, portrays the journey of a writer regaining language after a devasting stroke; original soundtrack by Andrew Griffin, programmed by Artemio Morales.

About the Artists:

Abang-guard is a collaborative project between artists Maureen Catbagan and Jevijoe Vitug that explores the intersections of immigration, labor, and visibility. Reflecting on the artistic strategies of the avant-garde, they infuse personal history and art practice with theoretical humor to convey the complexity and nuances between cultural production, institutional structures, and the role of labor. The project began in 2017 through their occupation as museum guards. Catbagan received their BFA from SUNY, Binghamton University and MFA from CUNY, The City College. Vitug received his BFA from St. Scholastica’s College, Philippines and MFA from San Francisco Art Institute. They are currently recipients of 2024-25 QM-Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists at Queens Museum. Pinta Pintados workshop project led by Jevijoe Vitug is made possible, in part, by Queens Arts Fund: New Work Grant.

Mary Prescott is a Thai-American interdisciplinary artist, composer, and pianist who explores the foundations and facets of identity and social conditions through experiential performance. Her output includes several large-scale interdisciplinary works, improvised music, opera, sound journaling, film music, solo and chamber concert works. Featured in "21 for '21: Composers and Performers Who Sound Like Tomorrow," The Washington Post describes Mary's work as "a bright light cast forward... uncompromising," and "masterfully envisioned." Mary is an awardee of the McKnight Composer Fellowship, NPN Creation and Development Fund, a New Music USA Project Grant, and many more. Her recent residencies include Camargo, VCCA and Lanesboro Arts. She has been a Mabou Mines SUITE/Space Artist, and a Harlem Stage WaterWorks Emerging Artist. Mary holds piano performance degrees from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, and Manhattan School of Music; and is a Steinway Artist.

Warren Lehrer is a NY-based artist and writer known internationally as a pioneer of visual literature and design authorship. His work is acclaimed for its marriage of writing and typography, capturing the shape of thought and speech, and reuniting oral and pictorial traditions of storytelling in books, animations, and performance. Honors include: Center for Book Arts Honoree, Ladislav Sutnar Prize Laureate, Brendan Gill Prize, three AIGA Book Awards, NEA Fellow, NYFA Fellow, grants from Rockefeller, Ford, and Furthermore Foundations. Lehrer is a founding faculty member of SVA's Designer As Author/Entrepreneur MFA program, Professor Emeritus at SUNY Purchase, and co-founder of EarSay, a non-profit arts organization in Queens, NY. Jericho's Daughter and Riveted in the Word are his 13th and 14th books. www.warrenlehrer.com

The 2024 Spring Salon is presented by TOPAZ ARTS, Inc. made possible, in part, by NYS Council on the Arts; NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs; and the Cultural Immigrant Initiative in partnership with City Council. www.topazarts.org

Host or Publisher TOPAZ ARTS, Inc.