Nikita Gale
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Nikita Gale
Images
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Biography
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Nikita Gale is an artist living and working in Los Angeles, California and holds a BA in Anthropology with an emphasis in Archaeological Studies from Yale University and earned an MFA in New Genres at UCLA. Gale’s work applies the lens of material culture to consider how authority is negotiated within political, social, and economic systems.
Gale's work employs objects and materials like barricades, concrete, microphone stands, and spotlights to address the ways in which space and sound are politicized. Gale’s broad-ranging installations blur formal and disciplinary boundaries, engaging with concerns of mediation and automation in contemporary performance. Through approaching reproduction as a mechanism that connects humans to a desire for extension and amplification through both biological and industrial processes, the artist’s work points to the ways that technology not only functions as an extension and amplification of the body but also as a means by which labor and violence are displaced and concentrated. By engaging with materials that are simultaneously acoustic and protective like foam and terrycloth, Gale’s recent work considers the role of audience as a social arena and examines the ways in which silence, noise, and visibility function as political positions and conditions.
Nikita’s work has recently been exhibited at 52 Walker (New York); MoMA PS1 (New York); Kunstraum Kreuzberg (Berlin); Swiss Institute (New York); California African American Museum (Los Angeles); Cubitt (Los Angeles); The Studio Museum in Harlem (New York); and in “Made in L.A. 2018” at the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles). Gale's first European institutional solo exhibition will take place at London's Chisenhale Gallery in July 2022.
Recent Exhibitions:
IN A DREAM YOU CLIMB THE STAIRS, Chisenhale Gallery, 2022
END OF SUBJECT, 52 Walker, 2022
Press:
EDUCATION
2019
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, ME
2016
MFA New Genres, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
2006
BA, Yale University, New Haven, CT
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
HOLLOWSCENE, Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, CA
IN A DREAM YOU CLIMB THE STAIRS, Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK
TAKERS, LAXART, Los Angeles, CA
END OF SUBJECT, 52 Walker, New York, NY
2021
THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE, 56 Henry, New York, NY
SOME WEATHER | CIRCA 2021 + Chisenhale Gallery | London, UK; Tokyo, JP; Seoul, KR
2020
PRIVATE DANCER, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
AUDIENCING, Performance, MOMA PS1, New York, NY
2019
HOT WORLD, Reyes | Finn, Detroit, MI
EASY LISTENTING, University of Texas – Austin Visual Arts Center, Austin, TX
EMPTY/OPEN, Coaxial, Los Angeles, CA
2018
Keynote Drift, Atlanta Contemporary, Chute Space, Atlanta, GA (upcoming)
DESCENT, Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, CA
Extended Play, 56 Henry, New York, NY
2016
LOW MAINTENANCE: i only believe in horsepower now (Graduate thesis exhibition), UCLA New Wight Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2014
Autographs, PARMER, Brooklyn, NY
2013
White Player, Niki, The Front, New Orleans, LA
2012
1961, {Poem88}, Atlanta, GA
2010
BOOLESH1T, Mint Gallery, Atlanta, GA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Commonwealth and Council, Petzel, New York, NY
New Document, Cooper Cole, Toronto, Canada
Hand To Your Ear, Part 2, Emalin, London, United Kingdom
Beneath Tongues, Swiss Institute, New York, NY
2021
Independent New York, Reyes | Finn, Detroit, MI
Chewing Fat, Kristina Kite Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Counter Cartographies: Living the Land, Anchorage Museum of Art, Anchorage, AK
Hand to Your Ear, Part 1, Emalin, London, UK
Rites of Passage, Oxygen Biennial, Tblisi, Georgia
The Youngest Day, Carlier Gebauer, Berlin, Germany
Wild Frictions, Cincinnati Art Center, Cincinnati, OH and Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany
친구, 47 Canal, New York, NY
SUBSTRATA, Epoch Gallery in collaboration with Los Angeles Museum of Art, Virtual Exhibition
2020
Extra Tough, Anchorage Museum, Anchorage, AK
Grace Before Jones: Camera, Disco, Studio, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK
