Mathilde Walker-Billaud

We are thrilled to announce this year's BAXTER ST Guest Curators! Congratulations to Mathilde Walker-Billaud (@mathilde__wb ) who will present an exhibition by Ohan Breiding(@ohanbreiding ) and Marley Trigg Stewart (@marleytriggstewart ) who will present an exhibition by Dean Majd (@deanmajd ).⁠ •⁠⁠ ⁠'Phantom Sun' engages in a material and speculative dialogue with unidentified #photographers working for the Farm Security Administration between 1935 and 1944. Artist Ohan Breiding presents a site-specific #panorama composed of selected black-and-white prints depicting farm animals and landscapes, all drawn from the FSA’s rejected negatives. By rehabilitating images discarded by Roy Stryker—the head of the FSA’s Information Division, who commissioned photographers to document the struggles of American farmers—Breiding assembles a landscape of the left-out and the marginalized. This feminist gesture of retrieval sheds light on Stryker’s irreparable method of puncturing #negatives that did not align with the Administration’s vision of American rural life.⁠ •⁠ ⁠'Hard Feelings' is an intimate #documentation of masculine dynamics within Majd’s circle, steeped in the skateboarding and graffiti communities of Queens, #NewYork. The work was prompted by the sudden passing of one of Majd's childhood friends in 2016 and serves as an exploration of collective grief, brotherhood and gender roles within relationships. Made over the course of a decade, the resulting #photographs are a record of how these themes have shifted Majd’s perception of his hometown and his internal landscape. Rooted in a profound love for his chosen family and the ever-evolving energy of #NewYorkCity, Majd’s practice thrives on community, vulnerability, and experimentation. ⁠ •⁠ For more information about both artists and curators please visit the link in our bio. Thank you again to everyone who took the time to submit a proposal! ⁠ •⁠ Images: Ohan Breiding, 'Killed Negative 3', 2025; Dean Majd,'Dallas (phoenix ash)', 2022; Mathilde Walker-Billaud by Abby Lord; Marley Trigg Stewart by Asher Selle.

My solo show, Phantom Sun, curated by @mathilde__wb is up until January 28th @baxterstccny . I will be in NYC if you would like to meet me there for a personal walk-through. Also, on January 22nd at 6:30pm @mathilde__wb and I will be in conversation at the gallery. Please join us!

Ohan Breiding’s solo exhibition, Phantom Sun, opens Thursday, November 20th from 6-8 PM at @baxterstccny ! The exhibition is curated by Mathilde Walker-Billaud. The lens-based presentation amplifies landscapes as witnesses to ecological, political, and cultural issues, foregrounding what has been erased or cast aside.

This Saturday, February 21, Alexandria Eregbu (@alexandriaeregbu ) will present Blue Magic, a sonic textile environment, from 11:30 AM to 7 PM, with special activations happening throughout the day. 💙 📅 Schedule 🕛 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm — Invocation & Opening Ceremony⁠ 🕓 4:00 pm – 5:15 pm — Artist Talk with Dr. Chelsea Frazier (@amazon_scholar  )⁠ 🕕 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm — Evening Ritual & Closing Performance with FINDING IJEOMA (@findingijeoma  )⁠ ⁠ This program is organized by Mathilde Walker-Billaud (@mathilde__wb  ), AFAM Curator of Programs and Engagement. It was supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant (@foundationforcontemporaryarts ).⁠ Link in bio to register!

Please join us for Blue Magic, a sonic textile environment exploring the deep histories of indigo blue, conceived by Nigerian-American artist Alexandria Eregbu (@alexandriaeregbu ). ⁠ ⁠ Drawing from her own family history, quilting art, feminist ecology, and listening practices across the Black Atlantic world, Eregbu activates the works in An Ecology of Quilts.⁠ ⁠ Alexandria Eregbu’s work will be accessible to all gallery visitors throughout the day, from 11:30 am to 7:00 pm, with special activations scheduled throughout. ⁠ ⁠ 📆 Schedule⁠ ⁠ 🕛 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm — Invocation & Opening Ceremony⁠ 🕓 4:00 pm – 5:15 pm — Artist Talk with Dr. Chelsea Frazier (@amazon_scholar )⁠ 🕕 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm — Evening Ritual & Closing Performance with FINDING IJEOMA (@findingijeoma )⁠ ⁠ This program is organized by Mathilde Walker-Billaud (@mathilde__wb ), AFAM Curator of Programs and Engagement. It was supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant (@foundationforcontemporaryarts ).⁠ ⁠ Admission is free, link in bio to register!⁠

