SUMMER 2025 & 2026
New art for New York

About Open Call

Launched as part of The Shed’s inaugural-year program, Open Call is a large-scale commissioning program for early-career, NYC-based artists. Representing disciplines from music performance, poetry, and puppetry to painting, sculpture, and video, Open Call exemplifies what The Shed does best in championing dynamic, innovative art of all kinds.

Open Call artists receive a commissioning fee of up to $15,000 depending on the scope of their projects, robust production support, and resources to further nurture their practices and expand their audiences. Admission is free to all Open Call events.

ABOUT THE 2025 – 26 ARTISTS

The 2025 – 26 Open Call artists. Left to right, front row: James Caverly, Nicholas Oh and A young Yu (AYDO). Middle row: Andrew Morrill, Mel Corchado, Laurena Finéus, Jarrett Key, Zain Alam, Luis Vasquez La Roche. Back row: Katherine Paola De La Cruz, Marwa Eltahir, Patricia Encarnación, Tyson Houseman, Nehprii Amenii, Victor “MARKA27” Quiñonez, Avi Amon, Lily Yang (of Lily Honglei), Yelaine Rodriguez. Not pictured: Rudi Goblen, Chelsea Odufu. Photo: Dana Golan.
A group of artists pose for a photo in an empty event space. They are arranged in three rows, with the first two rows seated on crates and the back row standing behind them.
The 2025 – 26 Open Call artists. Left to right, front row: James Caverly, Nicholas Oh and A young Yu (AYDO). Middle row: Andrew Morrill, Mel Corchado, Laurena Finéus, Jarrett Key, Zain Alam, Luis Vasquez La Roche. Back row: Katherine Paola De La Cruz, Marwa Eltahir, Patricia Encarnación, Tyson Houseman, Nehprii Amenii, Victor “MARKA27” Quiñonez, Avi Amon, Lily Yang (of Lily Honglei), Yelaine Rodriguez. Not pictured: Rudi Goblen, Chelsea Odufu. Photo: Dana Golan.

For its fourth edition, 17 exceptional artist proposals (out of 1,000 total submissions) were chosen by 72 interdisciplinary professionals, all leaders in their fields, including other artists and members of The Shed’s staff. The work by these emerging artists, all living or working within the five boroughs, will engage and inspire audiences with powerful reflections on the urgent issues of our time through the intersection of personal identity and historical narratives.

In summer 2025, 12 visual and performance artists/collectives will unveil their work in an exhibition in The Shed’s Level 2 Gallery and on the outdoor Plaza. Five performing artists/collectives will present in summer 2026.

Learn more about the artists and their projects below. For updates on exhibition and performance dates, join our email list.

