“NUDE VOLVO is an archaeologist, studying human vomit. Part of a wealthy, Greenwich, CT family, she escaped her arranged marriage to I.V. League, business tycoon, Reef VanderWoodsman, to follow her holy vocation; studying human expels. Disguised as a DJ, she travels throughout cities, examining the fragments within vomit. She took refuge in a dark cubbyhole beneath the stairs, against the gutter, where she studied the vomit of the streets, unearthing the chunks of culture -- past present, future -- ingested and expelled, recent and forgotten. Among her discoveries, we find Elektra, Pet, and Sisy Gluv.” -- James K
James K’s 2018 ISSUE residency culminates with American Womin, a convergence of distinct personas existing across her work. James K debuts the multiple personas as a multimedia live set, presenting them within an overlapping performance practice spanning voice, modular synthesis, live instrumentation, sampling alchemy, movement, video, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The performance gathers these fragmented identities -- each with their own idiosyncratic narrative and method for expressing femininity -- and fuses them into a hybrid vision of feminist sound.
James K is a New York native multi-disciplinary artist who has honed her peculiar aesthetic to include a fusion of visual and sonic elements. Deeply rooted in a conscious art practice and a mythology of her own, her sound, equally organic and electronic, is a combination of odd dreams, hybridizing enchanted samples, ripped, broken and morphed rhythms, and vocals, both incomprehensible and appealing -- forming a multi-faceted identity. She received her BFA in Printmaking from The Rhode Island School of Design, where she developed a critical multidisciplinary art practice shaped by feminist theory and writing. She has established herself within the Providence, New York, and Berlin scenes of experimental artists and musicians. Since 2012, she has been represented by Loyal Gallery, where she has exhibited solo work in both their Malmo and Stockholm locations, in addition to showing at Miami Art Basel, NY Frieze, and LA Art Contemporary. She has released her music with labels PAN, Dial, 1080p, UNO NYC, and her own label, She Rocks!, and has released collaborations with artists such as Drew Mcdowall, Yves Tumor, Mykki Blanco, and Gobby, as their band SETH. She has toured through the US and Europe extensively, performing for a variety of audiences; from underground spaces, established galleries, and museums, to well established venues, festivals, and theaters. She is currently working towards her MFA at Bard College, and will release her follow up full-length LP on PAN.
