Tosh Basco

Company Gallery is pleased to present the first solo show by Tosh Basco in New York City, titled Angels, Hand Dances and Prayers.

The exhibition is comprised of new works-on-paper which provide a glimpse into the prolific body of work accompanying Basco’s remarkable oeuvre of performance over the past decade. The drawings are grouped into the categories the title of the show suggests. A pair of ‘Angels’ hold the space of the gallery, providing a sense of grounding and other-worldly presence. Imprinted in a bruised blue, these ‘Angels’ hover above two plinths which double as symbolic stages for their suspended flights. ‘Hand Dances’ flank the room in shimmering copper and red silica gestures. And finally a series of black and white graphite ‘Prayers’ form a faceless but fervent congregation.

Angels, Hand Dances and Prayers hints at the more impenetrable dimensions of Basco’s practice, inviting an intimacy that often evades live performance. A common theme underlying these haunting imprints is a preoccupation with the unseen which is particularly poignant given the hyper-visibility accrued by Basco as her former public persona boychild. And in a period when our experience of touch and the erotic is evolving, Basco’s commitment to embodiment in extremis can feel deeply entwined with a longing to be out-of-body. In her own words, “The hand dances are a way for me to extend my improvisational performance practice beyond physical form. Death echoes in the desire to move beyond the body and what’s left are the resonances of a fragility and violence that shroud notions of what ‘body’ is.”

Tosh Basco was born in California and rose to prominence in the drag scene in San Francisco in the 2010’S. Well known for her movement-based performances under the name boychild, Basco’s photography and drawing accompany the performance practice. Viewed as a whole, all of Basco’s work attempts to enfold language, representation and becoming together in spaces where they are presumed to exist as discrete entities. She is co-founder of the collaborative entity Moved by the Motion with Wu Tsang and collaboration remains a vital aspect to her work. Basco’s work has been presented at the Venice Biennale; the Sydney Biennial, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; MOCA, Los Angeles; ICA London among other institutions.

A solo show of her photography will be presented in May 2021 at Carlos Ishikawa, London.