About the 2025 – 26 Artists

A portrait of artist Zain Alam. He is an Indian Pakistani person with wavy black hair parted over his forehead and a mustache. We see him from an angle slightly below, looking up at him with the façade of a house with windows in the background. He looks directly at us, eyes angled down slightly.
Courtesy the artist.
Zain Alam
A portrait of artist Nehprii Amenii. Nehprii is a Black woman with a shaved head. She has her eyes closed and a wide smile as she turns her face joyfully toward a bright light. She holds a bouquet of sunflowers.
Courtesy the artist.
Nehprii Amenii
A portrait of Turkish-American artist Avi Amon. Avi poses against a dark gray background. He wears a black t-shirt and crosses his arms over his chest. He has curly salt-and-pepper black hair and turns his head slightly to look at us directly with a mysterious look on his face.
Courtesy the artist.
Avi Amon
A portrait of artists A young Yu and Nick Oh. A young Yu is a Korean American woman and Nick is a Korean American man. They stand side by side, with shoulders touching and facing us. A young wears a long black dress and has long straight black hair that hangs beneath her shoulders. Nick has a mustache and goatee, wears glasses and a button down shirt, and stands with one hand in his pants pocket.
Courtesy the artists.
AYDO
A portrait of artist James Caverly. Joey is a white man with brown hair parted to one side across his forehead. She smiles slightly and looks directly at us. He wears a black tshirt.
Photo: Andrew Morrill. Courtesy the artist.
James Caverly
A headshot portrait of artist Mel Corchado. Mel is a Boricua woman whose wavy brown hair flows out of a green scarf she wears on her head. She looks directly at us, with lips curled in a smile, and wears a pale purple sleeveless shirt.
Courtesy the artist.
Mel Corchado
A portrait of artist Marwa Eltahir. Marwa is a Sudanese American woman who is seen outside in front of a brownstone building from an angle slightly below. She swipes windswept bangs from in front of her face.
Photo: Brandon Thomas Brand. Courtesy the artist.
Marwa Eltahir
A portrait of Afro-Dominican artist Patricia Encarnación. Patricia is dressed in white loose clothing, with a shoulderless blouse. She sits with legs crossed in a space covered in white fabric and white sheer curtains. Around her feet are art objects including small paintings and a sculpted conch shell.
Photo: Bernardo Almonte. Courtesy the artist.
Patricia Encarnación
A black-and-white portrait of Haitian Canadian artist Laurena Finéus. Laurena sits with one side of her face lit by a light source out of the frame. She leans back casually, supporting herself with her arms outstretched behind her. She has long locs that fall to her waist and wears a loose-fitting dress. She looks directly at us with a pleasant look on her face.
Photo: Geghani Panosian. Courtesy the artist.
Laurena Finéus
A portrait of artist Rudi Goblen. Rudi is a Nicaraguan man who sits with arms crossed over his chest, facing us and looking directly at us. He has a trimmed mustache and beard and wears a royal blue cap and jacket zipped up over a white t-shirt.
Courtesy the artist.
Rudi Goblen
A portrait of artist duo Lily Honglei. Lily Yang, a Chinese woman, stands to the left of the photo in a long beige cardigan. She looks directly at us smiling and reaches down with one hand to a work table in front of her. Beside her, Chinese artist Honglei Li leans on the same table with both arms. He wears a blue blazer over a light blue shirt.
Courtesy the artist.
Lily Honglei
A portrait of artist Tyson Houseman. He sits in a denim button down shirt against a beige felt background. His arms are crossed at his waist at the bottom of the frame and he looks directly at us, with eyebrows slightly raised.
Photo: Dana Golan.
Tyson Houseman
A black-and-white portrait of artist Jarrett Key. Jarrett is a Black person who wears a knit vested buttoned up with no shirt underneath. They lean casually on their left arm, have short locs that fall over their forehead, and look directly at us.
Photo: Emil Cohen. Courtesy the artist.
Jarrett Key
A portrait of artist Andrew Morrill. He is a white man who is pictured in dramatic lighting with the background in shadow. He leans slightly forward on one arm propped on his leg. He had a beard, wears glasses and a golden brown t-shirt, and smiles at us.
Courtesy the artist.
Andrew Morrill
A portrait of artist Chelsea Odufu, seen in profile against a stark white background. Chelsea is a Black woman who wears a dark jacket, large rectangular gold earrings, and a tall, dark conical hat with a narrow boxy brim.
Courtesy the artist.
Chelsea Odufu
A portrait of Afro-Dominican dancer and choreographer Katherine Paola De La Cruz. Katherine poses in a seated position with one leg drawn to her chest. She rests her elbow on her knee and leans her head one one hand. She wears a jacket over a blue button down blouse. She looks directly at us with eyebrows slightly raised.
Photo: Jordi Perez. Courtesy the artist.
Katherine Paola De La Cruz
A portrait of artist Victor "MARKA27" Quiñonez. Victor sits in a metal chair in a white studio space. He poses with hands in lap, wearing a cap and dark sunglasses, facing us directly. Behind, colorful graffiti-style paintings hang on the wall.
Photo: Carolina Porras Monroy, @carolina.picante. Courtesy the artist.
Victor “MARKA27” Quiñonez
A portrait of artist Yelaine Rodriguez. She has curly, long brown hair and wears a purple dress. She poses against a beige felt background with her arms crossed over her knees, leaning forward slightly, and looking intently at us.
Photo: Dana Golan.
Yelaine Rodriguez
A portrait of artist Luis Vasquez La Roche. He has a mustache and goatee under his chin and wears a pink sweatshirt and burnt orange beanie. He poses against a beige felt background and looks directly at us with a calm, concentrated look on his face.
Photo: Dana Golan.
Luis Vasquez La Roche
Zain Alam
Zain Alam (he/him) is an artist and composer of Indian Pakistani origin whose work is described as “a unique intersection, merging the cinematic formality of Bollywood and geometric repetition of Islamic art” (Fanzine).
Nehprii Amenii
Nehprii Amenii (she/her) is a director, playwright, and puppeteer. With a passion for personal narratives, puppetry, and grand-scale spectacle, she’s known for creating experiences that enchant the imagination and inspire new ways of seeing and thinking.
Avi Amon
Avi Amon (he/they) is an award-winning, Turkish American composer and sound artist whose work has been featured at Ars Nova, DOCNYC, The Kennedy Center, PACNYC, Signature, Venice Biennale, and more. Amon is the music director at the 52nd Street Project and teaches at NYU. @aviamon
AYDO
AYDO is a multidisciplinary, collaborative duo founded by artists A young Yu and Nicholas Oh. AYDO’s practice is centered on diasporic reimaginations of precolonial ancestral cultural practices.
James Caverly
James Caverly (he/him) is widely known for his breakout role in Only Murders in the Building. When he is not acting, the multi-award-winning artist directs, produces, and writes stories for the stage.
Mel Corchado
Mel Corchado (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based, Boricua fashion designer and artist whose practice explores how fashion might confront narratives and shift consciousness in service of decolonization.
Marwa Eltahir
Marwa Eltahir (she/her) is a Sudanese American writer and performer based in Brooklyn. Her audiovisual essays examine narratives of movement, identity, and belonging across the diaspora. She is the founder of Our Political Home, an art incubator for trans and queer African storytellers.
Patricia Encarnación
Afro-Dominican artist and scholar Patricia Encarnación (she/they) challenges colonial legacies. Their work observes Caribbean aesthetics through material culture, memory, and identity. Noted for residencies and awards, their art spans Documenta 15, the Tribeca Festival, and the Bronx Museum, supported by academic fellowships.
Laurena Finéus
Laurena Finéus (she/her) is a Haitian Canadian interdisciplinary artist. In her practice, Finéus has been concerned with representations of Black geographies, maroon thought, and migratory histories through imagined landscapes. Finéus is based in Brooklyn.
Rudi Goblen
Rudi Goblen (he/him) is a playwright, educator, and performer who creates devised theater work. He holds an MFA in playwriting from the Yale School of Drama.
Lily Honglei
Lily Honglei (they/them) is a Chinese immigrant artist duo based in Flushing Chinatown, Queens. They recently presented at Flushing Town Hall, Chinese American Arts Council, and Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning.
Tyson Houseman
Tyson Houseman (he/they) is a nēhiyaw interdisciplinary video and performance artist, puppeteer, and filmmaker.
Jarrett Key
Jarrett Key (they/them) lives and works in Brooklyn. They grew up in rural Alabama and received their MFA in painting at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2020. The objects they make integrate sculpture, painting, and performance.
Andrew Morrill
Andrew Morrill (he/him) is an Obie-winning theatermaker specializing in translation, playwriting, directing, and acting. His work has been featured at The Public, New York Theatre Workshop, Ars Nova, Deaf West, and more.
Chelsea Odufu
Chelsea Odufu (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans video installations, sculpture, photography, and film. She has exhibited globally, including at Paris Photo, Dakar Biennale, Photo London, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Katherine Paola De La Cruz
Katherine Paola De La Cruz is an Afro-Dominican dancer and choreographer based in Queens. Her work is born from a need to make direct political statements and to make visible often-ignored inner healing processes.
Victor “MARKA27” Quiñonez
Victor “MARKA27” Quiñonez (he/him) blends art forms such as graffiti, street art, vinyl, toys, and fashion with art activism. Drawing inspiration from Mexican masters and his heritage, his works reflect the empowerment and representation of marginalized communities.
Yelaine Rodriguez
Yelaine Rodriguez (she/her) is a Bronx-born interdisciplinary artist and scholar focused on examining Afro-syncretic religions through photography and video. She is pursuing a PhD at Northwestern University.
Luis Vasquez La Roche
Luis Vasquez La Roche (he/they) is an artist and scholar who resides between Trinidad and Tobago and Virginia and works in New York City. They are interested in aspects of the transatlantic slave trade that manifest themselves in varying ways in the present.

