Siren Arts

“Siren Arts feels, in a word, cool, like you are such an arts insider that the metropolitan art scene cannot satisfy your avant-garde cravings. It’s fun to tell your friends you’re going to a “drag puppetry performance ritual” on a beach in Jersey, if not just because of how contradictory it sounds: accessible yet niche.”

- Catherine Sawoski, CultureBot, September 17, 2024

SIREN ARTS

Siren Arts is an innovative summer residency program & public performance art series based in Asbury Park, NJ that supports emerging visual artists throughout the northeast corridor of Washington, DC to NYC. This program provides urban-based artists a unique opportunity to enjoy creative time at the beach and advance their work. Transformer’s goal with Siren Arts is to empower the participating artists and engage audiences in celebration of the ocean, the intersectional effects of climate change, and human & environmental interconnectedness, while introducing and advancing innovative contemporary art practices.

Launched in the summer of 2017, Siren Arts is an expansion of Transformer and our mission to connect and promote emerging visual artists, build audiences for their work, and advance them in their artistic careers.

Siren Arts is a direct result of the success of Promised Land - Transformer’s 2014 pilot residency and exhibition in Asbury Park, NJ, which brought together twelve east coast based emerging visual artists to pursue creative research related to the city’s history and culture. Located in the middle of the northeast corridor of Washington, DC to NYC, Asbury Park is an iconic beach town that hosts thousands of visitors each summer. It is known for its arts & music present and history, as well as for its unique Beaux-Art boardwalk architecture.

Supported by a special curatorial grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, as well as Asbury Park Boardwalk Developer Madison Marquette, the Promised Land exhibition, presented in the 5th Avenue Pavilion of the Asbury Park boardwalk, included a diverse variety of visual mediums including painting, video, installation, sculpture, performance art, sound art, and photography. The exhibition was visited by more than 5,000 audiences members over the course of is six-week presentation. In addition to building a substantial audience and collector exposure for the artists, the residency and exhibition provided incredible peer-networking among the artists, who received increased exhibition opportunities, commissions of new work, and have formed collaborations among themselves as a result of their experience.

Questions about the program? Contact us at info@transformerdc.org or call 202.483.1102


current:

How to Trap a Demon:
Asbury Park Edition

An installation by Tamar Ettun 
October 19 - November 30, 2024
Asbury Ocean Club / Corner of 4th Ave & Kingsley St, Asbury Park, NJ

Open House Reception: 12 to 6 PM. The artist will be present!

Image Credit: Tamar Ettun, Yellow Wave Cave, 2023

Past:

DEEPWATER

Exhibition: June 13 - September 15, 2024
Artist Residencies & Performance Art Series:
July 8 - August 16, 2024

Featuring: Tai Tai (New York, Chicago, LA), Tasha Douge (Bronx, NY), Jordan Deal (Philadelphia, PA), Erin Ellen Kelly (New York, NY), Laura Bernstein (Brooklyn, NY), Kelindah Schuster (New York, NY). All programming is provided free of charge.

July 10 - August 18, 2023

Featuring: Pussy Noir (Washington, DC), Nia Love (New York, New York), MuEr: Wood Ear/Eye Bait (Che Chen, Eugene Lew, Patrick Shiroishi, Matthew Smith Lee, Alex Zhang Hungtai; Philadelphia, PA), Yali Romagoza (Queens, NY), Maira Duarte/Dance to the People (New York, NY) Dusty Childers (Brooklyn, NY). All programming is provided free of charge.

DRIFT

July 11 – August 19, 2022

Featuring: Alina Tenser (Kyiv/NYC) & Gabo Camnitzer (NYC), Holly Bass (DC), Kelsey Van Ert (NYC), Arien Wilkerson with Nicholas Serrambana and Karim Rome (Philadelphia), Alexander D’Agostino/Glitterwitch (Baltimore), and Carolina Mayorga (DC). All programming is provided free of charge.

SALT

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July 22, 2021 - August 19, 2021

Featuring: JungWoong Kim & Germaine Ingram (Philadelphia), Armando Lopez-Bircann (DC), Monica Jahan Bose (DC), Jaime Sunwoo & Johnnie Cruise Mercer (Brooklyn), and Eli Barak (Baltimore). All programming is provided free of charge.

Ripple

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July 16 - Aug 20, 2020

Featuring: Carolina Mayorga (DC), Samera Paz (DC), Armando Lopez-Bircann (DC), Hannah Spector (TX/DC), Muse Dodd (ATL, DC+NYC), and Yacine Fall (DC). All programming is provided free of charge.

Fluxus Sea

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Into The Mystic

July 11 – August 22, 2019

Featuring: Kunj (DC), Jane Carver (Philadelphia), Maps Glover (DC), Ayana Evans (NYC), Tsedaye Makonnen (DC), Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow (NYC), and Andrew Demirjian (Newark). All programming is provided free of charge.

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July 12 – August 23, 2018

Featuring: Rex Delafkaran, Stephanie Mercedes, Flatchestedmama Trefsger, Naoko Wowsugi, Tamar Ettun & The Moving Company, Ed Woodham / The Keepers, and Hoesy Corona. All programming is provided free of charge.

Turning The Tide

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Summer of Radical Love

June 24 – September 23, 2017

Featuring: J. Morrison, Caroline Wells Chandler and Ramekon O’Arwisters, DC-based art collective NoMüNoMü, DC-based artist Lisa Marie Thalhammer, performance art events, and more. All programming is provided free of charge.