Katerina & Jay, photo by Katerina Belmatch and Jay Beardsley
Katerina & Jay are multimedia performance artists based in NYC. The two artists work at the intersection of aesthetic and abstraction to create experimental kinetic portraits. Katerina (she/they) is a Russian American artist based in New York City. After receiving a BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase College, she is exploring the relationship between video media, dance performance, and costume. Jay (they/them) is a white, agender multimedia and dance artist based in Brooklyn. They are a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s BFA Dance and Choreography program, and now collaborate with various artists across NYC through visual media, performance, and sound design. Both artists currently work with the dance project GREYZONE, founded by Lindy Fines.
Together Katerina & Jay use performance, visual art, and sound design to analyze underground digital cultures and post-modern environments. Their work centers ethereal images that invoke mythology, Y2K aesthetics, and nightlife cultures. By putting these themes in conversation with each other through performance, they enact reflection on the state of young adulthood, spirituality, and art as it exists today. Physically, they are invested in shape-oriented, evolving movement that contains surprising transitions and flinging bursts of energy. A large part of their process is multimodal, with Katerina invested in costume design and Jay in visual media and graphic design. The goal of all of their expressions is to manifest nonhuman environments that are reminiscent of post 2000’s digital spaces through performance and media.
Katerina and Jay have been collaborating since January 2022. Their early performance credits include angel mode produced at BAD DANCE at The Woods (Ridgewood) and an improvisation installation produced at The Christening held by The Locker Room NYC, in Flatbush, Brooklyn. The most recent iteration of angel mode was performed at MOMENTA hosted at The Woods (Ridgewood) and included pianist James W-L as a sound collaborator.
angel mode, by artist duo Katrina & Jay, synthesizes movement, media projection, objects, and costume design to play with abstractions of human and nonhuman forms. The work will be performed with live music accompaniment.
“Thank you thank you and thank you to everyone who made this residency (Black Artist Space to Create) possible. These past two weeks have been a blessing! Not only have I been able to deepen my own personal/artistic practices, I was given the space to connect with people that I love! I was given space to reflect on love, and to prepare for what this next year (2021) will bring! Shout out to New Dance Alliance, Modern Accord Depot and Angie Pittman for the time, the space, and opportunity! I am forever grateful! It felt like a good meal, with dessert!”
– Johnnie Cruise Mercer
New Dance Alliance
182 Duane Street
New York, NY 10013