Astria Suparak: From Punk to Pop
Bio
Astria Suparak is an artist, writer, and curator whose cross-disciplinary projects address complex and urgent issues (such as institutionalized racism, feminisms and gender, and colonialism) made accessible through a popular culture lens, including sci-fi movies, rock music, and sports. Recently she's exhibited and performed at MoMA, ICA LA, and The Walker Art Center. Suparak has curated exhibitions, screenings, and performances for The Liverpool Biennial, Museo Rufino Tamayo, MoMA PS1, The Kitchen, Eyebeam, and Expo Chicago, as well as for unconventional spaces such as roller-skating rinks, sports bars, and rock clubs. Her writing has appeared in The Getty blog, Art21 Magazine, VICE magazine's Noisey, Seen journal, Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community, and The Museum Is Not Enough, and her work has garnered critical praise from The New York Times, Artforum, Art In America, Hyperallergic, Rhizome, Fast Company, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Los Angeles Times. Suparak is based in Oakland, California, and is the winner of the 2022 San Francisco Bay Area Artadia Award.
Abstract
Astria Suparak's cross-disciplinary projects address complex and urgent issues made accessible through a popular culture lens. Straddling creative and scholarly work, the projects often take the form of publicly available tools and databases, chronicling subcultures and omitted perspectives. Her creative projects have deliberately been, at times, anonymous, collaborative, and interdisciplinary, and have informed her curatorial practice.