Joey Cannizzaro is an undisciplinary artist and astrologer. Along with Dan Bustillo, they formed The Best Friend's Learning Gang,an experiment in disorderly, amateur education. They’re also a part of Party Office, a trans* feminist, anti-caste, anti-racist art and social space. Joey curated the inaugural show at MOCAM: The Museum of Contemporary Art on the Moon, as well as two seasons of Studio, an emerging artist showcase at REDCAT in Los Angeles. Their work has been seen at The Hammer Museum, 356 Mission, Machine Project, UMoCA, Flux Factory, FOCA LA and a lot of other places. They’ve also performed at Centre Pompidou, REDCAT, HAU2, and in the back of moving Honda Odyssey on Echo Park Boulevard. You can read some words they wrote in The Brooklyn Rail, Temporary Art Review, OnCurating, Black Clock Blog, and in paper books. They have an MFA from California Institute of the Arts, and a BA from The New School University. Joey’s ambient noise album THICKET was released in July, 2021.
Selected Exhibitions & Projects
2018 Pairing Altar of Eternal Subscendence, "Home Bodies, Away Teams," Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, SLC, UT
2018 The Best Friends Learning Gang, Amateur Hour: Gene Editing and Irrational Medicine, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, SLC, UT
2017 Score for a Debt Martyr, Debt Fair, Whitney Biennial 2017, NY, NY
2017 Tonguing the Cult of Reason, "Home Bodies, Away Teams," LA, CA
2017 The Best Friends Learning Gang, Amateur Hour: Junk Science: Telepathy, CalArts Summer Residency, CA
2017 Mystic Hyperstitians in the Heart of Empire. Curation. MOCAM: Museum of Contemporary Art on the Moon@ iMOCA Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, IN
2016 Private Fountain or This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Gold Line Show, Dynasty Center, LA, CA
2016 The Best Friends Learning Gang Talk Trash Fab, NY Art Book Fair, MoMA PS1, NY, NY
2016 Invisible Crit: Bed of Noodles, Breadof Roses, Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
2016 The Best Friends Learning Gang, Amateur Hour: WE ARE CRITIC, The Hammer Museum, LA, CA
2016 The Best Friends Learning Gang, Amateur Hour: Lock Picking and DIY Pepper Spray, Kerkhoff Gallery, UCLA
2016 The Best Friends Learning Gang, Amateur Hour: The World's Biggest Snuggie, The Hammer Museum, LA, CA
2015 Clusterfuck Inc: Material Condensing Services, Terrain Biennial, LA, CA
2015 The Best Friends Learning Gang,Amateur Hour on Immortality, Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Lancaster,CA
2015 Los Angeles College: Tangents on Aspiration, Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA
2015 Toggle with neverhitsend, ISEA 2015 (International Symposium for Electronic Art), 221A, Vancouver, Canada
2015 Score from a Subdraft with neverhitsend, “The Promise of Something and Nothing,” Sonce Alexander Gallery, LA
2015 Money, silks, ease from labor, and a chance to see the world, “After Hours” presented by Big City Forum & some times, LA
2015 The Best Friends Learning Gang: (05/15) Amateur Hour on Becoming Famous! , Machine Project, LA // (05/15) BFLG Telethon! “She Work Gala” Pieter, LA
2015 The Shame Ensemble, “Resurrection Party,” The Knights Inn, LA
2015 Los Angeles College: Financial Aid Think Tank, (04/15) California Institute of the Arts // (05/15), Otis College of Art and Design, LA
2015 LosAngeles College: Memorial Ride, Echo Park Film Center, LA
2014 Heat Map with Danielle Bustillo, “Sundown Stock & Exchange," ForYourArt, LA
2014 Soft Cannibalism and Other Parafunctional Activities with Earl Gravy, "Perform Chinatown," LA
2014 Pan-cultural, Trans-historical, Art-relational: Power Point’sClip Art, “Hour of Power,” Machine Project, LA
2014 The Best Friends Learning Gang: (12/14) Amateur Hour on Hypnosis, Machine Project, LA // (10/14) Dribble Castle Dream City Flux Factory, NYC // (08/14) Amateur Hour: Wheat Paste, Thank You For Coming, LA // (07/14) Amateur Hour: Let’s Make a Wax Museum, LAST Projects, LA // (06/14) Amateur Hour: Taxidermy, Cirrus Gallery, LA
2014 The Invisible Crit, Black & White Gallery, California Institute of the Arts
2014 Post Private with neverhitsend, Monte Vista Projects, LA
2014 The Tower, “Chaos and Cosmos” curated by Charles Gaines and Martin Plot, California Institute of the Arts
