4/18 @ 1pm | More is More: A Hands-on Chandelier Charm Workshop

Join us Saturday, April 18, 2026 from 1 – 3 PM for More is More, a hands-on Chandelier Charm workshop inspired by David Antonio Cruz's exhibition black/backroom at PES FUTURES (128 Baxter St. NYC).

Participants will design and create their own wearable charms using craft wood, rhinestones, and other adornments, drawing from the visual language of the chandeliers featured in the installation.

The chandeliers in Cruz's work reflect abundance, decadence, and splendor. Embedded within them are small sculptural objects that hold intimate narratives. In this workshop, participants will embrace the philosophy that more is more—crafting their own small-scale charms that can be worn as necklaces, attached to keychains, or kept as personal talismans—each telling a story of their own.

This program is designed to engage younger audiences between the ages of 6 and 10 but is open to all ages and skill levels.
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David Antonio Cruz’s black/backroom considers future-making through the lens of both personal and collective historical precedence. As part of a continuation of Cruz’s unveiling of Queer-Brown-Histories, the artist shapes potentialities through intersecting themes of loss, desire, and the legacy of Cruz's grandparents' land—Puerto Rico.

The immersive exhibition draws on various aspects of Cruz’s interdisciplinary practice in a beautifully maximalist manner. Viewers are enveloped in a detailed wallpaper that features ghostly layered flora from important geographies in the artist's life—Philadelphia, Puerto Rico, and New York. These hidden histories and vignettes lead to a surprise element tucked in the back of the space, inviting viewers to rest and recline. The installation crescendos around a cacophony of chandeliers, a relatively new symbolic element in Cruz’s lexicon, reflecting abundance, decadence, and splendor. Embedded within the chandeliers are small sculptural objects that symbolize intimate narratives.

These chandeliers evolved from Cruz’s candelabras, some of which were originally shown during the artist's first at Project for Empty Space in 2016. A new series of candelabras, which were created for PES’ fifteenth anniversary, accompanies this exhibition. black/backroom is a symbolic homecoming of sorts for the artist. Cruz was an inaugural PES Artist in Residence from 2015 - 2017. The exhibition at PES Futures is a full circle moment for the artist and Co-Directors/Curators to create a show that looks towards an abundant future.

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