Join us online for the conversation, ‘Shades of Cotton: The Material Worlds of 19th-Century Textiles’, on Tuesday, December 2 at 1 PM ET.⁠ ⁠ Moderated by Teju Adisa-Farrar (@misstej ), creator of Black Material Geographies, this conversation brings together historians Anna Arabindan-Kesson (@annaa_kesson ) and Chloe Chaplin (@chloewasaracecardriver ) to explore cotton as material, process, and value, both economic and symbolic, tracing how it has shaped ideas of race, labor, and power across American history. We hope you can join us!⁠ ⁠ This program is organized by Mathilde Walker-Billaud (@mathilde__wb ), AFAM Curator of Programs and Engagement.⁠ ⁠ Shades of Cotton: The Material Worlds of 19th-Century Textiles⁠ ⏰ Tuesday, December 2, 1:00 PM ET⁠ ➡️ Virtual, Link in bio to register!⁠ ⁠ -⁠ ⁠ 🪡 Flying Geese Quilt, United States, c. 1870, Cotton, 82 x 68 in., Gift of Birgit Lorentzen, 2019.27.38. American Folk Art Museum, New York.⁠

This weekend is your last chance to see ‘Madalena Santos Reinbolt: A Head Full of Planets’ ‼️⁠ ⁠ A moment we will never forget during this exhibition was ‘A Dance for Madalena,’ a special performance series by Ana Pi (@ana.pi.ana ) ✨🇧🇷⁠ ⁠ This program was organized by Mathilde Walker-Billaud (@mathilde__wb ), AFAM Curator of Programs and Engagement.⁠ Click the link in bio to learn more about choreographer and performer Ana Pi's tribute to Santos Reinbolt’s complex vision. ⁠ We hope you’ll join us in honoring Madalena’s legacy before the exhibition closes ❤️⁠ ⁠ -⁠ ⁠ 🎨 Ana Pi, A Dance for Madalena, 2025, Photo Christine Wise

Thrilled to share our conversation for @e_flux journal on the 2012 Paris Triennale: Intense Proximity, featured in “After Okwui”, a series commissioned by @Serubiri . We reflect on how Okwui Enwezor shaped and led a global art event amid political shifts and rising identitarian debates in France. For Enwezor, Paris and its “excess of cultural capital” was the perfect stage to rethink the ethnographic model of otherness and revive vital lessons from cosmopolitanism. 2012 Paris Triennale was an ambitious, multilayered project that remains as relevant—and urgent—as ever. It tackled the challenges that globalization—and the movements of denationalization, decentralization, and de-hierarchization that arose from it— pose to the framing and writing of modern and contemporary art. Link in bio to read more. Grateful to @serubiri and @e_flux , as well as Luz Gyalui, @jamesmerlethomas , @yoann_gourmel and @palaisdetokyo , Markus Müller. @emilie.insta.renard @claire.staebler @mathildewb @betonsalon Images 1 El Anatsui, Broken Bridge, “La Triennale 2012: Intense Proximity,” Paris. Photo by André Morin. 2 Rirkrit Tiravanija, Soup/No Soup, 2012. Installation view, Grand Palais, “La Triennale 2012: Intense Proximity,” Paris. 3 Alfredo Jaar, Le siècle Lévi-Strauss, 2007. “La Triennale 2012: Intense Proximity,” Paris. Courtesy of the artist and Kamel Mennour (Paris). 4 Rirkrit Tiravanija, Fear Eats the Soul, 2012. Installation view, “La Triennale 2012: Intense Proximity,” Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Photograph: André Morin. Courtesy the artist and La Triennale. 5 Installation view, “La Triennale 2012: Intense Proximity,” Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Photograph: André Morin. Courtesy La Triennale. 6 Tropicomania: The Social Life of Plants (with Yo-Yo Gonthier, Les cultures sont variées et riches et Petite zone peu sûre, ensemble Outre-Mer, 2012, and Edouard Bouët-Willaumez, Carte des côtes occidentales d’Afrique, 1848, Collection de la Bibliothèque Historique du Cirad). Installation view, “La Triennale 2012: Intense Proximity,” Bétonsalon – Centre for Art and Research, Paris, 2012. Photograph: Grégory Copitet. Courtesy the artists and La Triennale.

Shaker gift drawings are rare spirit works on paper, made mostly by women. Upcoming @afamuseum , 2 programs look into these messages of love, received as “gifts” through supernatural communications, and the ways in which women artists engage with magic and spiritual forces. ✨Thursday, December 19, 6pm-7.30m ET Virtual talk, free A Beautiful Stillness: Artists Mariam Ghani, Erin Ellen Kelly, Maria Molteni and Cauleen Smith in Conversation @mostlywindows @erin_ellen_kelly @strega_maria & @cauleen_smith present their performance and media projects that revisit sites and episodes in Shaker history. We’ll learn how to activate the sect’s material culture like Semantha Fairbanks and Mary Wicks‘s intricate “Sacred Sheets” while contemplating Shaker influence on American art and landscape. Moderated by art writer @juliesmithschneider ✨Sunday January 26, 1pm-2:15 pm ET Virtual talk, free Mystical Abstraction: Women, Spiritualism, and the Arts Art historian @jennifer_higgie and the feminist artist collective @hilmasghost discuss the role of spirituality for women artists like Hilma af Klint, Georgiana Houghton, Judith Godwin and Shaker “Instruments” Polly Collins and Polly Jane Reed. We’ll look back at the history of abstraction with a focus on feminist and spiritual discourse. In collaboration w/ @shakermuseum These virtual talks are organized in conjunction with the exhibition “Anything but Simple: Gift Drawings and the Shaker Aesthetic” on view @afam until January 26. Special thanks to all our speakers and my colleagues @afamuseum @shakermuseum 🩵 Join us! Link in Bio to read more + register for free IMG 1 Semantha Fairbanks & Mary Wicks, Sacred Sheet, 1843 2-3 M Molteni & Alison Halter, Sacred Sheets, 2021 4-5 C Smith, Pilgrim, 2017 6 Polly Jane Reed, A Present from Mother Lucy to Eliza Ann Taylor, 1849 7-8 M Ghani & E Ellen Kelly, When the Spirits Moved Them, They Moved, 2019 9-10 W Winter, Untitled, New Lebanon, NY, 1920s 11-12 Polly Collins, An Emblem of the Heavenly Sphere, 1854 13-14 Hilma’s Ghost, Have you noticed that what you are looking for is…, 2022 J. Higgie, Cover of The Other Side, 2023