More About Their Projects

Exhibition Artists (Summer 2025)

Zain Alam, Meter & Light: Night: A three-channel audiovisual installation enacting the interlocking rhythms of time in Muslim life after sunset

AYDO, Border Ecologies: A video and ceramic installation exploring on-site documentation of the Korean Demilitarized Zone and the United States–Mexico borderland through sociopolitical, cultural, and environmental perspectives

Mel Corchado, ​​$TICKY $IN$: A collection of sugar garments exploring sugar’s history and its ties to identity, fashion, and the exploitation of land and labor

Marwa Eltahir, 99 Names: My Liberation Is Tied to Yours: An immersive, audiovisual performance examining themes of loss, grief, and connection using imagery from the Afro-Arab diaspora

Patricia Encarnación, Tropical Limerence: An installation of video, performance, and ceramics that examines how love, exotification, and power imbalances influence relationships between the Global majority and the Global North

Laurena Finéus, Together, we could have made mountains: A collaborative textile and painting installation showcasing Brooklyn’s Haitian migrant stories and exploring dreams, sacrifices, misconceptions, and collective scars

Lily Honglei, KITES: Poems by an Immigrant: A painting series inspired by traditional Chinese kites that depicts Asian immigration stories reflecting the artist’s family saga and community life

Tyson Houseman, The Six Seasons: A live, operatic video performance and installation featuring soundscapes and lyrics sung in nēhiyawēwin (Plains Cree)

Jarrett Key, Hair Painting No. 40: A live performance in Key’s “Hair Paintings” series, in which the artist uses their hair to create paintings honoring their grandmother, Ruth Mae Giles

