VICE Exclusive Preview: Jaimie Warren at American Medium

Jaimie Warren: Somebody to Love (part 1 of 3), 2015

Tonight at American Medium, an ambitious startup gallery in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, artist Jaimie Warren will unveil the bizarre and amazing results of her latest community art initiative. Warren has been a favorite artist of VICE since we published her first picture over a decade ago. In the past year alone, she has contributed a horrific photo essay that came with one of the most terrifying VICE magazine covers in history, a vaudeville-inspired variety show called B.A.L.F. (Buddy Alien Life Form), and participated in a forum on why art isn't funny more often. But you don't have to take it from us—the Huffington Post recently touted her as "The Photographer Who Will Save Us From Art World Snobbery", and just last week, theWall Street Journal praised the course Warren is currently teaching at MoMA as a way for local high school students to connect with others who share the creative impulse in the wake of cuts to art programs in city schools.

It's this class, called "Jaimie Warren's House of Horrors", that has lead the work she will debut tonight at American Medium. Starring some of her students as well as many friends—including local Brooklyn artists and American Medium co-owner Travis Fitzgerald—Warren's recreation of a medieval tableau depicting a gnarly amputation comes to life in a new video piece of ambitious proportions.

You'll have to go see it to believe it, but suffice it to say, the dusty religious figures in this painting are resuscitated into some of Warren's favorite celebrities, including Gucci Mane, Slash, and an all denim-clad Britney Spears and JT, circa the 2001 American Music Awards.

Jaimie Warren: "Somebody to Love"
August 9th - Sept 13th, 2015
American Medium, 424 Gates Ave.Brooklyn, NY 11216

Opening Reception: Sunday, August 9th, 6 - 10 PM
Performance at 8 PM

Read more about MoMA's "In the Making", a free educational program for city teens, here.