Miss Universe

Maggie Holland: Raised among goats, sheep, cowboys and cedar trees in Rosebud-Lott, Texas, Holland fell in love with print making while attending Baylor University. She moved to Brooklun in 2016. “I moved to New York in 2016 because I wanted to be openly bi without the social pressures of conservative baptists. I began making art regularly again in late 2020. I returned to printmaking in the spring of 2021 when I joined Shoestring Press.”

Anna Friemoth: Born and raised in New York, Anna uses photography to explore possible ways of seeing and understanding, in order to reimagine conventional tropes of language and image. She received her B.F.A. from Maryland Institute College of Art and Central Saint Martins. Her work has been published internationally in France, South Korea, Turkey, China, London and New York in BLINK Magazine, Beautiful/Decay, Feature Shoot, MATTE Magazine, and Flavorwire. 

Chris Carr: Carr is a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary conceptual artist, photographer, emcee, educator and instrumentalist. “I am intrigued by the history of cultural expression, power relationships, semiotics, post-modern sociological theory, and interpersonal dynamics. My work takes on themes of normalcy vs. deviancy, alternative culture, social inequality, and the metaphysically interstellar.”

Nancy Spero: An American painter and feminist artist, Spero’s expressive work is characterized by its figurative interpretation of sociopolitical and cultural issues, often directly tackling racism, violence, and sexism in contemporary space. “I've always sought to express a tension in form and meaning in order to achieve a veracity,” she said. (DECEASED)

Gabriele de Cos: A Spanish-Colombian, multimedia artist based in New York City, de Cos’ art practice is influenced by her extensive work as a fashion stylist, costume designer, photographer, and set designer as well as her newly developed interests in art and technology. Full of Grace, he latest project, is an exploration of intimacy, youth culture, and gender fluidity from a contemporary lens.

Lewinale Havette: “Intimate but universal in its relevance, my artwork deals primarily with aspects of female identity, including gender and power dynamics, race, religion, and sexuality. It debunks the historical power structure systems that once surrounded me.” Havette’s work has been featured in exhibitions in museums and galleries in the United States and Europe.

ABE: Growing up in foster care, ABE gravitated towards art at an early age as a means to escape from harsh realities. Her painting style can be described as abstract expressionism, while her overall art style is conceptual. There are sexual allusions in her work as well as references to the imbalances of power and money in society. In this work, her modeling explores questions of femininity, strength and struggle.

Lane Sell: A St. Thomian artist living and working in Crown Heights, Sell is a printmaker by trade, his work extends into installation, assemblage, sculpture, and performance. He is the founder and Master Printer of Shoestring Press, a community printshop and artist space on Classon Avenue which has served Brooklyn artists for the past decade.

Emma Amos: Painter, printmaker, and weaver Emma Amos was born in 1937 and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, where her parents owned a drugstore. “Images come to me of words like sass and back talk that describe the attitudes of people who actively resisted oppression. My work has often taken shots at assumptions about skin color and the privileges of power and of whiteness.” (DECEASED)

Adam Pitt: A woodcut printmaker who spent decades navigating life as a corporate manager for a Fortune 500 company, Pitt worked simultaneously as an undercover artist. Pitt works in two distinct series; Nudes and Korporate Culture. Both series observe the muse, becoming a narrative for his own work-life dichotomy.