Artist Statement/ Biography

Joseph Liatela is an interdisciplinary artist who examines issues of biopolitics, institutional power, queer subjectivity, surveillence, and embodiment through performance, sculpture, and video. His background in printmaking fostered an interest in how the manipulation of a surface—such as scars on skin or embossing on paper—alters how it is perceived, and has informed his approach to creating politically grounded, identity-based work. Through a transgender lens, Liatela’s work aims to distinguish between the physiological elements that make up bodily existence, and the social meaning the body takes on in the context of lived experience. In doing so, his work examines the performative nature of identity, demonstrating how it is perceived and enacted at the level of the body.

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Joseph Liatela is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York City. Using sculpture, performance, and video, he examines issues of biopolitics, institutional power, queer subjectivity, surveillence, collective movement, and embodiment. He has exhibited at Denniston Hill, LACE, Human Resources Los Angeles, Field Projects, Monmouth Museum, BRIC, EFA Project Space, Stellar Projects, SUM Gallery, and PS122 Gallery, among others. Liatela’s work has been featured in Hyperallergic, Art & Education, Artforum, Leslie-Lohman Museum Journal, KQED Arts, Strange Fire Collective, Revista De La Universidad De México, SFMoMA Open Space, EMERGENCY Index, and Artsy, among others. He has received fellowships from the Zellerbach Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Wassaic Project, Denniston Hill, California College of the Arts, Banff Centre, and Columbia University.