SVA Alumni Affairs presents a discussion with five accomplished SVA alumni about how queer identity and the shifting landscape of queer political liberation impacts their work as artists and creatives. A reception for alumni and current SVA students will follow the discussion. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be served. RSVP here.

Panelists:

Caroline Berler (MFA 2017 Social Documentary) is an award-winning documentary filmmaker based in New York City. Her debut film, Dykes, Camera, Action!, which she began making as her thesis project at SVA, premiered in 2018 at Frameline42 in San Francisco. The film earned her an Outfest Award for Emerging Talent, and was the Centerpiece Documentary of Newfest30. Prior to studying at SVA, she received a BA in Sociology from NYU.

Alexa Cassaro (MFA 2015 Illustration as Visual Essay; BFA 2013 Illustration) is a non-binary illustrator and cartoonist from the New Jersey/New York area. Much of their work is young adult and has characters ranging from sassy femme types to sensitive males and everything in between. They have been published by Pronto, ComicMix and is a contributor to Geeks OUT!. All those who are angsty, queer, glittery, or all of the above are welcome.

An educator and artist, Annie Rose Malamet (MFA 2015 Photography, Video and Related Media) teaches photography, video, and audio at BRIC Arts Media in Downtown Brooklyn. As a curator, her exhibition "Fatter IRL," showcased the work of fat artists and was featured in The Huffington Post, Out magazine, Nylon magazine, Vice and Paper magazine. Her own visual work has been featured in GO magazine, Hyperallergic and Canadian Art. Annie hosts and produces Relevant, a podcast through Posture Magazine that features interviews with today's leading queer visionaries.

Antonio Pulgarin (BFA 2013 Photography) is a Colombian-American artist who utilizes photography, photographic collage and mixed media in his art practice. In his work, Pulgarin tackles the themes of cultural and sexual identity, memory and displacement. His work has been shown in various exhibitions including at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Longwood Art Gallery, The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Photo LA, Photoville and The International Photo Festival Leiden. His work received honors from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, YoungArts, EnFoco, Magenta Flash Forward, Latin American Fotografia, American Photography, and PDN Photo Annual. Last year, Pulgarin's work was discovered and featured by actress, Zoe Saldana, on her newly launched digital media brand: BESE. Pulgarin is a current fellow of the 2019 cycle of the Bronx Museum of the Arts' Artist in the Marketplace Program.

Eric Rhein's (MFA 2000 Fine Arts; BFA 1985 Fine Arts) work chronicles his experiences and travels, both geographic and mystic, and his three decades of living with HIV. His ongoing project, "Leaves," honors the lives of over 300 individuals he knew who died of complications from AIDS. He is a founding member of Visual AIDS' Archive and Artist Registry, the largest database and registry of works by visual artists with HIV and AIDS. Rhein’s work has been exhibited widely, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of the City New York, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art and the American Embassies in Austria, Cameroon, Greece, and Malta. He is also included in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art's "Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project."

Talk

Let's Talk: Queer Identity and Creativity

SVA Theatre