arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody/ Joy Episalla/ Zoe Leonard/ Carrie Yamaoka: fierce pussy amplified: ChapterEight
Curated by Jo-ey Tang
March 2 – May 11, 2025
Opening reception, Sunday, March 2, 5-7pm
PARTICIPANT INC, 116 Elizabeth Street, floor one NY NY 10013
Wednesday–Sunday, noon-7pm
From March 2 - May 11, 2025, PARTICIPANT INC presents arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody / Joy Episalla / Zoe Leonard / Carrie Yamaoka: fierce pussy amplified: Chapter Eight, curated by Jo-ey Tang.
Chapter Eight is the latest exhibition chapter of an ongoing project that explores the resonances between the individual practices of the four artists, and in relation to their work as the queer art collective fierce pussy.
Originally formed in 1991 in New York City, fierce pussy began as a shifting cadre of activists who brought lesbian identity and visibility into the streets. Four of the original core members — Nancy Brooks Brody (1962-2023), Joy Episalla, Zoe Leonard, and Carrie Yamaoka — have continued to work together around issues of queer visibility and trans rights. In their individual practices across photography, drawing, painting, video, and sculpture, each of the artists shares an attention to the mutability of materials as an inquiry into relationships between subjectivity, perception, time, and history. arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody / Joy Episalla / Zoe Leonard / Carrie Yamaoka: fierce pussy amplified considers their expansive and resonant art practices in activating perceptual and political agencies.
The title “arms ache avid aeon” draws from Carrie Yamaoka’s artwork A is for Angel (1991), which features the four words gathered from typewriter correction ribbons collected from her day job and friends. By making visible these erasures, and by connecting to erasures upon our daily lives, culture, and society, the work stands as a fortifying paean to resistance and intimacy, through grief, desire, hope, and time.
The project was conceived by artist and curator Jo-ey Tang in collaboration with the artists in 2015, and has unfolded over multiple chapters, taking the form of exhibitions, a book, and expanded through performances, screenings, symposia, and conversations. Beginning with an open-ended process to convene the four core members of fierce pussy’s artistic practices in conversation for the first time, each chapter contains a non-chronological selection of artworks from the late 1980s to the present. Throughout the chapters, artworks re-appear to create ever-changing juxtapositions and proximities. This process is inspired by fierce pussy’s methodology of combining and remixing past works with new works, as well as the tactics of repetition that challenge chronology in each of the artists’ works.
Previous chapters have taken place at Beeler Gallery at Columbus College of Art & Design (Chapters One to Four, 2018-2019), Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (Chapter Five, 2019), and Palais de Tokyo, Paris (Chapter Seven, 2023), with a forthcoming book (Chapter Six, published in collaboration with Dancing Foxes Press). Contributors to the chapters include Mx Justin Vivian Bond, Jill H. Casid, Jonah Groeneboer, Alhena Katsof, Thomas (T.) J Lax, Elisabeth Lebovici, and Jeannine Tang.
For the PARTICIPANT INC exhibition, fierce pussy has conceived a new work, I got all my sisters with me (2025), as a collective call for solidarity in the current moment. The poster takes up a line from Sister Sledge’s 1979 disco anthem “We Are Family” written by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers. For the Library of Congress entry on the song Tim Lawrence writes, “on the surface, the lyrics referred to the close relationship enjoyed by the four sisters who laid down the vocals. A little below, they expressed disco’s underlying ethos: to establish the dance floor as a social space that cut across the boundaries of class, creed, gender, nationality, race and sexuality.”
During the exhibition, the poster will be available for the taking at art organizations across New York City, as a connector of public spaces of New York, where fierce pussy first began their collective work. Collaborating venues include: American Academy of Arts & Letters, Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA), Giorno Poetry Systems, Housing Works, KARMA Bookstore, The Kitchen, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, Light Industry, MoMA PS1, Performance Space New York, Pratt Institute’s Photography Department, Printed Matter, and Triple Canopy (list in formation).
Chapter Eight is dedicated to Nancy Brooks Brody (1962-2023).
Related Public Programming
On Sunday, March 9, 2025, 5pm, Triple Canopy hosts a conversation with writer Lauren O’Neill-Butler and Thomas (T.) Jean Lax (Curator, Department of Media and Performance, Museum of Modern Art, NY).
