This is the first installment of Artist Writes, part of X-TRA’s 20th Anniversary Programming. Artist Writes is a series of commissioned essays and public programs by contemporary artists who write: A.L. Steiner, Andrea Fraser, Martine Syms, and William Pope.L. The essays will be published serially in X-TRA Volume 20. Each author will present a corresponding public event in Los Angeles.

Artist Writes is firmly grounded in X-TRA’s mission to provide a platform for artists to define their own terms of engagement and to make meaningful contributions to the fields of criticism and theory in Los Angeles. Support for this series generously provided by the Michael Asher Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Isambard Kingdom Brunel Society of North America and Pasadena Art Alliance.

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A.L. Steiner’s works and activities span photography, video, installation, collage, performance, lectures, writing, and curating, often made in collaboration. A self-described “skeptical queer eco-feminist androgyne,” Steiner is a collective member of the musical group Chicks on Speed and cofounder of Working Artists and the Greater Economy (WAGE), which advocates for the payment of fees for artists exhibiting in nonprofit art institutions. Steiner’s artworks are irreverent, humorous, personal, perverse, and—above all—political. Most evident in her large-scale installations of collaged digital photographs, Steiner’s image repertoire provides a look into the network of queer friends and lovers that form the basis of both her community and her artistic practice.

Otherwild is a studio, a store and a gathering, workshop and event space. Otherwild was founded in 202 within a vast, multi-disciplinary community of inspiring artists, craftspeople and designers.