SoMad curates a roster of artistic talent to create original works at Moynihan and host open workshops across the visual & literary arts. Centered on the artists’ longstanding incorporation of Moleskine into their practices, the events and installations breathe artistic life into the new flagship space and create lasting memories with archival works on paper.
Opening Event November 16, 2023 with David Aliperti, Anderson Osman, and Eva Nelson
SoMad’s Artist in Residence David Aliperti creates a work of art in collaboration with Anderson Osman and Eva Nelson during the Moynihan Flagship opening event.
Born into a family of mystics in the South American Atlantic Forest, David Aliperti was raised knowing nature as divine. This deep connection with the environment has always been a core tenant of Aliperti’s art, manifesting as sculptural naturalistic forms akin to cellular structures expanding to interconnected ecosystems. Working with clay has enabled Aliperti to intellectualize his place in time, and process cycles of life, death, and duration.
During the opening, the artists make a work of art in a performance of creation, reimagining—through mixed media, computer generated imagery, paint, collage, and drawing on Moleskine screens—a time when the artists’ representation preceded any definitive scientific photographs of naturalia, inspired by a Darwinian style of naturalistic documentation.
Performance Art January 12 & 13, 2024 with Doménica García
Creativity is a holistic practice that requires a harmonious balance between mind and body. In her durational performance piece, interdisciplinary artist Doménica García contemplates the creative practice. Doménica rearranges a collection of 200 Moleskines throughout the flagship store as she explores the various ways her body can interact with them. The performance means to emphasize moments of play, inviting the viewer to think beyond the realm of possibility before returning to the creative process with pen and paper.
Gallery Opening January 18, 2024 with Anthony Padilla
Gallery Opening Event, January 18, 2023, from 6-8 pm with Anthony Z Padilla. Featuring site-specific and original artwork, this evening provides an intimate opportunity to meet the artist and connect with the SoMad community while enjoying cheese and wine. Attendees have the opportunity to collect one of 62 limited edition notebooks hand-painted by Anthony.
Anthony Z Padilla is a Native American oil painter based in Brooklyn, NY. In his recent work, he explores the complexity and chaotic elements found in nature. Inspired by Georgia O’Keefe, Henri Rousseau, and Wassily Kandinsky, Anthony’s work depicts minimalistic and overwhelming close-ups in the kingdom of nature where flora and fauna are sovereigns. Anthony’s artwork highlights "the abstract and surreal qualities of our natural world by using the elements found in nature, specifically the jungle, as a means to do so." His paintings are forbidden invitations to enter the glorious, yet hazardous, realm of nature in which humanity does not seem to belong. Self-taught, Anthony built his reputation through a meritocratic approach.
Portrait Sitting January 25 & 26, 2024 with Chris Rodriguez
Chris's workshop features a freeform, intuitive portrait sitting with watercolors, as well as a participatory sketchbook and tons of art supplies with which visitors can get creative and play.
Maria Christina Rodriguez is a mixed media multi disciplinary artist whose Filipina heritage and nineteen years in NYC inform her eclectic practice. She likens her artistic multiplicity to halo-halo, a popular Filipino dessert that pulls together illogically complimentary ingredients into unexpected harmony. From illustration, to painting, prop fabrication, set design, and candle making, Chris embodies experimentation across her practice.
Starting with her jewelry line Arms and Armory that launched at Misshapes and was featured in Heatherette’s FW 2006 show in Bryant Park, Chris began her creative career as creative director of Screaming Mimi’s and a founder of downtown party Six Six Sick where nightlife culture intertwined with creative community.
As Director of Art at SoMad, Chris is concept lead on programs across the arts.
Opening Event February 8, 2024 with Keith Lafuente
This opening event, in the middle of NYFW, features fashion looks handmade by Keith Lafuente. Keith assembled illustrated pages into two incredible garments, displayed in front of Moleskine screens with custom, limited edition journals available for purchase.
Performance February 29, 2024 with Kamra
Kamra's performance is a durational piece and experiment in foley and pedestrian composition. They note how being alive makes noise and, therefore, music.
Kamra is an autodidact, audio composer, and entrepreneur. Raised in the dry desert and now living between the Western Catskill Mountains and Toronto, Kamra owns and operates a small-scare farm. Kamra is the author of Care Manual, a workbook pulling up fixed notions of consent, harm, care, and pleasure from their roots and Care Ecology, a newsletter attempting embodied awareness through personal essays.
Kamra curates and hosts Activation Residency, a satellite artist residency known for its restorative programming, in collaboration with other artists and facilitators. Kamra formed Activation Cooperative Fund to support working artists through the pandemic.
Kamra has hosted and produced an online television series for SoMad, consulted for ARIEL (Feminisms in the Aesthetics), hosted a workshop at The Free Black Women’s Library and presented their book through an experiential learning series at Dia Chelsea and Brooklyn Museum. Kamra co-produced their record, Verdant Banks, and shot a music video for their lead single "Hear My No." Their second record is set to receive label representation.