Excited to co-present “Radical Institutions and Experimental Psychiatry: The Legacy of Francesc Tosquelles,” an international film program with filmmakers in person, co-presented by @movingimagenyc & @afamuseum on June 21-23, Taking place @movingimagenyc , this series is inspired by themes in @afamuseum ’s new exhibition. It explores mental health and therapeutic practices rooted in community building, self-managed care, and creativity that echo the practice of institutional psychotherapy that Francesc Tosquelles established at the Saint-Alban psychiatric hospital in Southern France in the mid-twentieth century. Highlights: → Friday, June 21, 6.30pm: a preview screening of “True Chronicles of the Blida Joinville Psychiatric Hospital in the Last Century, when Dr Frantz Fanon Was Head of the Fifth Ward between 1953 and 1956” (Abdenour ZahZah, 2024), preceded by the short “Félix’s Couch” (François Pain, 1985)—about psychiatrists and political activists Frantz Fanon and Félix Guattari, who both trained and were influenced by Tosquelles. Filmmakers in person. IMG 2 & 3 → Saturday, June 22, 3.30pm: films include “En Rachâchant” (Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub, 1982) and “Ce gamin, là” (Renaud Victor, Fernand Deligny, 1975)—a contemplative portrait of educator Fernand Deligny and his “network,” a 1970s care center for non-speaking autistic children in the south of France. Intro by François Pain in person IMG 4 $ 5 → Saturday, June 22, 6pm: Shorts program “Captive Feast” includes “La fête prisonnière” (Mario Ruspoli, 1962), “Bird in Italian Is Uccello” (@gernot.wieland , 2021), “Abandoned Goods” (@pia_borg & @lawrensonedward , 2014), and “Love & Numbers” (@poptartboyfriend , 2014)—about the intersections of mental illness, creativity and social resistance. Gernot Wieland and TJ Cuthand in person. IMG 6, 7, 8 & 9 → Sunday, June 23, 5.30pm: New York premiere of “The Potential History of Francesc Tosquelles, Catalonia and Fear” (2021)—an investigation into Tosquelles’s forgotten legacy in Spain, followed by a conversation with filmmaker; one of the co-curators of exhibition, Joana Masó; and sociologist Eric Fassin. IMG 10 The full program in bio

In dialogue with curator Mathilde Walker-Billaud, artist Julianne Swartz walks us through Tenderness, her current exhibition at Bienvenu Steinberg & J, sharing insights about her approach to sound, materiality, and care. A Tender Manifesto - An evening of listening and conversation on April 10 from 6:30-8PM. Free event; space is limited. Register at link in bio. Slide 1: Spectrum, Oak, 2024 vinyl paint on milled oak, sizes vary Slide 2 and 3: T-Score (shell), 2024 abaca paper, steel wire, copper wire, magnets, audio player, 1 channel sound score of human voices. 3.12 mins 36 x 14 x 8 inches, suspended from ceiling near ear height

One of my highlights of 2023 was curating the exhibition Le Bruit de la Chair. Partition pour gina pane, on view until March 3rd 2024 @fracdespaysdelaloire in Nantes, France. I am so grateful for the space to present such a talented and incredible group of artists @saltyneen @ohanbreiding @patricia.allio #halixsanyas @jotamombaca #juliaphillips And the undémodable gina pane Much gratitude to #ClaireStaebler and her team, to Anne Marchand and to the artists who were in residence at @fracdespaysdelaloire for the xxxiv Ateliers Internationaux special thanks to kamelmennour @macaulayandcompany @matthewmarksgallery Photos: Fanny Trichet, except the first image - a portrait by @ohanbreiding taken during the installation 💙 If you go to Nantes, stop by, there is an excellent team of educators who will guide you through the galleries with brio⚡️ In English the title means Noise of the Flesh - Score for gina pane. It’s inspired by gina pane’s Letter to a Stranger, a manifest written in 1974.