Stephanie Acosta is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and archivist experimenting with performance systems and mixed media, questioning meaning-making and manufactured limitations at the center of their practice. Acosta blends performance with practice-based research, and works extensively with unseen histories with both the AUNTS and Jo Andres Archives.
Other modalities include dance, experimental radio, and film, having presented works with and for Museum of Art and Design, MCA of Chicago, OutFest, Knockdown Center, Montpellier Danse Festival, LMCC, the Performance Philosophy conference, JACK, La Mama, and has long-time collaborations with many artists and curators including Miguel Gutierrez, Alexis Wilkinson, Isaac Pool, and Alexa Grae.
At MacDowell, Acosta ravenously worked on painted paper works as part of the interdisciplinary series “Lichen Baby…It’s Me Moss,” which looks at multitudes in fracture, or a melodrama about Lichen and Moss having a breakup. Acosta went directly from MacDowell to an intensive three-week movement research residency at the Cave/Leimay in Brooklyn, NY, as part of the same series.
Recently, the self-taught archivist had both her archive projects celebrated in gala form, AUNTS archive at the Movement Research gala, and the legacy of Jo Andres at Issue Project Room’s gala. Acosta will be premiering a new opera, Tone Pillar, in 2025.
Portrait by Jessie Young