Chelsea Odufu, Echoes of Gold: A video installation foregrounding dance and movement to uncover the haunting legacy of the gold trade in Côte d’Ivoire

Victor “MARKA27” Quiñonez, Elevar La Cultura NYC: An immersive sculptural installation of a large Mayan pyramid, composed of ice coolers, textiles, and spiritual objects, activated by a mural and a projection, honoring the beauty and resilience of immigrant street vendors

Yelaine Rodriguez and Luis Vasquez La Roche, Residence Time | The Sea Is History: A mixed-media sculptural installation that reimagines the transatlantic slave trade’s Door of No Return in Ghana as an archaeological ruin

Performing Artists (Summer 2026)

Nehprii Amenii, “HUMAN”: An immersive, multimedia, puppetry stage play for multigenerational audiences that asks what it really means to be human

Avi Amon, Mother/Road: A multimedia meditation on grief, memory, family, and borders that draws on audio from cassette tapes Amon’s parents carried with them when they immigrated to the United States

Katherine Paola De La Cruz, Dirty Laundry: A performance exploring themes of burn out, toxic work culture, and the absurdity of résumés and cover letters at the end of the world

Rudi Goblen, FITO: An interactive concert-play combining live music, storytelling, dance, and spoken word to narrate the immigrant experience of a Nicaraguan man in the United States

Andrew Morrill and James Caverly, Thank You Ryan for a Clean Microwave: A play-within-a-play exploring the mystery of who cleaned the microwave in the coffee shop staff room

Panelists and Reviewers

Thank you to the following arts leaders who participated in the selection process:

Panelists: Jesse Alick, Torya Beard, Dejá Belardo, Darren Biggart, Kimberly Drew, Madame Gandhi, Luis Gutierrez, Tamara McCaw, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Larry Ossei-Mensah, Alex Poots, George Sanchez, Lumi Tan, Charmaine Warren, Janet Wong

Reviewers: Jason Aguirre, Juana Berrio, Alison Burstein, Nigel Campbell, Emmy Catedral, Jean Cooney, Jordana De La Cruz, Sarah Dhobhany, Tasha Douge, Sam Duke, Robyn Farrell, Jesse Firestone, Raynel Frazier, Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas, Danni Gee, Gabrielle Glore, Alessandra Gomez, Sheldon Gooch, Jody Graf, Anne Hamburger, Carl Hancock Rux, Dave Harper, Erica Harper, Daonne Huff, Adam Hyndman, Hitomi Iwasaki, Ivy Jones, Lisa Kim, Ladyfag, Jennifer Lam, Gabriela López Dena, Maggie MacTiernan, Gervais Marsh, Aaron L. McKinney, Mara Mills, Monica Mirabile, Marisa Morán Jahn, Seta Morton, Salvador Muñoz, Raelle Myrick Hodges, Benedict Nguyen, Kathy Noble, Najee Omar, Marlène Ramírez-Cancio, Alex Rosenberg, Erin Somerville, Luke Stewart, Herb Tam, Mei Ann Teo, Annabel Thompson, Terence Trouillot, Natalia Viera Salgado, Jay Wegman, Ayesha Williams, Justin Wong, Sasha Wortzel, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Open Call Merch

Show your support for new art for New York with a limited edition, adjustable Open Call cap.
A model wears an Open Call baseball cap. The cap is a light blue, like a periwinkle denim. Across the front of the cap is embroidered in white letters: New art for New York. Behind the model are rows of books softly out of focus and facing outward along a wooden wall.
Order online

Artists (By Year Selected)

