Help Josh Allen fund new queer art project!

Story

My name is Joshua Allen and I’m an artist/activist from Brooklyn, NY. My practice engages multiple mediums, including photography, sculpture, video and culture creation. And for over 10 years I’ve been engaged in activism around racial and gender justice issues. In January of 2022, I began creating my first multidisciplinary art series called Returning Home. This project centers around themes of identity, queerness, power and belonging and has helped me discover myself in a way that I could have never imagined.

For 1.5 years, I have worked diligently on bringing this vision to reality, in collaboration with a team of queer and trans artists of color all under the age of 35. I have self funded this entire project to the tune $12,500, with my personal savings, because I believe in it and its ability to leave the world and my communities transformed, but I need your help to meet the finish line!!! As an emerging artist, I had no idea how expensive printing, mounting and framing can be for fine art. My project, which consists of 8 still portraits, 1 short film and 1 sculpture, is nearly complete. I am starting this campaign to raise an additional $10,000, mainly for printing/framing costs and post production editing needs (full breakdown on budget below). Upon completing this project, I hope to land my first solo art show in New York City!

Anyone who knows me knows that art and activism have left my life utterly transformed. I am a proud champion of abundance over scarcity and beauty over struggle. In a time where queer and trans communities are seeing unprecedented levels of violence and discrimination I am honored to create spaces of empowerment, beauty and love. By donating to this campaign (or by simply sharing) you are helping me to pull this long held dream into reality! I love youuuu

Budget Breakdown

$6,730- Printing & framing costs

$1,200- Storage & supplies for remainder of post production timeline

$1,070- Editing & post production costs

$1,000- Funds for community mural space

About Returning Home

Originating from a year-long residency at the World Trade Center, Returning Home is Joshua Allen’s debut fine art series. Through a collection of portraits, sculptures, and a performance video, the artist evokes themes of belonging, queerness, ancestry, and grief.

Throughout a 10-month process of research and soul work the artist traces a pattern of pan-African lineage and queer history inspiring a series of work that reflects the introspective journey. For one month Joshua traveled across 3 provinces in South Africa, studying cultures, customs, and artistic techniques that inform the series. Through a number of artistic measures and cultural activations, the artist drew important connections between Africans living in America and those that have been born on their indigenous continent. The beading and makeup techniques activated in the series were directly informed by the artists’ time studying with indigenous queer and trans cultural workers in provincial South Africa. These techniques were then recreated in studio at the World Trade Center with a team of diasporic queer and trans artists in a reimagined, trans atlantic cultural exchange.

The ethos of Joshua’s work is illuminating and celebrating the excellence that exists within our histories, humanities, and personhood. The centerpiece of Returning Home– RHIII– references both Basquiat’s King Pleasure and Da Vinci’s Vutruvian Man, as they have historically represented the artistic standards for human existence and excellence. Returning Home seeks to expand the cultural imagination around who we are and how we show up in the world. At its core, the series is a roadmap for the millions of African children born so far away from home. It is a tribute to their journeys, histories, beauty, and survival.

About The Artist

Joshua Allen is a non binary artist and activist from Brooklyn, New York who served as the first ever Activist-in-Residence at New York City's LGBT Center. In 2020 they were named one of the New Yorker's Hometown Heroes for their community service during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Later on that year, they spearheaded a record breaking grassroots fundraising campaign for initiatives supporting Black trans youth, raising over $300,000 in just 18 days. Later Joshua worked to co-organize the march on Brooklyn for Black trans lives, attended by 15,000 people.

In 2022, Joshua made their television debut, appearing as an expert on gender justice in Jonathan Van Ness' new Netflix series, Getting Curious and walked in back to back New York Fashion Week shows for brands like Chromat and Gogo Graham. Currently Josh is producing their debut fine arts series as an alumni Artist-in-Residence at 4 World Trade Center.

Contact [email redacted] for inquiries

Thank you & see you at the finish line!!!