Chloë Bass (born 1984) is an American conceptual artist who works in performance and

social practice Social practice is a theory within psychology that seeks to determine the link between practice and context within social situations. Emphasized as a commitment to change, social practice occurs in two forms: activity and inquiry. Most often appl ...

. Bass' work focuses on intimacy. She was a founding co-lead organizer of Arts in Bushwick from 2007 to 2011, the group that organizes Bushwick Open Studios. She is an Assistant Professor of Art and

Social Practice Social practice is a theory within psychology that seeks to determine the link between practice and context within social situations. Emphasized as a commitment to change, social practice occurs in two forms: activity and inquiry. Most often appl ...

Queens College, CUNY Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing. Queens College was established in 1937 and offer ...

, and holds a BA from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

and an MFA from

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

. Bass was a regular contributor to

Hyperallergic ''Hyperallergic'' is an online arts magazine, based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded by the art critic Hrag Vartanian and his husband Veken Gueyikian in October 2009, the site describes itself as a "forum for serious, playful, and radical thinki ...

until 2018. She is represented by Alexander Gray Associates.

Early life and education

Bass was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1984 and lived on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper We ...

. In 2002, she moved to

New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...

to pursue a BA in

Theatre Studies Theatre studies (sometimes referred to as theatrology or dramatics) is the study of theatrical performance in relation to its literary, physical, psychological, sociological, and historical contexts. It is an interdisciplinary field which also enco ...

. Two

labor strike Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike in British English, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became co ...

s in 2003, including a dining hall workers' strike, strongly affected Bass' undergraduate experience and influenced her later involvement with organizing. She completed her MFA in Performance and

Interactive Media Interactive media refers to digital experiences that dynamically respond to user input, delivering content such as Text (literary theory), text, images, animations, video, Sound, audio, and even Artificial intelligence, AI-driven interactions. O ...

in 2011.

Career

Bass moved to

Bushwick Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by the neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, to the northeast; Williamsburg to the northwest; the cemeteries of Highland Park to the southe ...

in 2006. In

she became a co-lead organizer of Arts in Bushwick (2007-2011), and helped to organize Bushwick Open Studios, a project of which she is now critical, saying that "ultimately the damaging effect

f BOS F, or f, is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet and many modern alphabets influenced by it, including the modern English alphabet and the alphabets of all other modern western European languages. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounce ...

has been greater than the fun." While living in that part of Brooklyn in a

loft A loft is a building's upper storey or elevated area in a room directly under the roof (American usage), or just an attic: a storage space under the roof usually accessed by a ladder (primarily British usage). A loft apartment refers to large ...

, Bass worked to register the area's voters and, as a result of a displacement mapping project, gained a seat on

Community Board 4 The community boards of the New York City government are the appointed advisory groups of the community districts of the five boroughs. There are currently 59 community districts: twelve in the Bronx, eighteen in Brooklyn, twelve in Manhattan, f ...

, which she held until 2012. In 2011, Bass moved to an apartment in Bed-Stuy, where she currently lives. In 2014 she was the Create Change resident for the

Laundromat Project A self-service laundry, coin laundry, or coin wash, is a facility where clothes and some household textiles are washed and dried without much personalized professional help. They are known in the United Kingdom as launderettes or laundrettes, ...

in Bed-Stuy, creating a work called ''The Department of Local Affairs''. For this work she collected information in the form of writing,

drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

, and conversation by and for locals, examining what this looked like in contrast to information collected by companies for advertising or tourism. Bass' eight-chapter project from 2015 to 2017 exploring individual social interactions, ''The Book of Everyday'' ''Instruction'', has been presented at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and other venues. Chapters from this work have included creating poetic installations in bathrooms and inviting gallery goers to smell jars of spice. Her work has been exhibited at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts,

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...

, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, the

Neuberger Museum of Art The Neuberger Museum of Art (the NEU) is located at the centre of the Purchase College campus in Purchase, New York. With a collection of nearly 7,000 works of modern, contemporary and African art, it is one of the nation's largest academic mus ...

The Knockdown Center Knockdown Center is a cultural space, performance venue, and art center, located in the Maspeth, Queens, Maspeth neighborhood of Queens, New York City. The Center includes many architecturally notable features: 20,000 square-foot main hall, a back ...

, and

Momenta Art Momenta Art was an artist-run, not-for-profit organization and gallery, which from its founding in 1986 to its closing in 2016, exhibited and promoted emerging artists and underrepresented artistic perspectives. Artists who received support from Mo ...

, amongst other venues. She is the recipient of residencies at The Laundromat Project, Bemis Center,

Triangle Arts Association A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimensional ...

, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Counsel (LMCC) Workspace residency, and was nominated for the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant. In 2019 the

Studio Museum in Harlem The Studio Museum in Harlem is an African-American art museum at 144 West 125th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. Founded in 1968, the museum collects, preserves and interprets art created by African A ...

commissioned her first institutional solo exhibition, ''Wayfinding'' (2019) at

St. Nicholas Park St. Nicholas Park is a public park in Manhattan, New York City, between the neighborhoods of Harlem, Hamilton Heights and Manhattanville. The nearly park is contained by 141st Street to the north, 128th Street to the south, St. Nicholas T ...

. She later toured the work nationally, and created a new site-specific section for Los Angeles'

Skirball Cultural Center The Skirball Cultural Center, founded in 1996, is a Jewish educational institution in Los Angeles, California. The center, named after philanthropist couple Jack H. Skirball and Audrey Skirball-Kenis, has a museum with regularly changing exhi ...

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bass, Chloë 1984 births African-American women artists African-American contemporary artists American contemporary artists American performance artists American women artists Brooklyn College alumni Living people Artists from Manhattan People from the Upper West Side Queens College, City University of New York faculty Yale College alumni African-American women musicians 21st-century African-American artists 21st-century African-American women artists 20th-century African-American artists 20th-century African-American women