The gallery’s second solo exhibition with the artist collective, Maskworkers, presents new porcelain masks, cut paper collages, and body-scale standelabra sculptures and video projections. These performing objects are inspired by alter egos drawn from the fictive worlds in My Barbarian’s performance repertoire. See more.
An unprecedented look at the contemporary collective’s theatrical art, charting their performances and exploring their social and creative commitments
The first monographic publication on the art collective My Barbarian (Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon, and Alexandro Segade) offers new insights into the work of this singular group of performers. My Barbarian has used performance to theatricalize social issues, adapting narratives from modern plays, historical texts, and mass media; this volume accompanies a major retrospective celebrating the group’s twentieth anniversary. An overview essay relates their work’s formal qualities to several historical moments over this span: the club era following September 11, 2001; postcolonial theater after the 2008 financial collapse; and political theater responding to the pressing issues of today. Other contributions read the collective’s output through a lens of queer and other critical theory, and contextualize it within the twenty-first-century experimental performance scene. A richly illustrated visual chronology features texts on each of My Barbarian’s past works written by the artists. Performances and video works are re-created using stills alongside photos, drawings, scripts, and personal materials drawn from the artists’ archives, many never previously published. Pre-order.
Watch My Barbarian’s Songbook - A Live Concert for the Camera.
Streamed live on Dec 18, 2021, Songbook is a musical showcase drawing from My Barbarian’s extensive repertoire over the last two decades, reuniting musicians who played in the band at Los Angeles music venues in the early 2000s. Staged for multiple video cameras in collaboration with Telefantasy Studios and broadcast live from 2220 Arts + Archive in Los Angeles, and produced by the Whitney Museum, My Barbarian’s Songbook is a streaming event that pays homage to TV variety shows of the 1970s, with a nod to the public access underground of the 1980s. Performed by the core members of My Barbarian—Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon and Alexandro Segade—and directed in collaboration with JJ Stratford of Telefantasy Studios. Accompanying the trio are an all-star lineup of Los Angeles–based musicians: Scott Martin (guitar), Giles Miller (flute and saxophone), Jessica Espeleta (bass), Anh Do (keys), and Tina Raymond (drums). Costumes by Melissa Corey. Watch here.
My Barbarian’s Pagan Rights on Vinyl.
Claim your pagan rights with My Barbarian. This limited edition release from NuTroll Records contains a selection of songs from the legendary performance band/group/commune My Barbarian's musical play "California Sweet and the 7 Pagan Rights." The play premiered in 2005 in LA; and this release coincides with My Barbarian's exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
TRACKLIST:
Side 1 Pagan Rights music by Gaines, lyrics by Gaines, Gordon, and Segade
Side 2 San Diego Bay music by Gaines, lyrics by Segade / Leotard (Make-Up By Brian) music by My Barbarian, lyrics by Gordon and Segade / San Diego Bay (Reprise) music by Gaines, lyrics by Segade
My Barbarian - Artists’ Talk.
On the occasion of the survey exhibition My Barbarian, the members of the group—Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon, and Alexandro Segade—will share the story of their twenty years of collective practice. From their earliest performances in Los Angeles clubs to their social and political theater productions, the conversation will tell the history of the group’s evolution and highlight their multivalent approach to performance. The program also celebrates the publication of the first monograph about My Barbarian, which includes a richly illustrated visual chronology with texts written by the artists.
My Barbarian in Artforum.
My Barbarian on the cover of the November 2021 Artforum, in an essay by Catherine Quan Damman.
“My Barbarian bring high-theory arcana into bawdy populist forms, marshaling their multicultural demographics to burlesque liberal fantasies of the melting pot, and vamping the world historical only to burn it down and throw a party around its fire.”
– Catherine Quan Damman
My Barbarian interviewed by David Velasco.
On the eve of their performance Transparency 2021 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon and Alexandro Segade spoke with editor in chief David Velasco about the genesis of My Barbarian, how their practice models ways of production and kinds of social interactions, and how it feels to be back on stage together.
For two decades, the members of My Barbarian— Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon and Alexandro Segade—have used performance to theatricalize social issues, adapting narratives from modern plays, historical texts, and mass media into structures for their performances, videos, music, writing, installations, and exhibitions. Founded in 2000, My Barbarian was the subject of a 2021-2 survey exhibition and performance program at the Whitney Museum of American Art, which included a monograph published by the Whitney Museum and Yale University Press. The group’s work has been presented at LACMA, The Hammer Museum, REDCAT, SFMOMA, MoMA, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Kitchen, The New Museum, Participant Inc. and many other U.S. venues; and internationally at Museo El Eco, Mexico City; DeAppel, Amsterdam; Townhouse Gallery, Cairo; The Power Plant, Toronto; El Matadero, Madrid, and others. They were included in two Performa Biennials, the Whitney Biennial, two California Biennials, the Montreal Biennial, and the Baltic Triennial. My Barbarian has been supported by USA Artists, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Mike Kelly Foundation, Art Matters, the City of LA Cultural Affairs, and others. According to Catherine Quan Damman, in Artforum, My Barbarian bring “high-theory arcana into bawdy populist forms, marshaling their multicultural demographics to burlesque liberal fantasies of the melting pot, and vamping the world historical only to burn it down and throw a party around the flames.” My Barbarian is represented by Vielmetter Los Angeles.
My Barbarian performs Transparency 2021, Whitney Museum of American Art, November 2021. Costumes:Nick Nelson. Photo: Paula Court.
CONTACT: MYBARBARIAN@GMAIL.COM