KIA LABEIJA
B. Kia Michelle Benbow. 1990. New York, NY
EDUCATION
2023 - 2023 The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2008 - 2016 BA - The Arts - Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School University, New York, NY
2006 - 2008 The Ailey School, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York, NY
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Photographs from The Plague in the Shadows, The Greene Space, NY
2022 Prepare My Heart, Fotografiska New York
2018 Fear is Only A Fraction Of Love, Royale Projects, Los Angeles
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Queer Histories, The São Paulo Museum of Art, São Paulo, Brazil
I’m a thousand different people—Every one is real, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York, NY
2022 Through the Looking Glass, Yancey Richardson, New York, NY
2020 It's Just a Matter of Time, ARCO Art Fair, Madrid, Spain
2019 Fire, Baby COMPANY, New York, NY
2018 Into the Light, Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York, NY
Intimacy, Yossi Milo, New York, NY
Cast of Characters, BGSQD, New York, NY
Harlem Postcards: Wish You Were Here, Studio Museum 27, New York, NY
2017 AIDS at Home, The Museum of The City of New York, New York, NY
Perpetual Revolution, International Center for Photography, New York, NY
2016 Everyday People, La MaMa Galleria, New York, NY
Agitprop! Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY
2015 Harlem Postcards, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Party Out of Bounds: Nightlife as Activism Since 1980, La MaMa Galleria New York, NY
Art, AIDS, America, The Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY, The Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma WA, The Alphawood Gallery, Chicago, IL, One Archives, Los Angeles, CA
2014 Ephemera as Evidence, La MaMA Galleria New York, NY
SELECTED PERFORMANCE
2024 Body Scan, The Performance Art Museum at Catch One, Los Angeles, CA
The Benbow Reunion Band Concert, The Greene Space, New York, NY
P is for Pop D is for Dip, PAC NYC, NY, NY
2020 Sad Party, Matadero Madrid, Madrid Spain
2019 Untitled, The Black Act, Performa 19 Biennial, Performance Space New York, NY
2017 Alternative Endings / Radical Beginnings, MOCA, Los Angeles
2016 Earth Walk, Lost & Found: Danspace Platform 2016, Danspace, New York, NY
Undone, Coming to Power: 25 Years of Sexually Explicit Art by Women, Maccarone Gallery, NY
Reusable Parts/Endless Love, Gerard and Kelly, University of Albany Lab Theater, New York,NY
2015 H&M x BALMAIN Runway Show, New York, NY
AfroPunk Fancy Dress Ball, New York, NY
Legible/Illegible, Movement Research Festival, Brooklyn, NY
Haus of Spice Mini Ball, Brooklyn Museum First Saturdays, Brooklyn, NY
La MaMa’s Squirts, The Club at La MaMa, New York, NY
2014 Make a Way out of No Way, Stereo Night Club, Glasgow, Scotland
AFROPUNK w/DJ MikeQ, Commodore Berry Park, Brooklyn, NY
GAYLETTER Pride Ball, The Wythe Hotel, Brooklyn, NY
BAAD: Out Like That, Bronx Academy of Art and Dance, Bronx, NY
La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, La MaMa Experimental Theatre, New York, NY
The Road to Mastery Ball, MoMa PS1, New York, NY
2013 AMFAR Benefit with Fergie feat. The House of LaBeija, Tao Restaurant, New York, NY
ARTIST TALKS | PANELS
2023 Portraying HIV and AIDS in the Media: How Far Have We Come? Harvard University, BA
2021 Lyle Ashton Harris and Kia LaBeija for Salon 94, FRIEZE NY
2020 Live from NYPL: Pride of the 80’s and 90’s with Bill T. Jones, Toshi Reagon, Pamela Sneed and Andrea Jenkins, Moderator, Zoom
2019 Creative Time Summit, The Great Hall, Cooper Union, New York, NY
