Bailey Scieszka holds a BFA from the Cooper Union in New York City. While he attended Cooper Union, Scieszka first encountered the work of Jack Smith (1932–1989) a New York filmmaker, photographer, and actor who had a pioneering influence in experimental filmmaking and performance art. His time with professors Dore Asheton, Mike Essl, Sharon Hayes, J. Hoberman, and Walid Raad have influenced his current practice.
Much of Scieszka’s work emerges from the mind of his alter-ego Old Put, a demonic-shape-shifting-alien-clown whose works include performance, video, painting, and drawing, and of which are layered with reference to popular culture, ranging from wrestling to politics.
His puppet dramas have been performed at two major international art fairs: Paris Internationale and NADA (New York). Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, Vogue, Forbes, The New York Times, Cura, and Cultured. What Pipeline, a Detroit Gallery, recently published More Heart Than Brains: The Collected Plays of Bailey Scieszka.
After graduation from Cooper Union and prior to the global pandemic of 2019-2021, Scieszka returned to Detroit to make art away and apart from the conventional demands of New York and Los Angeles. Scieszka deepened his relationships with a nationally regarded puppet theatre, which helped to refine his performance techniques and skills. The challenges of the pandemic were such that he broadcast performances via ZOOM and Instagram from his childhood bedroom in his parents’ home.
Scieszka has recently shown with Atlanta Contemporary, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Stems Gallery (Brussels), Rachel Uffner (New York), White Columns (New York), Maria Bernheim (Zürich), Larrie (New York), and What Pipeline (Detroit).
Scieszka works with both commercial and nonprofit galleries, which offers his professional flexibility and permits self-representation. Feel free to contact him or galleries for enquiries about individual works and projects.
Scieszka is currently an MFA candidate in Art Practice at Stanford University
Contact: bailey.sue.s@gmail.com