Grace Exhibition Space is pleased to present MY FIRST MEAL WITH YOU IN NYC, a live performance by artist Hector Canonge. The durational performance art work marks Canonge's return to the United States after his seven month journey through various regions in South America. The artist's actions will intervene the well known Brooklyn space for a period of 4 hours. The public is invited to to bring typical dishes, delicacies, and popular food that best reflect contemporary American culture.

All offerings will be incorporated in the performance. Audience members are invited to participate in the transformation of food as a trigger for memories and new sensations.

Hector Canongeis an interdisciplinary artist whose work incorporates the use of New-media technologies, physical environments, cinematic and performative narratives. In his work he explores and treats issues related to construction of identity, gender roles, and the politics of migration. His performances mediate movement, endurance, and ritualistic processes as well as the interaction with the public. Canonge's performance art work has been presented at Queens Museum of Art, Bronx Museum of Art, Flux Factory, Panoply Performance Laboratory, Topaz Arts, Surreal Estate, IATI, Crossing Art Gallery, Y Gallery, Cadwell College, Grace Exhibition Space, Vaudeville Park, and Dixon Place among others. Before embarking on a six month trip to South America to exhibit new projects and his body of work, Canonge presented the second installment of ITINERANT, a seasonal performance art festival in New York, participated in QUEERGASM at North Western University in Chicago, and performed “My Last Supper,” a farewell durational performance in New York City.

From June – December 2012 Canonge worked on a new body of work in South America presenting projects, giving lectures and workshops in Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Brazil. Exhibitions to his credit include: ABSENCE, 2010, Queens Museum of Art; BABEL, 2010, Space 37; FRAMING AIDS 2008, Queens Media Arts Development, and Queering Bodies, 2007, VISUAL AIDS. He curates and organizes the monthly artists’ program A-LAB Forum at Crossing Art Gallery, directs the monthly independent film series CINEMAROSA, and organizes the annual city wide Performance Art Festival, ITINERANT. His work has been reviewed by The New York Times, ART FORUM, New York Daily News, Manhattan Times, Queens Chronicle, by major networks ABC, NBC, CNN, CBS, UNIVISION, etc., and by online art publications such as Art Experience NYC, NYRemezcla, Turbulence, and ART CARDS Review, and among others.

Canonge represented the USA at AMBER’11 Art and Technology Festival in Istanbul, Turkey, and introduced new body of performance art work at Fountain Art Fair in Miami in 2011. In 2012 he participated in the online project for the 7th Berlin Biennale, was featured in the online publication HYPERALLERGIC, was invited to participate in the 2012 UN World Peace Day – First Linzhou World Peace Art Exhibition in China, and presented a controversial performance art project and exhibition, “KOKA,” at the Museo Arqueológico UMSS in Bolivia. This past January, Canonge participated in the Encuentros 2013 of the Hemispheric Institute for Performance & Politics in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and has recently returned to the United States to start working on his project LABORAL as part of his 2013 Franklin Furnace Award. In the next few months we will present his work at various venues in NYC, and start organizing the annual Performance Art Festival, ITINERANT 2013.