p l e a s e, come in

June 17 - 26, 2022 / 388 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215

Organized by Arts Gowanus Artwalk on Atlantic Avenue / Hosted by Commons Café

Curated by Jan Rattia

p l e a s e, come in is a group exhibition of five New York City-based visual artists working in grayscale. Through reflections, glances, and the coded, they build contained worlds that pull us in beyond the surface. In these realities a mending body multiplies, a maquette floods, and a body faces bounded domesticity. The considered works, whether conjured or extracted, turn darkness into purposeful exchanges, suggesting —perhaps even reframing— a self-emancipation, a shifting of cultures, and a conceptually shared affair. 

—Jan Rattia

Participating Artists

Malcolm Khaldi (Accra, Ghana)

“I am interested in self-permission and identity, particularly with regards to notions of masculinity and femininity across races, genders, sexual orientations, ages, and abilities. Being African, Arab, and first-generation American, I begin to work through my own traumas by reclaiming power through fashion, music, movement, performance, and kink, all in an effort to consolidate these identities.”  artist website

Patrick McNabb (Arlington, VA)

“I work primarily with photography, as well as performance, video, and installation. My work considers community formations and spaces claimed for sexuality in urban America, medicalization of sexuality and its relations to fetishism, and illness as a measure of time.”  artist website

Daniel Rampulla (San Francisco, CA) 

“These images are from a series titled Collapse where I explore the distribution of weight within relationships that have influenced my life, platonic and romantic. Attention, touch and body language translate into feelings of isolation or togetherness or something in between. I used friends, lovers and the landscape to recreate the sense of balance as two people collapse into one or break apart.”   artist website

Bryson Rand (Phoenix, AZ)

“As a gay man born at the onset of the AIDS crisis, I have struggled to comprehend the stories and cultural impact of those who’ve been lost to death and the closet. Using photography I aim to give visual form to the intangible connections queer people have to the natural world and the experiences of our queer forebearers. I draw from the lessons of cultural survival my ancestors employed in the face of loss, grief, and caretaking, to support one another. My photographs act as an intergenerational link between the experiences and social/sexual imaginations of past, current, and future generations.” artist website

Patricia Voulgaris (Long Island, NY)

“The past and present collide seamlessly and collapse into one being or object within the frame. My presence is unfixed and absorbed into a darkness that carries me. This consumption creates a disconnect between the viewer's perception of my feminine body and what is being reflected in the photograph. I refer to my photographs as ‘cursed’, as they provide an overall glimpse into a world that is unsettling and infused with unapologetic characters. These characters are often played by myself, with my partner as we collaborate on disassembling notions of femininity, queerness and our roles in society.”  artist website

About the Curator

Jan Rattia is a Caracas-born New York-based artist working with ideas about belonging, representation and queer identity through photography. He is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute. artist website