a…is alter(ed): Open Sessions 12 explores the imaginative determination of “drawing” and “line” by relating it to a development process, social artifacts, psychological trace, and prosthetic memory—journals, maps, technology, and calendars. The poetics of flow between known and unknown is a feedback murmur that leads to clarity when engaging the object. a..is alter(ed) features Joeun Aatchim, Kenseth Armstead, Ludovica Carbotta, Billy and Steven Dufala, LaMont Hamilton, and Ester Partegàs.

For a…is alter(ed), experimental and traditional approaches to drawing are taken as a mode of inquiry, to produce the unexpected through ventriloquism (Aatchim); tell the story of a slave-turned-spy in the American Revolution (Armstead); upend notions of scale by drawing with an excavator shovel (Dufala Brothers); recover the role of imagination by projecting fictional narratives onto objects (Carbotta); welcome the blind and visually impaired into the space through braille-large-scale poems (Hamilton); and to disseminate advertisement-flyer-like drawings across The Lab and the neighborhood (Partegàs).

From October 12 until December 2019 in The Lab, Open Sessions presents five exhibitions organized by Rosario Güiraldes and Lisa Sigal, Open Sessions Curators, together with participating artists. Conceived and organized over fourteen months, The Lab exhibitions present experimental work and ideas, and take the form of thematic group shows. In the second year of the cycle, Open Sessions curators organize a full-museum exhibition to which all Open Sessions artists contribute work that best manifests and/or expands what drawing is.

Joeun Aatchim lives and works in Brooklyn. Her work has been shown at the Jewish Museum and SPRING/BREAK Art Show, both New York; the Long March Space, Beijing; and the SBC Gallery of Contemporary Arts, Montréal.

Kenseth Armstead lives and works in Brooklyn. His work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art; Brooklyn Museum; Studio Museum in Harlem; and Socrates Sculpture Park, all New York; and MIT List Visual Arts Center, Boston. His works are included in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Newark Museum, New Jersey; African American Museum, Dallas; and numerous public and private collections.

Ludovica Carbotta lives and works in Spain. Her work has been exhibited at the Kunstlerhaus Museum, Vienna; MAXXI Museum, Rome; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo; Galleria Arte Moderna, both Turin; Marta Cervera Gallery, Madrid; and ON Public, Bologna.

Steven and Billy Dufala live and work in Philadelphia. Their work is represented by Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia.

LaMont Hamilton lives and works in New York. His work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art; The Kitchen; Issue Project Room; and the Studio Museum, all New York.

Ester Partegàs lives and works in New York. Her work has been shown at El Paso Museum of Art/Museo de Arte Ciudad Juárez, Mexico; Museum of the City, New York; and MACBA, Barcelona.