2022
Minne Atairu
Jake Brush
Cathy Linh Che & Christopher Radcliff
Cain Coleman
Armando Guadalupe Cortés
Lizania Cruz
Kyle Dacuyan
Bryan Fernandez
Luis A. Gutierrez
Kayla Hamilton
Nile Harris
NIC Kay
Jeffrey Meris
Calli Roche
Asia Stewart
Sandy Williams IV
Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre
Garrett Zuercher
2020
Aisha Amin
AnAkA
Merche Blasco
Leslie Cuyjet
Ayanna Dozier
JJJJJerome Ellis
Caroline Garcia
Emilie Gossiaux
Nazareth Hassan
Justin Hicks
Ana María Agüero Jahannes
Esteban Jefferson
DonChristian Jones
Ladi’Sasha Jones
Niall Jones
Benjamin Akio Kimitch
Eleanor Kipping
Le’Andra LeSeur
Yo-Yo Lin
Simon Liu
z tye
Tajh Rust
Pauline Shaw
Kenneth Tam
Cindy Tran
Emily Waters
Anne Wu
2018
Tariq Al-Sabir
Justin Allen
Haley Elizabeth Anderson
Troy Anthony [presenting in summer 2022]
Caitlin Blanchfield and Farzin Lofti-Jam
Kim Brandt
Maia Chao
Onyedika Chuke
Gabriela María Corretjer-Contreras
nicHi douglas
Micaela Durand and Daniel Chew
The Extrapolation Factory
Avram Finkelstein
Fana Fraser
Moko Fukuyama
Ebony Noelle Golden
Yulan Grant
Vicente Hansen Atria and Mat Muntz
Hugh Hayden
Madeline Hollander
Maryam Hoseini and Phoebe Derlee
The Illustrious Blacks
It’s Showtime NYC!
Ayesha Jordan [presented as part of Up Close]
Tahir Carl Karmali
Richard Kennedy
Kinetic Light [presenting in 2022]
Sam Lavigne
Maya Lee-Parritz
Prince Harvey
Kyle Marshall [presenting in summer 2021]
Asif Mian
Troy Michie
MIPSTERZ
Tyler Mitchell
Rachika Nayar [presenting in summer 2021]
Kelsey Pyro
daaPo reo
Ricky (YATTA)
Saint Abdullah [gallery / performance]
Farideh Sakhaeifar
Salsa Masala
Richard Sears, Clara Cullen, Ethan Braun, and Yael Ginosar
Harold ‘Fyütch’ Simmons
Analisa Teachworth
Christopher Udemezue (Neon Christina)
Mariana Valencia [presented as part of Up Close]
WangShui
Julia Weist
Kiyan Williams
Nia O. Witherspoon [presenting in summer 2021]
Thanushka Yakupitiyage

Past Open Call Commissions

Open Call: Kayla Hamilton

AUG 15 – 17, 2024

An immersive dance performance honoring lineages of Black disabled imagination

Open Call: Nile Harris

AUG 9 – 10, 2024

A choreographed event, a symphony of low vibrations

Open Call: NIC Kay

AUG 1 – 3, 2024

A performance duet of impulse and desire

Open Call: Asia Stewart

JUL 25 – 27, 2024

A ritual response to Morrison’s Song of Solomon and tribute to Black matrilineal wisdom

Open Call: Cain Coleman

JUL 18 – 20, 2024

Pulsing, vibrant self-exploration through a dance performance and party

Open Call: Garrett Zuercher

JUL 11 – 13, 2024

A narrative performance presenting the prism of Deaf identity, created for Deaf audiences and accessible to all

Open Call: Kyle Dacuyan

JUN 27 – 29, 2024

An episodic monologue contemplating information, media, surveillance, and remote violence

Open Call: Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre

JUN 20 – 22, 2024

Gathering: New York City—a night of storytelling, celebration, protest, and play

Minne Atairu

OPEN CALL 2023 GROUP EXHIBITION

Benin’s art history recontextualized through oral traditions and quotidian rituals

Jake Brush

OPEN CALL 2023 GROUP EXHIBITION

A video and sculptural installation reimagining a Long Island TV show

Cathy Linh Che & Christopher Radcliff

OPEN CALL 2023 GROUP EXHIBITION

A multichannel video installation about two Vietnamese refugees hired to reenact the war as extras in a major American film

Armando Guadalupe Cortés

OPEN CALL 2023 GROUP EXHIBITION

A sculptural cockfighting ring exploring spectacle and its denial
See more events

Open Call: Yo-Yo Lin

JUL 8 – 9, 2022

A multisensory performance detailing experiences of isolation and togetherness, technology and the human body

Open Call: Eleanor Kipping

JUL 14 – 16, 2022

A solo performance attempting to reconcile life in the ‘80s and ‘90s alongside the AIDS crisis and the artist’s family history

Open Call: Niall Jones

JUL 21 – 23, 2022

A performance event that moves through audience and site to address the demands of visibility

Open Call: JJJJJerome Ellis

JUL 28 – 30, 2022

A concert imagining what Black ancestors witnessed in the landscapes of Virginia

Open Call: Benjamin Akio Kimitch

AUG 4 – 6, 2022

A reimagining of commodified East-meets-West stereotypes in dance

Open Call: z tye

AUG 11 – 13, 2022

A spiritual performance offering therapeutic healing for the LGBTQIA-POC community in a safe space of solidarity

Open Call: Justin Hicks

AUG 18 – 20, 2022

A music performance using song to reflect on the ways urbanites encounter nature

Open Call: Kinetic Light

AUG 25 – 27, 2022

An immersive contemporary aerial dance experience of sound, light, and movement exploring the race, gender, and disability stories of barbed wire

Open Call: Aisha Amin

JUN 4 – AUG 1, 2021

An immersive installation inviting you into Masjid At-Taqwa, a historic Brooklyn mosque

Open Call: AnAkA

JUN 12, 2021

A multimedia performance that encompasses communal ritual healing through visuals, music, and movement