Location: Triple Canopy, 264 Canal Street, 3W, New York
On Wednesday, April 23, 2025, 6:30pm Participant Inc hosts a talk with artists Joy Episalla, Zoe Leonard, Carrie Yamaoka, and curator Jo-ey Tang.
Location: Participant Inc, 116 Elizabeth Street, floor one, New York
On Monday, April 28, 2025, 7pm, the Museum of Modern Art’s Modern Monday presents a screening of Joy Episalla’s film As long as there's you, As long as there's me (2023). Special guest Mx Justin Vivian Bond, who appears in the film, will open the evening with a short musical performance. Following the screening, Episalla will be joined in conversation with Jo-ey Tang and Stuart Comer, MoMA’s Lonti Ebers Chief Curator of Media and Performance.
Location: Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, New York
Biographies
Nancy Brooks Brody (1962-2023) worked mainly in painting, drawing and sculpture. Brody had solo exhibitions at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery (2019, 2024); Fortnight Institute, New York (2018); Galerie Joseph Tang, Paris, curated by Jo-ey Tang (2015); Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York (2014); Virgil de Voldere Gallery, New York (2007, 2009); and New Math Gallery, New York (1984,1985). Their work was included in numerous group exhibitions, including Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard, Paris (2018); Josh Pazda Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston (2018, 2024); Galerie Christophe Gaillard, Brussels (2024); Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon, New Museum, New York (2017–18); Bortolami Gallery, New York (2017); Greater New York, MoMA PS1, New York (2015); Frac Haute-Normandie, France (2015); The Camera Club of New York (2015); and Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago (2015). Brody’s first group exhibition was at Club 57, New York, curated by Keith Haring (1980). Their work is in the collections of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Centre Pompidou, Paris; FRAC Haute-Normandie, France; and Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris. In 2015, she co-curated (with Jonathan Berger), David Nelson at 80WSE Gallery, New York University.
Joy Episalla (b. 1957) lives in New York City and works at the intersection of photography, video, and sculpture. Episalla has had solo exhibitions and projects at Tibor De Nagy (2022); Galerie Joseph Tang, Paris (2018); International Center of Photography, New York (2016); Participant Inc, New York (2015); Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago (2006, 2008); Debs & Co., NYC (1998, 1999, 2002, 2004) and Mercer Union, Toronto (2000). Their work has been included in numerous group exhibitions at /(slash), San Francisco (2023); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2020); Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York (2020); Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard, Paris (2018); Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York (2016); Greater New York, MoMA PS1, New York (2015); Baxter St at The Camera Club of New York (2015); Brooklyn Museum (2012); Artists Space, New York (2006); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2005); Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2002); White Columns, New York (1994, 1997, 2010); Buffalo AKG, New York (1998); and The Victoria & Albert Museum, London (1996). Their work is included in the collections of Baltimore Museum of Art; Buffalo AKG, New York; The Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN; Prudential Insurance Collection, NJ; Rose Art Museum, MA.
Zoe Leonard (b. 1961) lives in New York City. An artist who works with photography, sculpture, and installation, Leonard has exhibited extensively since the late 1980s, including solo exhibitions at the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas (2024-25); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2024); Musée d’art Moderne de Paris (2022-2023); MUDAM - The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg (2022); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2018); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2015); Camden Arts Centre, London (2012); Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna (2009); Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2009); Reina Sofia, Madrid (2008), Dia:Beacon, Beacon, New York (2008); The Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2007); Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (2007); Philadelphia Museum of Art (1998); Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (1997); Secession, Vienna (1997), and The Renaissance Society, Chicago (1993). Group exhibitions include Documenta IX (1992); DocumentaXII (2007); and Whitney Biennials in 1993, 1997, and 2014.
