Bailey Scieszka lives and works in Detroit.
She holds a BFA from the Cooper Union in New York City. While she 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. Her time with professors Dore Asheton, Mike Essl, Sharon Hayes, J. Hoberman, and Walid Raad have influenced her current practice.
Much of Scieszka’s work emerges from the mind of her 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.
Her 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 her relationships with a nationally regarded puppet theatre, which helped to refine her performance techniques and skills. The challenges of the pandemic were such that she broadcast performances via ZOOM and Instagram from her childhood bedroom in her 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). Throughout the global pandemic, Scieszka has continued to show her work, including several on-line performances.
Scieszka works with both commercial and nonprofit galleries, which offers her professional flexibility and permits self-representation. Feel free to contact her or galleries for enquiries about individual works and projects.
Contact: bailey.sue.s@gmail.com