treat gallery is pleased to exhibit at the Fall 2023 Edition of Affordable Art Fair. This will be our 6th time participating. 15% of sales will be donated directly to the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. treat gallery is a philanthropic project with a track record of helping others through contemporary art by donating a percentage of sales to a nonprofit or charity. Our booth is inspired by the theme “Self Determination.”

Kiki Aranita is a chef, food writer, fiber artist, sauce entrepreneur, and recipe developer. While these may seem like disparate career paths existing simultaneously, they are tied together by the same themes: nostalgia (particularly when it comes to the food of Kiki’s hometowns of Honolulu and Hong Kong) and the concept of Malama Mauka (care for the ocean). As a fiber artist, she uses primarily scrap yarn, in a small effort to keep micro-plastics out of our waterways.

Brian Bills has several years of experience working and developing businesses on social media. Many of these clients include restaurants, clubs, shops, and Queer-owned establishments. Brian works as an in- house photographer at Nordstrom and has photographed with multiple brands and private clients.

Galina Kurlat’s work is an ongoing investigation into the body as vulnerable and ever-changing. The subjects range from figurative portraiture to abstractions made with saliva, hair, breastmilk and nails. In every iteration, there is a consistent connection to the corporeal. Like flesh, these images change with time, recognizable features fade, and gestures disappear, obscuring identity. Between beauty and decay a truth is revealed ––an ambiguous truth that asks more questions than it answers.

Matt Mele’s Vacancy series features the resort town of Wildwood, New Jersey, a small island located along the Jersey Shore. Mele’s family has established and maintained a small business there since the 1950’s. While frequently visiting in the off-season, Mele has been documenting the area’s architecture and subsequent effects of a town that relies on tourism in its summer months. "Vacancy" is an on-going project to document not only the short term, but long-term effects of a town that relies on seasonal inhabitants.

In Mark Liam Smith’s “Life Paint” photographs, he asks: “What if our attitudes and emotions were available in tube form? Which tubes would you use to paint your life?” These metaphorical pigments that are available to us end up determining what the paintings of our lives look like. Some paintings will be largely made up of compassion, love, or hope; whereas, other paintings may be painted with envy and greed. “We are the artists and our lives are the paintings.”

Using the photograph to investigate the medium itself, Parsley Steinweiss works to uncover aspects of representation that pertain to seeing and believing. She asks the questions of what the role of the photograph is in the construction of our reality, what does it consist of, how is it filtered and manipulated, how does it relate to memory, and what is its relationship to visual perception. Through different modes of inquiry, each piece is an examination in how we see. She explores flattened space versus three-dimensional space, real versus represented and image versus object.

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination, or violence. SRLP is a collective organization founded on the understanding that gender self-determination is inextricably intertwined with racial, social and economic justice. Therefore, we seek to increase the political voice and visibility of low-income people and people of color who are transgender, intersex, or gender non-conforming.

SRLP works to improve access to respectful and affirming social, health, and legal services for our communities. We believe that in order to create meaningful political participation and leadership, we must have access to basic means of survival and safety from violence.

Affordable Art Fair will run from Wednesday, September 20^th to Sunday September 24^th. The venue is located at the Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 W. 18^th Street, New York, NY 10011. For a full checklist or questions, please contact treat gallery by e-mailing info@treatgallery.org.