In The New Yorker’s review of It’s Personal, writer Johanna Fateman described the space as having its own relational qualities, calling it "(...)a gallery that occupies a glass-walled booth in a Chinatown mall.
Eight exhibitions have been selected by Artforum critics as international "Must Sees," including Nash Glynn's Self-portrait With One Foot Forward And One Hand Reaching Out, Carlos Motta and Tiamat Legion Medusa’s When I Leave This World,[2] Camilo Godoy's Amigxs,[3] Geo Wyex's Looking For Stars Out Of What Stinks,[4] It's Personal (Nash Glynn, Sam Penn, Ser Serpas),[5] Nao Bustamante's Brown Disco,[6] Ethan James Green, Martine Gutierrez, and Sam Penn's Turn My Way,[7] and E. Jane, Chelsea A.
[8] OCDChinatown has additionally been featured in Vogue, Interview Magazine, AnOther, The New York Times, Surface, The Brooklyn Rail, Hero, Screen Slate, ArtNet, Coeval, GAYLETTER, Airmail, Hyperallergic, and more.
The faux-shop featured an editioned house dress, created in part by former Miguel Andover designer Andrew Harmon, which served as the primary artwork and was accompanied by a weeklong performance of “shop-girldom.” The theatrical conceptualization of the space, led by set designer Andy Harmon and K8 Hardy, incorporated absurdist self-branding to anchor the artist’s “studio dress” in both the fashion and fine arts spheres.
With Studio Dress, Hardy not only celebrated the playful and performative aspects of fashion, but also examined the ways in which art and commerce intertwine, inviting both critical reflection and a sense of joyful irreverence.
Being both seducer and seduced.”[10] The crux of the show lay in the intimate proximity the three artists shared, both personally and creatively, and their ability to blur the lines between public and private life.
The former served as a repurposing project for the young designers, directly akin to Garner’s tenets of her studio practice that reinfuse life into things that have been passed on, discarded, or are out of use.
[11] The installation featured a hanging 8-foot inflatable disco ball, a slowed-down Donna Summer soundtrack with an accompanying microphone that invited each visitor a moment for karaoke, and a singular spotlit painting.
[12] Earlier in 2023, Young Boy Dancing Group, and movement designer Sigrid Lauren, premiered a dynamic, two performances at The Firehouse, 87 Lafayette St., New York, NY.
Dancers from YBDG, including Dusty, Lili “Love” Marrero, Crackhead Barney, and the core crew consisting of Manuel Scheiwiller, Nica Roses and Maria Metsalu, were positioned strategically as the public entered to witness the 3-hour performance.
Interview Magazine described the show as “sensual,” noting that it invited viewers to engage with complex portrayals of women, where desire, agency, and the politics of representation were at the forefront.
The exhibition’s opening was followed by a series of readings featuring prominent voices, including hannah baer, Kay Gabriel, Diamond Stingily, Sarah Nicole Prickett, and Gary Indiana.
A review of the show in The New Yorker emphasized the exhibition’s successful blending of personal and collective expression, where the artists’ works confronted notions of gaze, power, and identity.
The exhibition—a hybrid between a retrospective and a garage sale—offered an eclectic mix of McNamara’s works from across 15 years, including never-before-seen props, photographs, and new pieces that carried his signature blend of self-mortification and wit.
McNamara, who rose to prominence in 2010 with his project Make Ryan a Dancer, has long been known for transforming the mundane into something deeply performative, from costumed interventions to awkward, intentional failures that somehow made him a star.
In this show, he revisited those boundary-pushing moments, providing a rare opportunity to directly engage with both the objects and the artist himself, as McNamara was present throughout to discuss each piece's origins and significance.
An essay by Sarah Nicole Prickett, was shown alongside the exhibition, and reflected on McNamara’s evolution as a performance artist and his exploration of the often uncomfortable space between vulnerability and spectacle.
The first video, Tiamat Legion Medusa (2022, 26 minutes), documented the artist recounting its traumatic childhood experiences, which fueled its desire to transform into a non-human form.
[17] In September 2019, OCDChinatown and BOFFO co-curated the New York City performance debut of Young Boy Dancing Group (YBDG) with an exhibition comprising photographs and objects.
The exhibition at OCDChinatown showcased eight color photographs of anonymous, often headless or limbless bodies stacked in acrobatic, surreal poses—reminiscent of cadavre exquis or the gender-fluid imagery of Brassaï.
For its Artforum review, Scott Indrisek noted the performances sacramental movements: “It’s sloppy, sensual, vicious, absurd, the sort of thing you’d want a safe word for.
The group staggers around, dead-eyed, with elaborate hair, like zombies who happen to hang out in Eckhaus Latta, drugged into some arcane ritual they don’t even understand.” The three core members, Manuel Scheiwiller, Maria Metsalu, and Nica Roses, use these sculptural moments, born from structured improvisations, to echo the collective’s performance ethos.
Held from August 2–4 at Fire Island Pines, the festival featured performances by nine artists and collectives, including Young Boy Dancing Group (YBDG), who made their U.S. debut, as well as immersive works by Ryan McNamara and an operatic collaboration between Richard Kennedy and Gay Baker.
Additional selected artist collaborations with the festival include: BEARCAT, Gage of the Boone, Tavia Nyong’o, Dia Dear, Vinson Fraley, NIC Kay, Keioui Keijaun Thomas, Macy Rodman, Jonah Almost, Sausha De La Ossa, Fashion LaBeija, Maxi Hawkeye Canion, Fernando Casablancas, Kyle Kidd, reed rushes, Tess Dworman, devynn emory, Ms.Z, Dangerous Rose, Raven Valentine, Kiyan Williams, Maya Margarita, Joseph McShea & Edgar Mosa, and Hannah Black.
The piece was a meditation on the personal and political, offering an introspective stream of consciousness through seemingly random still images sourced directly from Auder’s phone.