In, Of, From: Experiments in Sound, University of Florida Art Gallery, Gainesville, FL
Restless Index, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Inner Out, Moonmist, Houston, TX
The Spread, deBoer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
NADA Miami, Reyes | Finn, Detroit, MI
Art Mile Detroit, Reyes | Finn, Detroit, MI
Cult of the Crimson Queen, Ceysson & Bénétière, New York, NY
Dear Delia, Shoot the Lobster, New York, NY
SOUND OFF, LACE, Los Angeles, CA
Independent New York, Reyes | Finn, New York, NY
2019
Mud Muses, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Rosebud, Matthew Marks Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
In the Historical Present, The New School Kellen Gallery at Parsons, New York, NY
Inner Ear Vision: Sound as Medium, Bemis Center, Omaha, NE
Formula 1, CUE Foundation, New York, NY
Notebook, 56 Henry, New York, NY
Structures that Cooperate: Get Paid! (CCCO #2), Cubitt, London, UK
Fall Apart, Martos Gallery, New York, NY
Independent New York, Reyes | Finn, New York, NY
2018
Made in L.A. 2018, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Relics, Ceysson & Bénétière, Paris, France
Soft Focus, curated by Ellie Rines, Reyes Projects, Detroit, MI
Demolition WoManhood, Skibum MacArthur, Los Angeles, CA
2017
CULTURAL CAPITAL COOPERATIVE OBJECT #1 & 2, Rodeo Gallery, London, UK Fictions, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Race, Love, and Labor, Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery, Stony Brook, NY
Earputty, 56 Henry, New York, NY
Regrouping, LUX, London, UK
2016
CULTURAL CAPITAL COOPERATIVE OBJECT #2, LAXART, Los Angeles, CA
2015
The Middle Future, Public Fiction, Paris, France
Rachel's Killin' It, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, GA
2014
As We Were Saying, EFA Project Space (Elizabeth Foundation), New York, NY (cur. Claire Barliant)
Race, Love, and Labor, Samuel Dorsky Museum, New Paltz, NY (cur. Sarah Lewis)
Hearsay, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, GA
Rooted Movements, LMAK Projects, New York, NY
Foreword, Gallery 72, Atlanta, GA
The Last Brucennial, Bruce High Quality Foundation, New York, NY
2013
WORD!, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (Decatur Book Festival), Atlanta, GA
Consuming Passions, Hagedorn Foundation Gallery, Atlanta, GA (cur. Amanda Parmer)
BLOW-UP, {Poem88}, Atlanta, GA
(in)complete, {TEMP}, New York, NY
2012
Made in Woodstock VI, The Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY
Shared Southern Stories, Emily Amy Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Living Walls (Street Art Conference), Atlanta, Georgia
Still Figuring It Out, RAC, New York, NY
Linearity, Mint Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Breathing Room, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
Under the Influence, Kianga Ellis Projects, New York, NY
The Future is Behind Us, Atlanta Preservation Center, Atlanta, A
2011
*Ground Floor | Dashboard Co-op |, Atlanta, GA
Irrational Exuberance: A Recession Art Show, The Invisible Dog Gallery, New York City, NY
MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Marieluise Hessel Foundation / CCS Bard, NY
The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), FL
AWARDS & HONORS
2022
Henraux Sculpture Prize, Versilia, Italy
2021
FOCA Fellowship, Los Angeles, CA
2019
Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL
UT Austin Artist-in-Residence, Austin, TX
Coaxial Artist-in-Residence, Los Angeles, CA
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, ME
2018
NADA Acquisition Gift for Pérez Art Museum Miami
2017
Rema Hort Mann Emergining Artist Grant
2016
Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship Award, UCLA
2013
National Endowment for the Arts Southern Constellations Fellowship, Elsewhere, Greensboro, NC
Artist-in-Residence, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2012
Studio Artist Program, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
2011
Artist-in-Residence | Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY
SPECIAL PROJECTS
2020
MoMA PS1 VW Sunday Sessions: AUDIENCING
2018 - Present
Omniaudience co-organized with Triple Canopy, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2018
Open Spaces Kansas City, Kansas City, MO
2017
ICA LA Inaugural Gala Video Honoring Carrie Mae Weems, commission, Los Angeles, CA
Dashboard US Confluence Sculpture Project, commission, Kansas City, MO