My Barbarian is a Los Angeles based collaborative group consisting of Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon and Alexandro Segade. The trio makes site-responsive performances and video installations that use theatrical play to draw allegorical narratives out of historical dilemmas, mythical conflicts, and current political crises.

My Barbarian had solo exhibitions with Steve Turner Contemporary in Los Angeles (2008, 2009) and at Participant, Inc. in New York (2009). In 2008, the group made a collaborative exhibition with the sculptor Lara Schnitger

Lara Schnitger

Lara Schnitger is an Dutch-American sculptor, living and working in Los Angeles and Amsterdam. Schnitger studied at the Royal Academy of Art from 1987 to 1991 and spent a year on a residency at the Kitakyushu Centre for Contemporary Art in southern Japan.Schnitger works in knitted and sewn...

 at Museum Het Domain, Sittard, NL, which, in 2009, traveled to the Luckman Gallery in Los Angeles. Since 2004, My Barbarian has shown work in group exhibitions and/or performance programs at venues including REDCAT

REDCAT

Opened November 2003, REDCAT is a contemporary arts center that is an extension of CalArts campus, and serves as the professional presenting arm of the Institute...

; LACMA; Hammer Museum

Hammer Museum

The Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Culture Center, or the Hammer Museum as it is more commonly known, is an art museum in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, California...

; LAXART; Schindler House; LACE

Lace

Lace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was...

; Steve Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles; New Museum; Whitney Museum; Studio Museum in Harlem

Studio Museum in Harlem

The Studio Museum in Harlem is an American contemporary art museum in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, New York. It was founded in 1968 as the first such museum in the U.S. devoted to the art of African-Americans, specializing in 19th and 20th century work as well work of artists of...

; Participant, Inc.; P.S.1; Joe's Pub; Anton Kern Gallery, New York; Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco; MOCA

MOCA

-Museums:* Museum of Chinese in America, a museum in New York City which exhibits Chinese American history* Museum of Contemporary Art , any of several museums with this title...

, Miami; Hyde Park Art Center

Hyde Park Art Center

The Hyde Park Art Center is a visual arts organization and the oldest alternative exhibition space in the city of Chicago. Since 2006, HPAC has been located just north of Hyde Park Boulevard, at 5020 S.Cornell Avenue, in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.-Beginnings:The Hyde Park Art...

, Chicago; Aspen Art Museum

Aspen Art Museum

Founded in 1979, the Aspen Art Museum is a non-collecting contemporary art museum located in the historic mountain community of Aspen, Colorado....

; Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara; Vox Populi

Vox populi

Vox populi , a Latin phrase that literally means voice of the people, is a term often used in broadcasting for interviews with members of the "general public".-Vox pop, the man on the street:...

, Philadelphia; Estacion Tijuana & Lui Velazquez, Tijuana Mexico; The Power Plant

The Power Plant

The Power Plant is one of Canada’s leading public galleries devoted to contemporary art, located in Toronto, Ontario at Harbourfront Centre. As a non-collecting art gallery, The Power Plant has presented new and recent work by numerous Canadian artists along with their international peers.Over its...

, Toronto; De Appel

De Appel

De Appel is an internationally focused contemporary arts centre, located in Amsterdam. Since it was founded, the goal of de Appel is to function as a stage for research and presentation of visual arts. Exhibitions, publications and discursive events are the main activities of de Appel. In 1994...

, Amsterdam; Peres Projects, Berlin; Torpedo, Oslo; El Matadero, Madrid; Galleria Civica, Trento, Italy; Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv; Townhouse Gallery, Cairo. My Barbarian was included in the 2005 and 2007 Performa Biennials, the 2006 and 2008 California Biennials, the 2007 Montreal Biennial, and the 2009 Baltic Triennial. The group has made two full-length albums of music from its performances: Cloven Soft-Shoe (2004) and California Sweet & the 7 Pagan Rights (2008).

Gaines (b. 1973, Visalia, California) received a B.A. in History from UCLA (1996) and an MFA in Writing from Cal Arts' School of Critical Studies (1999) and is a faculty member in the School of Theater at Cal Arts. Gordon (b. 1975, Santa Rosa, California) received a BA in Theater at USC (2008) and teaches at the Stella Adler

Stella Adler

Stella Adler was an American actress and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and the The Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles with long-time protege Joanne Linville, who continues to teach and furthers Adler's legacy...

 School in Los Angeles. Segade (b. 1973, San Diego, California) received a BA in English from UCLA (1996), studied in the School of Film and Television at USC

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

 (1997–1998), received an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studio Art from UCLA (2009), and also currently works as a solo artist.

Other Collaborators

• Norwood Cheek
  Norwood Cheek
  Norwood Cheek is a filmmaker and has directed many music videos for bands such as Superchunk, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Ben Folds Five, AFI, Toenut, 12 Stones, French Kicks, the Donnas, Soul Coughing and many others. He directed an episode of the USA Networks GvsE and has made commercials for X-Large...
  
   (2001–2004)
• Andy Ouchi (2001–2006)
• Lara Schnitger (2004-9)
• Pearl C Hsiung (2002–2010)
• Scott Martin (2004–2008)
• Matthew Monagahan (2004)
• Giles Miller (2004–2009)
• Richard Lee 2011

External links

• Official Website
• LA Weekly Review
• Artists Page on Steve Turner Contemporary
• Artnet Review
• New Yorker
• Interview on Fanzine
• TimeOut New York Review
• Art In America Review
• Critical Review
• Review of a performance in Germany
• My Barbarian performance in Tijuana at Lui Velazquez as part of the 2008 California Biennial.