Facedown

Kate Werble Gallery presents the debut of Asia Stewart’s Facedown, a new performance of choreographic movements made from anonymously taken photographic portraits of the artist. The performance transforms Stewart’s isolated gestures found within each photograph into a looped sequence enacted as a physical exhibition over the course of one day in the gallery. Stewart’s choreography comes originally from 2 performances, each made in 2023, where audience members were invited to use a Polaroid camera document their commands for Stewart to perform a desired action. The resulting images, titled with the initials of the anonymous participants, reflect the parts of Stewart’s body that strangers felt most compelled to capture. Stewart reanimates these private exchanges while exposing only her silhouette through a curtain reframing the dynamics of photography, portraiture and spectatorship. Asia Stewart received her BA from Harvard University, Boston, MA in 2018, and her M.Phil. from Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK in 2019. Through performance, Stewart uses her body as a living archive to explore rituals reflecting contemporary society. She routinely questions how live art can be documented and represented across multiple mediums. Organizations that have supported Stewart include The Bronx Museum, The Shed, A.I.R. Gallery among others. Stewart has been awarded residencies at The Watermill Center, The Institute for Electronic Art at Alfred University, Marble House Project Residency, GALLIM Moving Artist Residency, and New York Art Residency and Studios (NARS). Her photographs and videos have been exhibited at venues across the United States, including the Mercury Store, Untitled Space, NARS Foundation, Goodyear Arts, A.I.R. Gallery, Kellen Gallery, and Anthology Film Archives. Stewart currently lives and works in New York, NY.

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474 Broadway, 3rd Floor

Downtown, NY