Photo by Max Branigan
Sacha Vega is an artist who collages across movement, poetics, and humor to invite focus into the ideologies that train our bodies to move. Creating through performance, time-based media, and writing, her practice encourages critical play in reframing genres of embodied instruction. Often placing a sense of mastery in complication with a novice in order to unsettle hierarchies around ability, discipline, class, race, and gender. Her own body is imprinted by: American dance theater, Filipino karaoke parties, a Bolshoi ballerina, immigrant parents, suburban aspirations, Post-Modern chance forms, and physical comedy. Working in concert with performers and audiences alike, she’s invested in using her practice as an experimental space to test beliefs of authority, horizontal organization, and temporary utopias.
She has exhibited and performed at Westbeth Gallery, Mason Gross Galleries, Leslie-Lohman Museum, Baxter St x CCNY, Java Project, Pelham Art Center, and 99cent Plus Gallery. She’s been in residence at LEIMAY’s Incubator Program, Wassaic Project, Van Noord Van Noord, Casa Tagumerche, Stoneleaf Retreat, and ARTHA Project. She’s hosted workshops at Abrons Art Center, Performance Space NY, Zimmerli Museum of Art, and coLAB arts. She has a BFA in Photography from Pratt Institute and an MFA in Visual Art from Mason Gross School of the Arts.
She is 1/3 of the artist-led initiative Memory Foam. They collaborate on curating exhibitions, publishing, programming and producing artist interview series.
Say hi @sachachavega@gmail.com.
CV
EDUCATION
2020 — 2022 Mason Gross School of Art, Rutgers University, NJ. MFA in Visual Art
2009 — 2013 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. BFA in Photography + Minor in Art History
RESIDENCIES
2024 – LEIMAY Spring Incubator, New York, NY
2024 – Van Noord Van Noord Residency, Los Angeles, CA
2024 – New Dance Alliance Satellite Program, New York, NY
2023 – Pig Iron Theatre Company’s NEH Summer Institute: Preserving & Transmitting American Ensemble-Based Theatre, Philadelphia, PA
2023 – Casa Tagumerche, La Gomera, ES
2020 – Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
2019 – Stoneleaf Retreat, Kingston, NY
2016 – ARTHA Project, Queens, NY
GRANTS + AWARDS
2020 - 2022 Graduate Fellowship, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 – The Choice Part, Mason Gross Galleries, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2019 – Where’s The Invitation, Leslie-Lohman Museum, NY, NY *
2015 – SKY’S THE LIMIT, 99¢ Plus Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2013 – SEE SAW, Pratt Institute Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 – Dandelion Wine, Central Server Works Gallery DTLA, Los Angeles, CA
2023 – Playback, curated by Park McArthur + Jason Hirata, Westbeth Gallery, NY, NY
2022 – The elusive ground and a few ways to grip it, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Mason Gross Galleries, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2021 – i miss you terribly when you’re away, Mason Gross Galleries, Rutgers
University, New Brunswick, NJ
2020 – Anti – Matters, Mason Gross Galleries, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2020 – a place to visit, JIP Gallery x Olympia Arts, online
2019 – Slide, JIP Gallery, NY, NY
2018 – Annual Juried Exhibition curated by Matthew Leifheit, Baxter St X CCNY, NY, NY
2018 – Elastic Behavior, Java Project, Brooklyn, NY *
2018 – A Rose is A Screen is a Rose, Pelham Art Center, Pelham, NY
2016 – The Plant Show, 99¢ Plus Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2015 – 99¢ Plus Gallery Inaugural Show, 99¢ Plus Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2014 – Across the Gutter, Oranbeg Press Pop Up, Brooklyn, NY
2014 – CONNATURAL, Dossier Outpost, NY, NY
2014 – High Tide, Dossier Outpost, NY, NY
2014 – ~dream boat~, Park Guen Woo Pop Up, NY, NY
2013 – What Is/What Matters, Powerhouse Arena, Brooklyn, NY
PERFORMANCES + EVENTS
2024 – Notes From A Heavenly Soup release show and evening of performances, coLAB arts, New Brunswick, NJ
2023 – a canon, a tightrope, a trust fall, Westbeth Gallery Courtyard, NY, NY
2022 – The Choice Part, Mason Gross Galleries, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2021 – Yield: Keys to the Roundhouse, Rutgers University Farm, New Brunswick, NJ
2020 – Performing 2020: A Performance Lecture, MSGA Virtual Open Studios
2019 – Ode To The Peppercorn: Nomadique Dinner series, Brooklyn, NY *
2019 – New York Art Book Fair Zine Tent, MoMA PS1, Queens, NY *
