Steadfast Study
We move with so many movements, legacies and fights in our bones, we move them into practice and collective sumud, we move from bed and from letter to letter, from our classrooms and fists, we move mouths, we sway, we gather in the streets, we are unwavering and we are here. A movement is a web of social relation-ships, we are forever in this steadfast movement web.
- Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo
SEPTEMBER is pleased to present Steadfast Study, a solo show with Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, artist, abolitionist, educator, storyteller and person of multitudes. The exhibition marks the second solo gathering of their practice with the gallery. They will present bodies of work that are text-based and message-driven in the form of sandwich board paintings, billboards, broadsides, drawings and site specific installations. Branfman-Verissimo’s practice centers the telling and archiving of Black, Indigenous, Queer, Trans, Disabled people of color’s lives, social justice legacies and liberatory future making. Accompanying the exhibition is a commissioned book, published by Cripple, that holds Branfman-Verissimo’s journalistic poetry of dissent, grief and envisioned freedom. Steadfast Study is an invitation to gather, to study, to be moved to resist oppression in all forms and to work to protect the most vulnerable person in the room.
We invite you to learn more about the making of this meaningful interdisciplinary exhibition, through reading a conversation between writer and cultural worker Katie Giritlian and Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo. We will have a full copy of Giritlian and Branfman-Verissimo’s conversation in the gallery as a takeaway, for the run of Steadfast Study.
Abbreviated Introduction by Katie Giritlian:
“Steadfast” a word of discernment, of clarity, of precision achieved through a “lifelong voice to fight.” “Study” a word of abundance, of expansion, of porous possibilities made through collective learning and exchange. These two words together make room for living with, and within, collective struggle and liberation.
These two words together both make clear and expansively hold what artist, abolitionist, educator, storyteller and cultural worker Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo extends to us: a series of multidisciplinary works that broadcast the life of language and its inevitable transformation when we take part in Steadfast Study together. Branfman-Verissimo’s works are made of the language, material and breath of what it means to gather together inside of each and every pulse that makes liberation.
Steadfast Study announces. In the entrance of September Gallery lives the artist’s collection of sandwich board paintings, announcing and welcoming us to gather here. Amassing multiple signs together, Branfman-Verissimo reroutes the rules of signage to choreograph new cues and new views, readying our breath for the openness needed to speak to and with collective care.
Steadfast Study chants. In the largest room of the gallery, big enough to hold us all within, lives the mural series (1-5) and a site specific mural on the walls. Together, these works transform the many voices and teachers of STEADFAST STUDY into a tapestry where language is made larger together, where words break free to return to each other, where “different strategies are fighting for the same goal.”
Steadfast Study dwells. On the other side of the gallery is a room to study within. Here lives the artist’s debut publication, 'Steadfast Study', published by Cripple and produced by September, that archives and disperses Branfman-Verissimo’s writings around the artist’s role within liberation movements. This publication, alongside a series of prints and painted broadsides, disperses language for hosting our study. As we dwell in the intimacy of book and prints, we hear an audio piece that gives a sonic voice to the language in and across the works of the show.
Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo is an artist, abolitionist, educator, storyteller and person of multitudes, who lives and works on the unceded lands of the Schaghticoke, Mohican and Munsee Lenape people (also known as the Hudson Valley, NY). Through a practice based in the printed multiple, community-based work, performance and installation building, they invite the viewer to recall and share their own lived narratives, offering power and weight to the creation of a larger dialogue around the telling of Black, Indigenous, Queer, Trans, People of color’s stories. Lukaza has had solo shows at September Gallery, Amherst College, Deli Gallery, Roll Up Projects, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Printed Matter Inc. Their work has been included in exhibitions and performances at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, California African American Museum, MOCA Cleveland, Smith College Art Museum, Konsthall C, San Francisco Arts Commission, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, and L’Internationale Online, amongst others. Their artist books and printed editions have been published by Endless Editions, Childish Books, Ghost Proposal, Press Press, Center for Liberatory Practice & Poetry, Printed Matter Inc and Wendy’s Subway. Their work has most recently been supported by a Wynn Newhouse Award, Mid-Hudson Valley Arts Council and Frederick Hammersley Visiting Artist Fellowship. Lukaza got their BFA at California College of the Arts and MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. They facilitate spaces of learning and exchange at the School for Poetic Computation and Bard College.
Access Info:
To enter use the entrance located at the Northside of The Knitting Mill Building via the parking lot. At the Northside entrance there is a glass door with a handle. Once in the building, turn right to follow signs pointing you towards the stairwell/ elevator to the gallery. The gallery is located on the second and third floor of the building. To use the elevator, continue past the stairwell and press the call button. A blue light will go off when the elevator has arrived. To enter the elevator, open the door and let it shut behind you, the door will lock, wait for the accordion doors to close on their own and press the button for the floor that you wish to access. If you need to unlock the elevator door press the button for the floor that you are already on. If you choose to take the steps, there are three banks of stairs with hand railings. The first bank has seventeen stairs, the second bank of stairs has four steps and the third bank of stairs has twelve. The floors of the gallery are a smooth wood surface. There is one non ADA accessible gender neutral bathroom in the gallery and two ADA accessible gender neutral bathrooms on the ground floor by the elevator. For the duration of Steadfast Study, KN95 masks will be required to be worn in the gallery. We have masks provided in the space, thank you for keeping the artist and community safe!
- Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo
SEPTEMBER is pleased to present Steadfast Study, a solo show with Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, artist, abolitionist, educator, storyteller and person of multitudes. The exhibition marks the second solo gathering of their practice with the gallery. They will present bodies of work that are text-based and message-driven in the form of sandwich board paintings, billboards, broadsides, drawings and site specific installations. Branfman-Verissimo’s practice centers the telling and archiving of Black, Indigenous, Queer, Trans, Disabled people of color’s lives, social justice legacies and liberatory future making. Accompanying the exhibition is a commissioned book, published by Cripple, that holds Branfman-Verissimo’s journalistic poetry of dissent, grief and envisioned freedom. Steadfast Study is an invitation to gather, to study, to be moved to resist oppression in all forms and to work to protect the most vulnerable person in the room.
We invite you to learn more about the making of this meaningful interdisciplinary exhibition, through reading a conversation between writer and cultural worker Katie Giritlian and Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo. We will have a full copy of Giritlian and Branfman-Verissimo’s conversation in the gallery as a takeaway, for the run of Steadfast Study.
Abbreviated Introduction by Katie Giritlian:
“Steadfast” a word of discernment, of clarity, of precision achieved through a “lifelong voice to fight.” “Study” a word of abundance, of expansion, of porous possibilities made through collective learning and exchange. These two words together make room for living with, and within, collective struggle and liberation.
These two words together both make clear and expansively hold what artist, abolitionist, educator, storyteller and cultural worker Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo extends to us: a series of multidisciplinary works that broadcast the life of language and its inevitable transformation when we take part in Steadfast Study together. Branfman-Verissimo’s works are made of the language, material and breath of what it means to gather together inside of each and every pulse that makes liberation.
Steadfast Study announces. In the entrance of September Gallery lives the artist’s collection of sandwich board paintings, announcing and welcoming us to gather here. Amassing multiple signs together, Branfman-Verissimo reroutes the rules of signage to choreograph new cues and new views, readying our breath for the openness needed to speak to and with collective care.
Steadfast Study chants. In the largest room of the gallery, big enough to hold us all within, lives the mural series (1-5) and a site specific mural on the walls. Together, these works transform the many voices and teachers of STEADFAST STUDY into a tapestry where language is made larger together, where words break free to return to each other, where “different strategies are fighting for the same goal.”
Steadfast Study dwells. On the other side of the gallery is a room to study within. Here lives the artist’s debut publication, 'Steadfast Study', published by Cripple and produced by September, that archives and disperses Branfman-Verissimo’s writings around the artist’s role within liberation movements. This publication, alongside a series of prints and painted broadsides, disperses language for hosting our study. As we dwell in the intimacy of book and prints, we hear an audio piece that gives a sonic voice to the language in and across the works of the show.
Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo is an artist, abolitionist, educator, storyteller and person of multitudes, who lives and works on the unceded lands of the Schaghticoke, Mohican and Munsee Lenape people (also known as the Hudson Valley, NY). Through a practice based in the printed multiple, community-based work, performance and installation building, they invite the viewer to recall and share their own lived narratives, offering power and weight to the creation of a larger dialogue around the telling of Black, Indigenous, Queer, Trans, People of color’s stories. Lukaza has had solo shows at September Gallery, Amherst College, Deli Gallery, Roll Up Projects, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Printed Matter Inc. Their work has been included in exhibitions and performances at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, California African American Museum, MOCA Cleveland, Smith College Art Museum, Konsthall C, San Francisco Arts Commission, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, and L’Internationale Online, amongst others. Their artist books and printed editions have been published by Endless Editions, Childish Books, Ghost Proposal, Press Press, Center for Liberatory Practice & Poetry, Printed Matter Inc and Wendy’s Subway. Their work has most recently been supported by a Wynn Newhouse Award, Mid-Hudson Valley Arts Council and Frederick Hammersley Visiting Artist Fellowship. Lukaza got their BFA at California College of the Arts and MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. They facilitate spaces of learning and exchange at the School for Poetic Computation and Bard College.
Access Info:
To enter use the entrance located at the Northside of The Knitting Mill Building via the parking lot. At the Northside entrance there is a glass door with a handle. Once in the building, turn right to follow signs pointing you towards the stairwell/ elevator to the gallery. The gallery is located on the second and third floor of the building. To use the elevator, continue past the stairwell and press the call button. A blue light will go off when the elevator has arrived. To enter the elevator, open the door and let it shut behind you, the door will lock, wait for the accordion doors to close on their own and press the button for the floor that you wish to access. If you need to unlock the elevator door press the button for the floor that you are already on. If you choose to take the steps, there are three banks of stairs with hand railings. The first bank has seventeen stairs, the second bank of stairs has four steps and the third bank of stairs has twelve. The floors of the gallery are a smooth wood surface. There is one non ADA accessible gender neutral bathroom in the gallery and two ADA accessible gender neutral bathrooms on the ground floor by the elevator. For the duration of Steadfast Study, KN95 masks will be required to be worn in the gallery. We have masks provided in the space, thank you for keeping the artist and community safe!
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SEPTEMBER