Emerson Dorsch is pleased to present Beatriz Monteavaro and Saya Woolfalk in their debut exhibitions with the gallery. While the shared origins of the exhibition titles are coincidental, they resonate with a synchronicity between the two artists: in the case of Monteavaro, subcultural iconography is repurposed and thrust into a potential apocalyptic future; in that of Woolfalk, cultural anthropology as a whole coalesces into an imaginary utopia.

Saya Woolfalk represents a trans-cultural, trans-national mélange that is woven throughout her work. Her vibrant costuming, figures, and structures - festooned in geometric patterns and punctuated by contemporary kitsch icons and symbols - simultaneously reference the multitude of cultures while belonging to none. The result is a sci-fi uncanny coupled with a childlike joy. Her recent work details “No Place” a future utopia in which a group known as “Empathics” attempt to channel this milieu into the present day. In Chimera, Woolfalk will present new videos depicting a figure transitioning into the status of “Empathic”, photographs from the video production, and “hide drawings” and sculptural skulls made to represent artifacts of the “No Place” culture.

Saya Woolfalk was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and multiracial father. She is a New York based artist. Saya has exhibited in group exhibitions that include PS1/MoMA; Performa 09; Contemporary Art Museum, Houston; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; the the Studio Museum in Harlem; the Frist Center for the Visual Arts; The Yerba Buena Center; and MoCA Taipei. Her first solo museum show The Empathics was on view at the Montclair Art Museum in the Fall of 2012. She is currently an artist in residence at Smack Mellon and working on a solo museum show for the Chrysler Museum of Art (fall 2014). She teaches at Parsons: The New School for Design, and has a BA from Brown University, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and was a 2006 alum of the Whitney Independent Study Program.