Open Call: Troy Anthony

JUN 19, 2021

A revival for personal and collective liberation in celebration of Juneteenth

Open Call: Merche Blasco

JUN 24 & 25, 2021

A meditation through amplified vibrations on interconnectedness, our capacity for mutual transformation, and the urgent need to listen to each other and the world

Open Call: Leslie Cuyjet

JUN 4, 2021

An investigation of visibility and invisibility enacted between performers, audience, and objects

Open Call: Ayanna Dozier

JUN 4 – AUG 1, 2021

Abandoned architectural plans for a “Negro Coney Island” reimagined in photos, film, and architecture

Open Call: Caroline Garcia

JUN 4 – AUG 1, 2021

A performance installation and act of mourning that contends with diasporic grief for the loss of a mother

Open Call: Emilie Gossiaux

JUN 4 – AUG 1, 2021

Sculptures of hybrid figures collapsing constructed hierarchies among human and animal, real and mythic, abled and disabled

Open Call: Nazareth Hassan

JUN 11, 2021

A chamber choral text performance that explores the pleasure, violence, and necessity of disembodiment

Open Call: Ana María Agüero Jahannes

JUN 26, 2021

A reimagining of track and field that centers athleticism, aesthetic liberation, and collective joy for Black queer and trans people

Open Call: Esteban Jefferson

JUN 4 – AUG 1, 2021

A memorial and tribute to Jefferson’s friend, New York City artist Devra Freelander

Open Call: DonChristian Jones

JUN 17 – 18, 2021

The artist’s performance installation and homage to ‘90s Philadelphia, the womxn who raised him, the music they sang, and the cars they drove

Open Call: Ladi’Sasha Jones

JUN 5, 12, & 19, 2021

A participatory and generative project reflecting on Black interiority through a theoretical index, a game set, and workshops

Open Call: Le’Andra LeSeur

JUL 31, 2021

A multichannel video and performance fostering communal healing by uplifting musical traditions of the African diaspora

Open Call: Simon Liu

JUN 4 – AUG 1, 2021

A hyperkinetic multichannel video installation surveying Hong Kong through personal memory, exuberant urban spectacle, and ominous sites of civic upheaval

Open Call: Kyle Marshall

JUN 25 & 26, 2021

A dance honoring the spirit of humanity and sacredness of gathering

Open Call: Rachika Nayar

JUN 11, 2021

A musical performance winding among ambient, neoclassical, and more, presented in an audio-visual format of video and lights

Open Call: Tajh Rust

JUN 4 – AUG 1, 2021

A meditative installation of mirrored and painted glass panels alluding to the history of transatlantic migration

Open Call: Pauline Shaw

JUN 4 – AUG 1, 2021

A monumental, abstract, felted tapestry exploring memory and diasporic experience through MRI scans

Open Call: Kenneth Tam

JUN 4 – AUG 1, 2021

A video and sculptural installation using Taoist principles to explore ritualized violence in fraternities

Open Call: Cindy Tran

JUN 4 – AUG 1, 2021

A filmed sequence of sonnets that honors local businesses and the communities that enrich and sustain New York City

Open Call: Emily Waters

JUN 10, 2021

Narrative theater, Afro-diasporic folklore, poetry, and communal healing centering Black queer survivors

Open Call: Nia O. Witherspoon

JUN 3 – 4, 2021

A ritual-play cycle memorializing the stories of Black women warriors

Open Call: Anne Wu

JUN 4 – AUG 1, 2021

A sculptural installation celebrating architectural styles created by immigrant communities in Flushing, Queens

