Calli Roche - The Shed

An installation of five artworks in a gallery. They are placed on the ground, hanging from a wall in the background, or hanging from the ceiling. The works on the ground include a box with leather scraps piled inside, a white piece of leather dropped on the floor, and a clothing rack similar to a coat rack. On the wall, a tapestry is stretched on a metal frame. At its center a human figure is formed out of white leather that has been stuffed. The figure is in the fetal position. Hanging at the center of these works is a pattern of the artist's body that has been cut out of black leather and affixed to shaped wood panels. The individual parts are attached by wires similar to a skeleton. — Calli Roche, *Death to Dermis: Ecdysis*, 2023. Mixed media installation. Dimensions variable. Commissioned by The Shed. Artwork © Calli Roche. Photo: Adam Reich.

Free Tickets

Admission to Open Call events is free. Tickets will be available Tuesday, October 17.

To reserve free tickets, visit the Open Call 2023 Group Exhibition page.

About this commission

Calli Roche’s Death to Dermis: Ecdysis uses a variety of sculptural and pattern-making techniques to metaphorically peel back the layers of their body in search of their core. Roche’s approach as an artist makes use of sculpture, assemblage, and fabric engineering, to navigate interiority. These socio-political stream-of-consciousness narratives often address personal relationships between violence, identity, and sexuality. Death to Dermis: Ecdysis includes parts of the artist’s body translated into different materials, from dark leather to sheer organza, using the Kongo Cosmogram as a framework.

Get to Know the Artist

A Black artist sits casually on the floor of a white-walled gallery space, with one arm draped over her leg. She looks directly at us, dressed in all black wearing cap, glasses, t-shirt, pants, and boots. Around her and sculptures sitting on the ground and on a pedestal. One sculpture behind her shoulder includes spiky protrusions from a square surface.

Calli Roche

Calli Roche, whose personal lineage and creative ancestry lie in tailoring and dressmaking, trained as a patternmaker and craftsperson. Their great grandfather was a tailor in St. Kitts; their great-great-aunt a dressmaker in the Bronx; and their great-uncle a costume maker in Birmingham, UK. They take great pride in the makers in their family tree, while fully acknowledging that they, like many other Black, poor people and non-degree-holding Black craftspeople have had to “tailor” their artistry to an income-generating praxis. Roche has shown at the Colored Girls Museum (Philadelphia), Housing Gallery (New York) Aggregate Space Gallery (Oakland), and Gallérie Perrotin (New York). They were the 2021 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Interdisciplinary Work and the Artist in Residence at Field Projects Gallery and the Artist Alliance LES Studio Program.

5 months ago

Between Artists: Jeffrey Meris and Calli Roche

A month before the exhibition opened, Jeffrey Meris and Calli Roche met to discuss what happens when artistic vision demands a specific set of skills, how Blackness is a fundamentally creative state of being, and how art is the process of making rather than the end result…

6 months ago

I Am Calli Roche

9 months ago

Studio Visit with Calli Roche

9 months ago

Studio Visit with Calli Roche

9 months ago

Studio Visit with Calli Roche

part of an exhibition

Open Call 2023 Group Exhibition Read more about “Open Call 2023 Group Exhibition” All details for “Open Call 2023 Group Exhibition”

NOV 4, 2023 – JAN 21, 2024

New art for New York

Open Call 2023 Group Exhibition

Thank you to our partners

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Support for Open Call is generously provided by

Additional support for Open Call is provided by Warner Bros. Discovery 150, The Wescustogo Foundation, and Jody and John Arnhold | Arnhold Foundation.

The creation of new work at The Shed is generously supported by the Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Commissioning Fund and the Shed Commissioners.