Good riddance, 2018! While dealing with family loss and America’s descent, I found solace in art. Here are my highlights from our low year:

TRIGGERS was selected by curator Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe for Sonic Arcade at Museum of Arts & Design, NYC

My 2018 exhibitions with Andrew Freedman Home’s Artist in Residence program included the IV Annual Afh AIR group show and Dak’art Biennale in Senegal. The year began and concluded with shows at Gene Kaufmann’s North of History 12-month pop-up gallery.

Rodriguez, Gonzalez, Bainbridge, my latest collaborative, formed this Fall when Yelaine Rodriguez brought Melanie Gonzalez and myself together to explore the intersection of wearable, performance and media art. We joined Yelaine for her exhibitions portraying the Haitian loa at Wave Hill and Longwood Gallery in the Bronx; since then, our trio has been making video paintings in Singular Editions and time-based works in site-specific installations.

Many of us will remember 2018 as the year when Decentralized Art gained global attention, just as cryptocurrencies plummeted from 2017’s heights. I joined the conversations in Jessica Angel’s #ArtProject Decentralized, AOTB and Ethereal Summit and released many solo and collaborative media artworks with decentralized provenance, including Rodriguez, Gonzalez, Bainbridge: Ezili Dantor presented by Andrew Freedman Home at Miami Art Week, Art | Basel.

Rue Bainbridge performed in NYC and London, including an unforgettable night in the abandoned Averard Hotel. Our duo kicks off 2019 with an audiovisual improvisation for the closing of Calder: Nonspace at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles on January 5. Seating is limited, free tickets here! photos: Christoph Trestler, Henri Kisielewski

Flutist / sound artist Barbara Held and I presented Pausa as a multi-channel AV installation and a real-time media performance at l’Auditori Barcelona for Sampler Series. In 2019, Bainbridge Held will contribute a generative video and music artwork to a 9 month long sound art exhibition at MUSAC in Leon, Spain.

In 2018, American Museum of Natural History concluded the 11th season of One Step Beyond. The series is now on hiatus. As the resident media artist of this late-night monthly event I curated, designed and co-created immersive visuals throughout the Hall of the Universe for all eleven years of #OneStepBeyond. Musical guests included Moby, Kanye West, Kid Sister, A-Trak, Scissor Sisters, Dirty Projectors, Freedom Party, Questlove, Chromeo, Flying Lotus, Animal Collective, DJ Khaled, Toro Y Moi, Felix Da Housecat, TOKiMONSTA, and Dan Deacon.

Bainbridge & collaborators video playlist: select 2018 media art

Rodriguez, Gonzalez, Bainbridge media installation and performance
Wednesday 05 December, 6-8 PM
Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos | 450 Grand Concourse, Room C-190, Bronx, NY 10451

Rodriguez, Gonzalez, Bainbridge present a site-specific media art installation for the finissage of the group exhibition *Swing Forward While Swaying Back*

Maman Brigitte (portrayed by Gina Goico) will come alive in a projected environment of translucent fabrics. The performance is inspired by a quote by cultural theorist Stuart Hall which comments on a new Black culture created from The New World. Concentrated in Haitian and Dominican roots and traditions, this performance looks at Maman Brigitte, who guards spirits in transition from life to death.

Maman Brigitte is from an ongoing series which celebrates the loa in costume, dance and events. Rodriguez, Gonzalez, Bainbridge make mixed media, installations, and performances at the intersection of wearable art, performance art, and media art. Conceptual design/sculpture by Yelaine Rodriguez, live video projection visuals by Melanie Gonzalez, and media design by Benton C Bainbridge.

*Swing Forward While Swaying Back*
Six Bronx artists (Alicia Grullon, Blanka Amezkua, Fran Ilich, Francheska Alcantara, Walter Cruz, Yelaine Rodriguez) envision alternate futures through collaborative installations that provocatively and poetically challenge their audiences. Each project simultaneously draws on rich and varied art, activist, and cultural histories to search for something beyond itself – whether in relation to economies of generosity and exchange, practical information about immigration rights, or complex conversations about cultural heritage. Curated by Amanda McDonald Crowley.

watch Rodriguez, Gonzalez, Bainbridge: We Are Here Because You Were There at Longwood Gallery

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Rodriguez, Gonzalez, Bainbridge in Art Decentralized at Art | Basel Miami Beach
Thursday, 06 December, 9 AM – 6 PM
Nikki Beach | 1 Ocean Dr, Miami Beach, FL 33139

Rodriguez, Gonzalez, Bainbridge will premiere Ezili Dantor, a digital video portrait of the Haitian loa. Andrew Freedman Home Director Walter Puryear will present four works by AFH Artists in Residence (Bainbridge, as well as Natalie Collette Wood, Meguru Yamaguchi, Noté Peter George) and speak on the Digital Art & Collectibles Panel in this conference presented by Light Node Media for Miami Art Week.

watch Rodriguez, Gonzalez, Bainbridge: Ezili Dantor, 2018 [studio installation view]

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North of History Goes South
06 December – 22 December | Reception 22 December, 6-8 PM | Open 7 days a week, 10 AM – 6 PM
445 Columbus Av & 81st, New York, NY 10024

This group exhibition highlighting artists who have shown at North of History includes Andrew Freedman Home Artists in Residence Jennie West, Gabe Aiello, Cannon Hersey, Alice Mizrachi, Natalie Collette Wood, and Noté Peter George. Benton C Bainbridge premieres a new multi-channel video sculpture, Life-Size Allyssa Jill, and projects a series of video portraits.

watch Benton C Bainbridge: Life-Size Allyssa Jill (installation view)

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watch Gryphon Rue with Benton C Bainbridge: Google Portrait

Years in the making, Benton C Bainbridge‘s utterly bizarre video for Gryphon Rue‘s AI-phobic poem set to an electronic folk tune has been released by Tiger Sushi Records. Featuring Gryphon with Dean Wareham and Christine Sun Kim along with a children’s chorus, all fed through a labyrinthian system of old-school and newfangled image processing tools.