Start Talking, Stop HIV, Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta, Georgia
Visual Activists: American Art and the AIDS Crisis, NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
2017 AIDS at Home: Art and Everyday Activism, The Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY
2016 Women, Art, AIDS & Activism: Here Then, Here Now, The Brooklyn Museum, New York
Art, AIDS, America: Kia LaBeija, The Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kensaw, GA
2015 The Artist’s Voice: Kia LaBeija, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Kia LaBeija Presents: FAME, Queer Art Film, IFC, New York, NY
New York City Vogue and Ballroom Culture, VICE Headquarters, New York, NY
In This House: AIDS, Art and Activism in the Vogue Ball Scene, La Mama Galleria, New York
Positively Resilient, The Audre Lorde Project, New York, NY
2014 You've Never Seen Pain Expressed Like This, The Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland
Mapping Informational Networks of Women Living with HIV, The New School, New York, NY
The Personal and the Political: Loosing Parents to AIDS, New York Public Library, NY, NY
2013 Race & the Colonial Impulse: Queer Performance Practices, New York University, NY, NY
(Re) Presenting AIDS: Culture and Accountability, CUNY Graduate Center | New York, NY
MUSIC VIDEO | FILM & TELEVISION
2022 Dr. Martens: Pride Generations - Nightlife, As Kia LaBeija, New York, NY
2019 House of Icons, Harpers Bazaar, Movement Director, The Plaza Hotel, New York, NY
2018 Promises, Calvin Harris Featuring Sam Smith, As Kia LaBeija Los Angeles, CA
A - Z of Aaliyah, i-d Magazine, As Kia LaBeija, New York, NY
Into a Space of Love, As Kia LaBeija, Frieze Art Fair and Gucci, Dir. Wu Tsang New York, NY
Pose, “Pilot”, Voguer, FX, New York, NY
2017 Drafted, Writer/Producer/Subject as Kia LaBeija, The Scene, Condé Nast, New York, NY
A Place in the City, As Kia LaBeija, The Museum of The City of New York, New York, NY
2016 Saturday Church, as Voguer and Feature Film, New York, NY
Dove, As title character “Dove”, Pillar Point, Bogota Colombia
2013 EN VOGUE, As Kia LaBeija Dir. Jenn Nkiru, DP Arthur Jafa New York, NY
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2022 Josie Thaddeus-Johns. “Portraits of Love and Loss From an HIV-Positive Childhood.” The New York Times. March 7th. Print.
Isiah Magsino. “Glamour, Despair, and Her Mother’s Death: Kia LaBeija’s ‘Prepare My Heart’ Bares It All .” Vanity Fair. March 9th.
Daria Simone Harper. “Kia LaBeija Shapes Her Own Narrative.” W Magazine. February 25th. Online
Conor Williams. “With prepare my heart, Kia LaBeija Remembers Her Mother.” Interview Magazine. March 22nd. Online
Kenna McCafferty. “Kia LaBeija's First Solo Show Celebrates Love in NYC Ballroom.” PAPER. February 28th. Online
Abigail Glasgow. “Kia LaBeija's personal portrait of New York's ballroom scene.” I-d. February 28th.
Miss Rosen. “Kia LaBeija’s heart-rending photos of queer New York.” Dazed. March 9th. Online.
2020 Dessane Lopez Cassell. “Kia LaBeija Is Prioritizing Stillness.” Hyperallergic. June 15th. Online
2019 Rachell Morillo. “Kia LaBeija Shelters a Queer, Black Femme Story of Collective Liberation.” Hyperallergic. November 18th. Online
Maximilíano Dueón. “For Performa Biennial, Kia LaBeija Reinvents a Bauhaus Classic.” ARTnews. November 7th. Online
Laura Regensdorf. “Frame It.” Vanity Fair. December Issue. Print
Chanel Abney, Nina. “Working Through Yourself: Kia LaBeija Interviewed by Nina Chanel Abney.” BOMB Magazine. November 5th. Online
Emily Colucci. “Queeroes 2019: How Kia LaBeija and Lyle Ashton Harris Use Art to Preserve.” Them. June. Online.