Carrie Yamaoka (b. 1957) lives in New York City. Her work traverses painting, drawing, photography and sculpture. She is a 2017 recipient of an Anonymous Was a Woman Award, and a 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship. Yamaoka has had solo exhibitions at Ulterior Gallery, New York (2019 and 2024); Kiang Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong (2024); Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles (2020 and 2023); Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University (2022); Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle (2019); Lucien Terras, New York (2015); Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York (2014); Debs & Co., New York (1997, 2000, 2002, and 2004); Robeson Art Gallery, Rutgers University, New Jersey (2000); and Swarthmore College (1990). She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including 47 Canal, New York (2021); i8 Gallery, Reykjavik (2021); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2020); Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard, Paris (2018); Galerie Crèvecoeur, Marseille, France (2018); Greater New York, MoMA PS1, New York (2015); Baxter St at The Camera Club of New York (2015); Buffalo AKG, New York (2009); Artists Space (2006); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2005); Mass MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts (2002); Victoria & Albert Museum, London (1996); and New Langton Arts, San Francisco (1991). Her work is included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Buffalo AKG, New York; Dallas Museum of Art, Texas; and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
fierce pussy
Formed in New York City in 1991 through their immersion in AIDS activism during a decade of increasing political mobilization around LGBT rights, fierce pussy brought queer identity and visibility directly into the streets. Low-tech and low-budget, the collective responded to the urgency of those years, using readily available resources: old typewriters, found photographs, their own baby pictures, and the printing supplies and equipment accessible in their day jobs. Originally fierce pussy was composed of a fluid and often shifting cadre of members. Four of the original core members—Nancy Brooks Brody (1962-2023), Joy Episalla, Zoe Leonard, and Carrie Yamaoka—continue to work together. fierce pussy has been included in group exhibitions at Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2023), Bronx Museum of Art, New York (2016), MoMA PS1, New York (2015), Daniel Buchholz Gallery, Cologne (2014), Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York (2012), White Columns, New York (2010), LaMama Gallery, New York (2009), and Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2009). Solo exhibitions include Between Bridges, Berlin (2022), the Lesbian Herstory Archives, New York (2009) and Printed Matter, New York (2008). In June 2018, the collective debuted AND SO ARE YOU, a project for Queer Power: the yearlong facade installation at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York.
Jo-ey Tang (b. 1978) is an artist, writer, and curator, who experiments with the formats of versions, repetitions, and iterations as an ongoing engagement with time and its potential. He has curated exhibitions at Centre Pompidou, Paris; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Blaffer Art Museum, Houston; chi K11 Art Museum, Shanghai; and FUTURA Center for Contemporary Art, Prague. He has served as Director at KADIST San Francisco, curator at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, arts editor of n+1, and held roles at Denniston Hill, Woodridge, NY and Beeler Gallery at Columbus College of Art & Design. He is an advising committee member at / (Slash), San Francisco. His writing on art has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Flash Art, Paper Monument, and artforum.com, and for exhibitions and publications at Centre Pompidou, Wexner Center for the Arts, and West Den Haag. As an artist, he has exhibited at Musée d'art contemporain de la Haute-Vienne; IAC - Institut d'art contemporain, Villeurbanne / Rhône-Alpes; Shimmer, Rotterdam; and Kunsthalle Zürich.
arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody / Joy Episalla / Zoe Leonard / Carrie Yamaoka: fierce pussy amplified: Chapter Six received publication grants from The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation.
Jo-ey Tang received curator residency support from Denniston Hill and Rupert.
PARTICIPANT INC’s exhibitions and public programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
Our programs are supported by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Archiving and documentation projects are supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Online projects are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature through the Media Arts Assistance Fund, a regrant partnership of NYSCA and Wave Farm.
PARTICIPANT INC’s exhibitions and online programs are made possible by Teiger Foundation. PARTICIPANT INC is supported by an Artists Council Grant of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
PARTICIPANT INC receives generous support from the Harriett Ames Charitable Trust; Agnes Gund Foundation; Marta Heflin Foundation; Marieluise Hessel Foundation; The Ruth Ivor Foundation; Jerome Foundation; Lambent Foundation Fund, a fund of Tides Foundation; VIA | Wagner Incubator Grant Fund; The Jacques Louis Vidal Charitable Fund; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; FRIENDS of PARTICIPANT INC; numerous individuals; and Materials for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs/NYC Department of Sanitation/NYC Dept. of Education.
PARTICIPANT INC has received support from The Willem de Kooning Foundation, Marian Goodman Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Teiger Foundation through Coalition of Small Arts New York City (CoSA NYC).
PARTICIPANT INC is located at 116 Elizabeth Street, floor one, between Broome and Grand Streets. The closest trains are the J/Z (Bowery) and the B/D (Grand); the closest wheelchair accessible stop is the 6 (Canal). Entry is on grade and the gallery is barrier free throughout with an all gender, wheelchair accessible bathroom. Service animals are welcome.