Open Call: Group 1

MAY 30 – JUL 6, 2019

Open Call: Group 2

JUN 19 – AUG 25, 2019

Open Call: Group 3

AUG 9 – 25, 2019

In The Works
Meet past artists

over 3 years ago

I Am Aisha Amin

over 3 years ago

I Am AnAkA

over 3 years ago

I Am Troy Anthony

over 3 years ago

I Am Merche Blasco

over 3 years ago

I Am Leslie Cuyjet

over 3 years ago

I Am Ayanna Dozier

over 3 years ago

I Am Caroline Garcia

over 3 years ago

I Am Emilie Gossiaux

over 3 years ago

I Am Nazareth Hassan

over 3 years ago

I Am Ana María Agüero Jahannes

over 3 years ago

I Am Esteban Jefferson

over 3 years ago

I Am DonChristian Jones

over 3 years ago

I Am Ladi'Sasha Jones

over 3 years ago

I Am Le'Andra LeSeur

over 3 years ago

I Am Simon Liu

over 3 years ago

I Am Kyle Marshall

over 3 years ago

I Am Tajh Rust

over 3 years ago

I Am Pauline Shaw

over 3 years ago

I Am Kenneth Tam

over 3 years ago

I Am Cindy Tran

over 3 years ago

I Am Emily Waters

over 3 years ago

I Am Nia O. Witherspooon

over 3 years ago

I Am Anne Wu

over 2 years ago

I Am Niall Jones

over 2 years ago

I Am JJJJJerome Ellis

over 2 years ago

We Are Kinetic Light

over 2 years ago

I Am Justin Hicks

over 2 years ago

I Am z tye

over 2 years ago

I Am Benjamin Akio Kimitch

over 2 years ago

I Am Eleanor Kipping

over 2 years ago

I Am Yo-Yo Lin

over 1 year ago

I Am Minne Atairu

over 1 year ago

I Am Jake Brush

over 1 year ago

We Are Cathy Linh Che & Christopher Radcliff

over 1 year ago

I Am Armando Guadalupe Cortés

over 1 year ago

I Am Lizania Cruz

over 1 year ago

I Am Bryan Fernandez

over 1 year ago

I Am Luis A. Gutierrez

over 1 year ago

I Am Jeffrey Meris

over 1 year ago

I Am Calli Roche

over 1 year ago

I Am Sandy Williams IV
In The Works
Learn more about past commissions

over 3 years ago

Between Artists: Ana María Agüero Jahannes and Kenneth Tam
What do we need to change in social institutions such as team sports and fraternities to make a more nurturing world for more people? Despite working in different fields, OPEN CALL artists Ana María Agüero Jahannes and Kenneth Tam both ask themselves this question.

over 3 years ago

That Feeling of Up: Kyle Marshall on RISE
My live experiences of Kyle Marshall’s work have mostly taken place in front of a proscenium stage, a physical structure my body can barely fathom over a year into the Covid-19 pandemic. So it’s not unsurprising that what Kyle once imagined for The Shed’s OPEN CALL has shifted, and necessarily so.

over 3 years ago

Between Artists: Merche Blasco and Rachika Nayar
How can we refocus our attention to perceive the invisible forces that connect us in our relationships and daily lives, and to the world around us? Artists Merche Blasco and Rachika Nayar create performance environments for their audiences that physicalize these imperceptible vibrations. Blasco builds instruments and antennae that she uses to investigate, record, and amplify electromagnetic waves in large performance venues like The Shed’s McCourt, where OPEN CALL performances are taking place this month. In her musical performances, Rachika Nayar uses effects that appeal to other senses, including lights, fog, and video projections, to create otherworldly spaces where her audiences can find transformation. As the two prepared for their OPEN CALL debuts, they met virtually in early May to talk about vibrations, ghostly presences, and the communities they rely on and create with.

over 3 years ago

A Dream, Unarchived
Ayanna Dozier’s CITIES OF THE DEAD (2021) began with the artist’s predilection for cemeteries. Paired with her discovery of Solomon Riley’s vision for a “Negro Coney Island,” her work for OPEN CALL reframes New York City’s Hart Island, located in the middle of the East River, and its largely unknown past as a potter’s field. A potter’s field is a graveyard for the “un-befriended,” or societally disgraced, those with no family to claim them. To add to this neglect is the history of mass graves and slave pits that dominated the South to ensure that Black people and white people weren’t buried in the same cemetery. When I met Dozier at her studio in downtown Brooklyn, she underscored this deep frustration with the fact that these separate burial tactics operated as “segregation at death.” However, in a radical reclamation for the living, Dozier charts the efforts of Riley, a wealthy Black man from Barbados, who purchased land on Hart Island and began to construct Negro Coney Island.

over 3 years ago

Between Artists: Simon Liu and Pauline Shaw
What do we remember about our daily lives and experiences, and how do we preserve those memories? Artists Pauline Shaw and Simon Liu pursue these questions across personal and political landscapes, translating memories into materials as different as felt and film.

over 3 years ago

Between Artists: Troy Anthony and Nia O. Witherspoon
Artists Troy Anthony and Nia O. Witherspoon felt an instant connection when they met after being selected for The Shed’s first OPEN CALL in 2018. The joyful energy of their creative and personal relationship is immediately palpable, even when meeting online through a video call. In late April with one month to go until the opening of OPEN CALL, they found time to discuss what drives their collaboration and what they have in the works for their commissions, which were originally scheduled for 2020 and will now premiere in June after being postponed by the pandemic.

over 3 years ago

“We Love You Devra Freelander”
I met Devra when we were both artists-in-residence in the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s (LMCC) Workspace Program from 2016 to 2017. At the time, the nine-month residency was held in the old Chase Manhattan Bank headquarters near Wall Street, and we gravitated toward each other as the two youngest artists participating.

over 3 years ago

Being Seen: An Interview with Leslie Cuyjet
I became aware of Leslie Cuyjet well before we actually met, and possibly before I even first saw her dance. As Black dancers within New York City’s mostly white experimental dance scene over the last decade or so, “which so often found her cast as a black dot on a white stage” (as reads the description of Leslie’s new choreographic work Blur), we’ve both experienced discomfort and attenuated feelings within the unspoken racial dynamics of casting and creative processes. When those “black dots”—on stage, and across studios and theater lobbies—are few and far between, it’s easy to spot each other in advance.