2013 fuck. with neverhitsend, 356 Mission Road, LA
2013 Magic Eyesore, “Smoke and Mirrors”, California Institute of the Arts
2013 The Slag Manifesto Vol 2., California Institute of the Arts
2012 If The Body’s Still Warm You Can Read It, “Mulholland Dérive: Los Angeles Road Concerts,” LA
2012 GoogleFuck: General Rules and English General English, “Fuzz and Crumbs,” California Institute of the Arts
Performances
2016 Exit Overland. Performance. Highways Performance Space, LA, CA
2014 Hyperphonia, Human Resources, Los Angeles, CA
2013 All Containers, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
2013 Odyssey Odyssey by Johanna Kozma, Getty Museum, Pacific Standard Time Festival, Machine Project, LA CA
2013 Waterwork by Emily Lacey, Machine Project, LA
2013 Dispatches by Davide Balula, Museum of Public Fiction, LA, CA
2012 THEM in collaboration with Dennis Cooper / Ishmael Houston-Jones / Chris Cochrane / REDCAT, LA, CA / HAU 2, Berlin, DE (2012) /Centre George Pompidou, Paris, FR (2012) / Abrons Center, NYC (2011) / New Museum, NYC (2010) / P.S.122, NYC (2010)
2011 Modelo Para Armar by Amapola Prada, A/C Institute, NYC
2011 Duke, by Yves Laris Cohen, New York Live Arts, NYC
2010 Confessional, by Manuela Viera-Gallo, The Union Gallery, NYC
Curation
2018 Milk Press Gallery, New York City Poetry Festival, co-curated with Milk Press & The Poetry Society of New York 2018- Spilt Milk, Senior Editor/Visual Arts Editor for Milk Press and Split Milk blog 2017 Mystic Hyperstitian in the Heart of Empire, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art & MOCAM: The Museum of Contemporary Art on the Moon 2016 Invited Guest Curator, REDCAT Winter Studio 2015 Invited Guest Curator, REDCAT Fall Studio 2015 Resurrection Party at the Paradise Motel, co-curated with Dan Bustillo, Knights Inn, Los Angeles 2014 Slag Manifesto Vol 1 & 2, California Institute of the Arts
Publication
2018 Disorderly Conduct: On THEM, Police Brutality, and Following Orders, The Brooklyn Rail, Summer/Fall Online Exclusive
2017 WE ARE CRITIC: Made in LA by The Best Friends Learning Gang, Temporary Art Review
2016 "Like when the teacher leaves the classroom: A conversation about artist-run programming within exhibitions", OnCurating, Issue 31
2016 neverhitsend, "Concerted Efforts" Edited by Samantha McCulloch and Christopher Williams-Wynn, Surpllus
2016 Best Friends Learning Gang, Radical Actions: Teaching Artists to Social Practice (Forthcoming)
2015 On Trash Fab, Block Clock Blog
2015 On Trash Fab, “Tessex,” Ithaca University Press, Image & Text Initiative
2014 Post Private with neverhitsend, VIA Publication, Vol 3.
2013 Hyperphonia, Next Words Anthology, California Institute of the Arts
2012 Bad Samaritans Exhibition Catalogue, C.A.S.T. Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania
2012 Sonido o Huesos? Tampoco, And/Or Magazine, Vol.3
2012 One Must Do Everything in Excess, Dear Sir Quarterly, Vol.10
2011 Poems and Translations, The Translation Project: Barcelona/New York, Vol.1, The Poetry Society of New York Press
2010 Our Foreheads Were Villainous Low, 12th Street Journal, Vol.5
2009 Gentile on Passover, Ping Pong: A Journal of Arts and Letter, Vol. 7, The Henry Miller Library
Awards & Honors 2018Invited Judge, Los Angeles City College Writing Contest
2018Invited Judge, Sweek Poetry Contest
2017 Visiting Artist, CalArts Summer Residency, CA
2016 Visiting Artist, Wassaic Project Summer Residency, Wassaic, NY
2015 Panelist, “Collaborative Disruptions: Art, Politics, Anthropology,” UC Riverside 2014 Visiting Artist Lecture, Otis College of Art and Design, LA
2014 Visiting Artist Lecture, CalArts Center for Integrated Media, LA
2014 Resident Artist, LA Seminary for Embodied and Civic Art, Sundown Schoolhouse, LA 2014 Interdisciplinary Project Grant, California Institute of the Arts
2011 “Bessie” New York Dance and Performance Award, Best Performance, THEM in collaboration with Ishmael Houston- Jones,Dennis Cooper, and Chris Cochrane
2010 ArtForum, Best of Dance 2010, #1 American Realness Festival, #8 THEM in collaboration with Ishmael Houston- Jones, Dennis Cooper, and Chris Cochrane
Education
M.F.A. CalArts, Spring 2014 Integrated Media & Writing
B.A. The New School University: Eugene Lang College, Spring 2010 Literary Studies / Culture & Media