In the fall of 2022, Brooklyn-based textile artist Carter Shocket began dreaming up the idea of a trans artist network. He had been working with Trans Revolutionary Action Network for NY, a mutual aid group that hosts events like clothing swaps and workshops, and felt inspired to set up a similar model.
"Artists are so often alone in their studios competing for the same opportunities," Shocket told Hell Gate; in a perfect world, they could connect and share resources freely, without fear of losing out. By the following summer, he and fellow artist Alexia Catenazzo had hosted their first all-trans exhibit at the Brooklyn Heights gallery Eleventh Hour Art. But the show still wasn't quite bold enough to meet his aspirations. "It was a cool thing to do," he said, "but it didn't feel like what we really wanted." Shocket still had his sights on creating a larger network of trans artists that functioned independently of the traditional art world. Eventually, he reached out to friends at Arts Gowanus, a nonprofit supporting local artists, and asked if they had an appetite for hosting an all-trans art festival—and Trans Art Fest was born.
A first-of-its-kind festival in Brooklyn featuring the work of 120 trans artists across more than 20 events at several galleries, gardens, and other community spaces this spring, Trans Art Fest includes a broad swath of disciplines, including photography, quilts, wearable objects, ceramics, metalwork, paintings, and sculpture. The two-month-long art marathon will culminate on May 30 with a party hosted by the trans streetball collective Basketdolls, where a final exhibition will be on display alongside basketball games and DJ sets.
"[The Basketdolls event] is the epitome of what I want Trans Art Fest to be—just trans artists saying, 'You know what? I'm gonna do this my own way. I'm gonna do this with my friends and it's gonna be the coolest thing anyone's ever seen,'" Shocket said. "We have the ideas and the creativity and the ability to do really amazing things, and a lot of times we are trying to pitch ourselves to institutions that are not really interested in that, or interested in us. And I'm kind of like, we need to just do this on our own."