Keioui Keijaun Thomas, I ONCE SAID I KNEW YOU WOULD… 2019. Credit: Special Iteration: My Last American Dollar UK, Photo by Andrea Abbatangelo, 2019.
Keioui Keijaun Thomas, Hands Up, Ass Out
June 6–July 18, 2021
Opening Reception
June 6, 2021, 12–7pm
Live-Streamed Performance
My Last American Dollar: FINAL RUN
June 8, 2021 at 8pm on participantafterdark.art
Video Premiere
I Looked Up at the Sky and I, Imagined All of the Stars Were My Sisters, 2021
July 18, 2021, ONE NIGHT ONLY/24 Hr screening on participantafterdark.art
Hands Up, Ass Out is New York-based artist Keioui Keijaun Thomas' first long-form exhibition, and the culmination of a body of work six years in the making, from 2014–2020. Amassed from iterations of writing, image-making, performances, and choreographies, Hands Up, Ass Out showcases Keioui's journey toward self-affirmed transcendence from the tokenization that exploits and oppresses young, talented, and femme black bodies.
Make an appointment here.
*Executive Care is an all-encompassing agency at the service of artists founded by Isis Awad in 2020.
Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Hands Up, Ass Out, curated by Shehab Awad as Executive Care*, 2021, installation view at Participant Inc, New York. Photo: Daniel Kukla.
Window View: Covered in Lube, 2014–16, 2021, in Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Hands Up, Ass Out, curated by Shehab Awad as Executive Care*, 2021 at Participant Inc, New York. Photo: Daniel Kukla.
Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Hands Up, Ass Out, curated by Shehab Awad as Executive Care*, 2021, installation view at Participant Inc, New York. Photo: Daniel Kukla.
Case 1: Prints, Ephemera, Documentation, 2021 (detail) in Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Hands Up, Ass Out, curated by Shehab Awad as Executive Care*, 2021 at Participant Inc, New York. Photo: Daniel Kukla.
Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Hands Up, Ass Out, curated by Shehab Awad as Executive Care*, 2021, installation view at Participant Inc, New York. Photo: Daniel Kukla.
Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Hands Up, Ass Out, curated by Shehab Awad as Executive Care*, 2021, installation view at Participant Inc, New York. Photo: Daniel Kukla.
Hair Line Towers: Hang Me Out to Dry, 2016–18, 2021 (detail), in Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Hands Up, Ass Out, curated by Shehab Awad as Executive Care*, 2021 at Participant Inc, New York. Photo: Daniel Kukla.
In the Reflection of Ancient Tides, 2018 (still), in Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Hands Up, Ass Out, curated by Shehab Awad as Executive Care*, 2021 at Participant Inc, New York. Photo: Daniel Kukla.
Middle Passage: After the Party, 2018–20, in Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Hands Up, Ass Out, curated by Shehab Awad as Executive Care*, 2021 at Participant Inc, New York. Photo: Daniel Kukla.
BLACK BODIES, 2018 (still, detail), in Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Hands Up, Ass Out, curated by Shehab Awad as Executive Care*, 2021 at Participant Inc, New York. Photo: Daniel Kukla.
Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Hands Up, Ass Out, curated by Shehab Awad as Executive Care*, 2021, installation view at Participant Inc, New York. Photo: Daniel Kukla.
Hair Line Towers: Hang Me Out to Dry, 2016–18, 2021 (detail), in Keioui Keijaun Thomas: Hands Up, Ass Out, curated by Shehab Awad as Executive Care*, 2021 at Participant Inc, New York. Photo: Daniel Kukla.
![Raymond Pinto, *Shrine*, 2020. Video still, digital video, color, sound, 4:07 min.
[A close-cropped widescreen digital video image of the neck and shoulders of person seen from behind, slightly blurring and repeating against a black background.]](https://participantinc.org/content/2-seasons/5-season-19/6-untitled-unintelligible/screenshot-2020-11-02-at-10.59.38-am.png)
