York College Arts Gallery

Opened in 1989, the Gallery presents several professional exhibitions each year, ranging from solo and thematic group exhibitions to student shows at the close of each semester.

Echo Making

Artist Talk and Reception, Wednesday, November 13, 5-8pm

York College Arts Gallery is proud to present Echo Making, an innovative multimedia installation by acclaimed Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist André M. Zachery, artistic director of Renegade Performance Group (RPG). Zachery is a 2024-25 Artist-in-Residence at York College through the CUNY Dance Initiative.

Echo Making merges technology, movement, and visual art, reimagining African diaspora narratives and challenging traditional storytelling. Highlights include interactive projections, narrative installations, and digital canvases that immerse visitors in Zachery’s Afrofuturist vision through dance, media and public space.

An accompanying free workshop on October 25th invites participants to explore Zachery’s approach. Through the lens of personal experience, it will engage with public art at York College by artist Houston Conwill (Arc, 1986) as a space of initiation into the Kongo cosmogram.

As Zachery states: What has been and remains most urgent for me now regarding Afrofuturism is that we recognize it as an embodied practice. Yes, Afrofuturism is a response to circumstances wrought by the violent development of a so-called “New World”. But its source code is built from a time before. The power of the Black imagination has long existed as the carrier of history, lineage, and foresight. Afrofuturism belongs in homes, classrooms, dance floors, and design studios because it provides a container for the Black imagination to ignite, thrive, and be shared between people invested in more equitable, accountable, and sustainable futures.

RPG’s residency is part of the CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI) curated for York College by Emily Verla Bovino, Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the York College Art History program, and held in partnership with the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning (JCAL). CDI receives major support from The Mertz Gilmore Foundation and Howard Gilman Foundation, with additional support provided by the SHS Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s Charles E. Culpeper Arts & Culpeper program, and the Harkness Foundation for Dance. CDI is spearheaded by The Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College. www.cuny.edu/danceinitiative

Artist Biography

André M. Zachery is an interdisciplinary artist of Haitian and African-American descent based in Brooklyn.

He is known for his integration of technology and the performing arts, allowing for a dynamic interaction between the dancers and the visual elements, enhancing the overall narrative and the emotional impact of each performance. He utilizes technology as a vital part of the storytelling process, pushing the boundaries of traditional dance forms and engaging the audience in new ways.

As the artistic director of the Renegade Performance Group, Zachery creates interdisciplinary works blending elements of contemporary dance, media, and technology with Black cultural practices through multimedia performances, research, and community engagement. His vision is characterized by an exploration of identity, race, and the human experience through movement and digital media.

Zachery earned a BFA from Ailey/Fordham University and an MFA in Performance & Interactive Media Arts from Brooklyn College/CUNY. He is also a 2016 New York Foundation for the Arts Gregory Millard Fellow in Choreography and a 2019 Jerome Hill Foundation Fellow in Choreography.

His works through RPG have been presented domestically and internationally, receiving support through several residencies, awards, and commissions, including LMCC’s Arts Center on Governors Island, Dance/ NYC Coronavirus Relief Fund, CUNY Dance Initiative, Performance Project Residency at University Settlement, ChoreoQuest Residency at Restoration Arts Brooklyn, 3LD Art & Technology Center, HarvestWorks and a Jerome supported Movement Research AIR.

RPG has received grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council, Harlem Stage Fund for New Work, and a Slate Property SPACE Award. Commissions have come from the Brooklyn Museum, Five Myles/BRIC Biennial, and Danspace Project. RPG has earned mentions and favorable reviews from publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Village Voice, Culturebot, Infinite Blogspot, Futuristically Ancient, Hyperallergic, the Brooklyn Rail, the Daily News, and AFROPUNK. As a technologist, Zachery has collaborated with various artists through RPG, the design team of 3LD Art & Technology Center, and The Clever Agency on design installations, immersive media productions, film productions, film editing, projection mapping, and performance collaborations.

Zachery frequently works across artistic mediums as a choreographer, a media designer, and a consultant with artists such as Daniel Bernard Roumain, Cynthia Hopkins, Davalois Fearon, Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE, Arin Maya, Rags & Ribbons, The Clever Agency, Kendra Foster, Manhattan School of Music, Burwell & Sasser and Spike Lee.

Zachery is currently a faculty member of the NYU Tisch Dance Department. As a scholar, he has been a member of panels, led group talks, facilitated discussions, and presented research on a myriad of topics including Afrofuturism, African Diaspora practices, and philosophies, Black cultural aesthetics, technology in art and performance, and expanding the boundaries of art making within the community. He has been a panelist and presented his research at institutions such as Duke University, Brooklyn College, University of Virginia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is an advisory board member of the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado. Zachery has taught at Brooklyn College and been a guest faculty member at the dance programs of Florida State University, Virginia Commonwealth University, The Ohio State University, the University of California Los Angeles, and the University of California Riverside.

Through his choreography, Zachery addresses social and political themes, using dance as a medium for commentary and reflection on cultural issues. His contributions to the field represent a forward-thinking approach, emphasizing the importance of innovation and collaboration in the arts. Overall, Zachery’s work is a testament to the evolving nature of performance art and its capacity to embody contemporary dialogue through the lens of technology and movement.