over 3 years ago

Between Artists: AnAkA and Le’Andra LeSeur
Artists AnAkA and Le’Andra LeSeur both bring wide-ranging research approaches to their work as artists, reclaiming culture in the African diaspora for their communities and future generations. When they met to share some of the ideas and inspiration behind their commissions, their conversation covered topics from what it’s like to visit the African continent after growing up in the diaspora to the ways they’re experimenting in their work and how to “activate” the spirit.

over 3 years ago

Between Artists: Caroline Garcia and Emily Waters
For OPEN CALL artists Caroline Garcia and Emily Waters, prayer can be a plea for protection as well as a method for imagining or calling forth a better world. For each of their performances, they are collaborating with others to compose texts and ritual aspects of the work that make connections between the artists’ personal stories and the larger geopolitical and social systems that have informed their experiences.

over 3 years ago

Between Artists: Emilie Gossiaux and DonChristian Jones
The world’s monuments often tower over us, imposing a sense of hierarchy that values their impact or ideology over the interpersonal scale of our lives. Artists Emilie Gossiaux and DonChristian Jones—who are preparing new artworks in sculpture and music performance, respectively, for OPEN CALL, and met online to talk about their progress in late March—imagine a different expression of monumentality rooted in the intimate relationships that they’ve grown from in their lives.

over 3 years ago

Between Artists: Aisha Amin and Cindy Tran
What stories define New York City, not as a Hollywood fantasy but as a fabric of neighborhoods, workday routines, and everyday instances of creativity? In late March, OPEN CALL artists Aisha Amin and Cindy Tran joined each other online to share their experiences listening to and telling the stories of New Yorkers around the city.

over 3 years ago

Between Artists: Nazareth Hassan and Tajh Rust
In early April, Nazareth Hassan and Tajh Rust met virtually to talk about their new works, as well as the ways they collaborate with others and their thoughts on the value of opacity as a condition for relating to Blackness and other forms of identity, other people, and their own selves.

over 3 years ago

Fitting: A Photo-Essay

over 2 years ago

Between Artists: Justin Hicks and Eleanor Kipping
In their performance works, artists Justin Hicks and Eleanor Kipping both shape their experiences into personal narratives to share with audiences, reflecting on their relationships to the natural world as a means of seeking understanding…

over 2 years ago

Between Artists: Benjamin Akio Kimitch and Yo-Yo Lin
Artists Benjamin Akio Kimitch and Yo-Yo Lin both invite collaborators into their performance work as they search for authentic personal expression and ultimately reimagine stereotypes to create transformative connections with their audiences and their own selves…

over 2 years ago

Between Artists: Niall Jones and z tye
How can a performance create a space of communion without falling into fixed definitions and expected outcomes? In their performance works, artists Niall Jones and z tye both seek to create new ways of being together through movement, language, and sound…

over 2 years ago

Between Artists: Michael Maag and Alice Sheppard of Kinetic Light
For the artists of the disability arts ensemble Kinetic Light, barbed wire is a quintessential, complicated material of US history and contemporary life, organizing movement and confinement by marking territory from farmland and construction sites to prisons and international borders.
In The Works

over 5 years ago

Justin Allen

almost 6 years ago

Meet Kelsey Pyro

over 5 years ago

Haley Anderson

almost 6 years ago

Meet The Illustrious Blacks

over 5 years ago

Studio Visit with Avram Finkelstein

over 5 years ago

Richard Kennedy at Home

over 5 years ago

Studio Visit with Maia Chao

over 6 years ago

Open Call Artists on Their Work

over 6 years ago

Open Call Artists on Working at The Shed

over 6 years ago

Open Call Artists Get Together for the First Time

Program Credits

The fourth edition of Open Call is organized by Darren Biggart, Director of Civic Programs; Dejá Belardo, Assistant Curator; Christal Ferreira, Program Manager, Civic Programs and Visual Art; and Daisy Peele, Producer, with support by Public Assembly (Tamara McCaw, Maggie MacTiernan, Annabel Thompson).

Open Call was conceived by The Shed’s Artistic Director Alex Poots, Tamara McCaw, former Chief Civic Program Officer; Emma Enderby, former Chief Curator; and Senior Program Advisor Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Thank you to our partners

Support for Open Call is generously provided by

Additional support is provided by Sarah Arison, in honor of Misty Copeland, and The Wescustogo Foundation.

The creation of new work at The Shed is generously supported by the Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Commissioning Fund. Major support for live productions at The Shed is provided by the Charina Endowment Fund, with additional support from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

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