J. Soto and Stephanie Acosta present Aquí y Allá, the result of a year-long dialogue focused on the overwhelming complexity of identifying as Latinx while representations in popular culture and the art world reify tired visions of otherness rather than expressing our contemporary presence. Both New York based artists working extensively in collaboration, Acosta and Soto chart out territory for a more dynamic dialogue. Aquí y Allá manifests as a collection of new artworks developed into two archives in the forms of video and sculpture; an object theatre.  Acosta resists the finality of anthropology and captures its fleeting nature through discursive translation engaging the photographic imprint and creating present futures. Soto complicates categorization by honoring contradiction and unintelligibility suggesting the mutable and evolving nature of the personal subject in tension with the national subject and sexuality.

On Saturday December 17 at 6pm, a performance lecture exploring their research and exhibition will be given by Acosta and Soto.

Stephanie Acosta is a multidisciplinary artist focused on the exploration of the experiential, incorporating concrete objects, created environments, solo and ensemble performances, along with experimental and documentary filmmaking as modes of inquiry. By placing the materiality of the ephemeral at the root of her practice, Acosta questions the making of immovable meanings in our manufactured limitations. Currently based in NYC, where she works extensively with unseen histories, performance, experimental radio, and dance films. Recently presenting I AM A POTTED PALM, an evolving solo, from her series Is This What You Wanted, issues of self tokenizing and the sanctity of sincerity in identity work, (Chicago’s IN>TIME2016 Performance Festival). Her first feature film, The Ladies Almanack, premiered at the MCA of Chicago October 2016, based on the writing of Djuna Barnes. In development, Aqui y Alla at Vox Populi (Nov 2016, Philadelphia) in collaboration with J Soto, and BOOM INTRINSIC a dance film installation w/Cynthia Oliver and Leslie Cuyjet. www.stephanieacosta.org 

J. Soto is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and community arts organizer with a focus on project-specific collaborations in performance. He has curated and performed work for The National Queer Arts Festival (San Francisco),  Links Hall (Chicago), as well as Vox Populi (Philadelphia) among others nationally. His collaborative writing project, “Ya Presente Ayer” can be found in Support Networks, Chicago Social Practice History Series (University of Chicago Press). Most recently, Soto co-founded the Latinx Artist Visibility Award (LAVA) for Ox-Bow School of Art in partnership with The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His writing has most recently appeared in Apogee Journal: Queer History, Queer Now Folio with forthcoming work to be featured in Original Plumbing magazine.  He received an MFA in Performance from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. www.jsoto.net