Heryk Tomassini was born in Santurce in 1974 and grew up in Las Vegas, Cataño and Santa Cruz, Bayamón, and is living and working between Philadelphia and Puerto Rico. His poor upbringing in Bayamón, a city with a strong contemporary lineage of working-class artists, provided him with that strong foundation. Since he was 8 years old the artist would gather materials, not as a hoarder but to make furniture out of necessity. He obtained and MFA from the University of Pennsylvania where he got the Scholarship for Diversity. Also, he studied architecture at ARQPOLI, Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico, which could explain his care for precision and clean lines even though the discarded materials he uses could easily result in Clusterfuck Aesthetics in other artist’s hands. His work won the Award of Excellence of the 9th Semiannual Competition Exhibitions of Dave Bown Projects. He attended to Vermont Studio Center residency program in March 2015 and his work is being published at the Studio Visit Magazine Volume 21, among others. His artwork is being exhibited, at The Bronx Museum in New York as part of the 9th Biennale, David Nolan Gallery in Chelsea New York, Art Museum in Caguas, PR. In 2002 Tomassini participated in the international event PR 02’ [En ruta] in collaboration with the architectural firm from Finland Casagrande & Rintala, organized by M+M Projects.
Wit Lopez (They/Them) is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning, multidisciplinary maker, performance artist, writer, and cultural advocate based in Philadelphia, PA
Jæ (Jae W.B.) is a singer, theater artist, and night life performer based in New York City. Identifying as non-binary trans femme Jae uses they them & she her pronouns. Jae made their off broadway debut in the titular role of Thorn in Bruise & Thorn at A.R.T. / NY THEATERS. Jae has been featured in publications like TheGrio, Them. & Paper Magazine with former label mates from TransTrenderz. Jae can be seen performing their solo Cabaret show “Group Therapy” at Rockbar NYC with Yasuhiko Fukuoka, hosting and co headlining a new show called “Love Boat” with Ryan Ortega at Cherrys on the Bay, and Quesdays at the Q alongside Lance Horne. Most recently they’ve been shot for planned parenthood educational programs, done solo shows at Club Cumming, played the role of Xavii in an upcoming radio theater production by New Light Theater Project, pride campaigns for Facebook, and singing alongside other exciting talent for Susie Mosher and Brad Simmons “The Line Up” at Birdland. She has been featured on several podcasts across streaming services including: The Onyx Theory Podcast, The Grey Scale Podcast, In the Nunc, Standby for places, and Conversations with a Mixed Chick. Jae was also announced as an honorary mention for The New Vision Fellowship with the national Queer Theater & Dramatist Guild and participated as a writer for their yearly viral monologues event. Jae can be found across social media platforms as: @mxjaewb
Moderated by Rami George (b. 1989, USA) an interdisciplinary artist currently based on Lenape land in what is now called Philadelphia. Their work has been presented in exhibitions and screenings at MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge; Anthology Film Archives, New York; Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow; Grand Union, Birmingham; the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; LUX, London; the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; and elsewhere. Rami received their BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and MFA from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a 2021 Pew Fellow. They continue to be influenced and motivated by political struggles and fractured narratives.
Organized by Heather Raquel Phillips, a fluid, mixed-race artist, independent curator and educator living and working in Philadelphia. Through an interdisciplinary system, Phillips work focuses on the joy and personal agency of marginalized people using topics addressing power, sexuality and deviance. A first generation college graduate, Phillips earned their BFA with honors, from Tyler School of Art (2008) and her MFA from The University of Pennsylvania (2016), where she was the recipient of the Toby Devon Lewis Fellowship, Stuart Engle Scholarship & The Silverstein Photography Studio Abroad. Phillips lectures at The University of Pennsylvania and The Lincoln University.
Phillips work has been featured in Hyperallergic, ArtForum.com, Title, Sixty (Inches From Center), ArtBlog and Philadelphia Gay News. She has received the 2017 Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grant and the 2020 Transformation Award, the 2019 Visiting Scholarship at the Leather Archives & Museum, where she now serves as board member. In 2020 she curated a residential gallery called, “Pinch-hitter Projects” which was funded by the Art is Essential Grant in 2021. In the Summer of 2022 she will serve as Fabric Workshop and Museum Apprentice. Phillips’ writing was recently published in The Black Scholar. She has exhibited nationally and internationally.
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