Queer Van Kult is excited to launch a publication for Revelation, current exhibition at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art. Featuring performances by Marisa Tornello and poets from NYSAI Press.
WHEN: July 8 | 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
WHERE: Newhouse Center, Main Hall Gallery (Building C)
ADMISSION: Pay what you can: $5 – $10
Queer Van Kult is a liturgy of performance, installation, and music with a focus on queer artistry and multimedia work. Imagined as a surreal funhouse of queer taste, Queer Van Kult was created as a response to a tapering of dedicated platforms for avant-garde performance and art on Staten Island. Queer Van Kult: Revelation transforms Newhouse Gallery into a fully immersive dreamscape that subverts the societal narrative in which to be queer is to be “othered.”
The events presented and produced by the collective encourage an atmosphere of community, unbounded creativity, and celebration—all while providing a home for the cultivation of experimental works by local and emerging artists beyond. QVK is founded and curated by Rachel Fox, Nicie Mok, Jenno Snyder, and Zoë Tirado.
Marisa Tornello is a composer, vocalist, performance artist, and songwriter centering their practice around themes of mental health, and creating works that elevate voices in a stigmatized society. Marisa’s practice extends into musical interface design, video art, poetry, theater, movement, and conceptual art. In 2015, Marisa composed, choreographed, and directed Keeping Perfect Time, a musical highlighting the relationship between dementia, music therapy, and caregiving. In 2018, Marisa performed a durational piece focusing on the complex themes of depression in blank, premiered during Ladyfest at the Tank, incorporating body painting as an ever-evolving sculptural exploration.
NYSAI Press publishes Staten Island based literary journals, chapbooks, zines, and a biannual literary magazine featuring artists and writers with distinct voices from all over the world. Learn more at https://www.nysai.org/
Revelation is made possible through generous support from the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