Harron Walker. “Kia LaBeija Wants to ‘Make 100 Percent of the Profits.’” Out Magazine. The Women & Nonbinary Femmes Issue. February. Print
2018 Silva, Horacio. “Kia LaBeija Is Remodeling One of Ballroom’s Legendary Houses For the Future.”
W Magazine. Print.
Stromberg, Alex. “Kia LaBeija at Royale Projects.” Contemporary Art Review LA. Online
Obrist, Hans Ulrich. “Healing Trauma.” Numéro BERLIN. Print.
Hall, Jake. “The Voguing, radical artist de-stigmatising HIV with Self-portraiture.” DAZED. June 17th
Fialho, Alex. “Kia LaBeija.” Artforum. January 2018 Cover. Print
2017 Kerr, Ted. “A Families Affair.” The Village Voice. June 2017. Print
Abraham, Amelia. “Photographing Black, Female, HIV Positive Power.” Refinery29. Online
Newton, Bwalya. “Kia LaBeija, Young Royal.” Accent Magazine. Spring 2016. Cover. Print
2015 Sargent, Antwaun. “Kia LaBeija Tracks the Influence of HIV/AIDS on Contemporary Art.” The Creators Project. September. Online
Ryan, Hugh. “Power in the Crisis: Kia LaBeija’s Radical Art as a 25 Year Old, HIV Positive Woman of Color.” VICE. June 6th. Online
COMISSIONS
2024 Portraits from WNYC/History Channel Podcast Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows
2020 Kunst, Artist Portfolio, Numero Berlin SS20
2019 Ballroom Fashion Story, OUT Magazine. June
2018 Ballroom Blitz, W Magazine, Vol. 8
Sonia Rykiel’s Baltard bag shows Paris is still a quintessential influence, Dazed and Sonia Rykiel
Self Portrait, Apple, World AIDS Day
On and Off Again, Triple Canopy Issue 24: Risk Pool
RESIDENCIES
2024 Villa Lena x MQBMBQ sponsored by Jean Paul Gaultier, Tuscany, Italy
2024 The Greene Space, NY
2022 Kino Saito, Verplank, NY
2020 Matadero Madrid, Madrid, Spain
2019 Performance Space New York, New York, NY
2018 BOFFO, Fire Island, NY
2016 The Gateway Project, Newark, NJ
TEACHING AND GUEST LECTURES
2022 The AIDS Epidemic in Live Art, Culture and Protest, Harvard, Cambridge, MA
Creativity Lab, MoMa, New York, NY
2021 Today at Apple Youth Program, Teaching Artist “Envisioning Freedom”, Apple, New York, NY
Studio Art, NYU, with Lyle Ashton Harris, New York, NY
2020 HIV/AIDS in American Culture: Black Lives and Queer Bodies, MIT, Cambridge, MA
2017 Kia LaBeija for Living Free, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
2023 Shortlisted, The Mondrian Prize
2022 Editors Picks, prepare my heart, Artnet
2019 Best of 2019: Our Top NYC Art Shows, Hyperallergic
Queeros, THEM.
Performance Space New York, 2019 Honoree
Paper Predictions: 100 People Taking Over 2019, Paper Magazine
Creative Capital Award, Creative Capital
2018 The 20 Best Photos of 2018, Dazed Digital
2016 Woman’s Old Way Vogue of the Year, New York Awards Ball
2015 The 20 Most Amazing HIV Positive Women of 2015, HIV Plus Magazine
Hector Xtravaganza Xellence Award, 25th Annual Latex Ball, New York, NY
2014 POZ 100, Activists under 30, POZ Magazine
Visual AIDS Vanguard Award, New York, NY
COLLECTIONS
Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York, NY
The Wellcome Collection, London
Kino Saito, New York, NY