2019 – Artists Eat Ice Cream Season 2 Screening, Deli Gallery, Queens, NY *
2018 – Available Seating, Honey’s, Brooklyn, NY *
2018 – Memory Foam launch and screening, Java Project, Brooklyn, NY *
2017 – One If By Night: A Ride Under The Cosmos, Artist Alliance X BikeNY, NY, NY
* Notes artworks, events, and commissions created in collaboration with Memory Foam
LECTURES & SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
2024 - Do you believe in life after BFA? Alumni AMA Panel, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2024 – Photography Infosession Panel, Yeshiva University, New York, NY
2023 – Artist Panel, Undergrad “Post-Grad” Panel, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2022 – Artist Talk, Digital Art 1 Class, Madison, NJ
2021 – Artist Talk with Emma Safir, Department of Art History, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2020 – Artist Talk, Photography 1 Class, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2018 – Artist Talk, Photography 1 Class, Stern College, NY, NY
2018 – Artist Talk, Senior Thesis Photography Class, Parsons New School, NY, NY
2017 – Artist Presentation, Marble Hill Supper Club, Bronx, NY
2017 – Artist Presentation & Panel, Piece by Piece, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
PUBLICATIONS
2022 – The elusive ground and a few ways to grip it, exhibition booklet, Rutgers University
2019 – Exercises Where Art Might Happen, Memory Foam Projects Publishing
2019 – That’s All, Memory Foam Projects Publishing
SELECTED TEACHING
2021- 24 Adjunct Lecturer in Media and Photography, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, NJ.
2024: Instructor, Media 1-B: Experimental Practices & Techniques
2023: Instructor, Media 1-B: Experimental Practices & Techniques
2023: Instructor, Photo 1A: Introduction to Digital Photography
2023: Long-Term Substitute, Seminar in Media: Finding your people, finding your voice
2022: Instructor, Media 1-A: Introduction to Media Art: Screen/Image/Sound
2021 – 2022: Instructor, 4-D Fundamentals: Time and Space
2020: Teaching Assistant, Photography IIA: Advance Digital and Print
2023 - 2024 Adjunct Lecturer, Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, NY
2024: Instructor, Introduction to Video
2024: Instructor, Advanced Video
2024: Instructor, Introduction to Digital Photography
2023: Instructor, Introduction to Video (Spring + Fall)
SELECTED ARTIST-DESIGNED + LED WORKSHOPS
Performance Scores Playground • March 2024
As part of Mason Gross School of the Arts’ Spring Festival Programming, I hosted an introductory workshop to performance scores and exercises. The scores have been authored by other artists and I have found them to be hugely inspiring as means to get out of my own way with a project. Some of the artists include, Faye Driscoll, Sigrid Lauren, Kym Moore, Yoko Ono and Deborah Hay.
Bring Your Own Brat • March 2024
Hosted by Scottie Harvey during my residency at Van Noord Van Noord.
Bring Your Own Brat • August 2023
Hosted by Flux Factory and curated by Jemila MacEwan and Amelia Heintzelman, this workshop was curated as part of their Feralpy programming on Governor’s Island.
Intro to the Photo Studio: From Shooting to Editing • December 2022
As part of MGSA/Middlesex High School portfolio program, the 6-hour workshop was designed to introduce students to contemporary portraiture, studio lighting and Photoshop editing.
Movement for Camera • November 2022
A workshop for Ryan Woodring’s Media class at Drew University. The session consisted of grounding exercises, theater games, writing prompts, and a camera shooting assignment.
Bring Your Own Brat • Fall 2022
Hosted by Abrons Art Center x The School of Making Thinking, this was a 4-week long experimental movement and writing workshop anchored by the divisive archetype of the “Brat”.
Colors, Codes, and Visual Poetry • March 2022
This workshop was hosted at the Zimmerli Art Museum and inspired by Ukrainian artist Fabian Yuriev’s symbol-based scoring. Participants created coded paintings stemming from their own writing.
Bring Your Own Brat • Spring 2022
An experimental movement session called Bring Your Own Brat as part of Performance Space’s Open Movement program, curated by Monica Mirabile.
AMARDV: Healing Through The Arts • Summer 2021
I designed and taught a 6-week summer course on mixed-media collage and photography for students between the ages of 10-16. The program was facilitated through a local New Brunswick arts x public health organization.