Autumn Newcomb is a funkadelic artist.

CUQUITA THE CUBAN DOLL AND THE QUEEN DADDY GO ON A DATE:

IT'S ACTUALLY SO NICE TO MEET YOU

In an increasingly isolating time in the year 2022, a sense of community can be difficult to find. Cuquita The Cuban Doll and The Queen Daddy are looking for connection. Like so many in the digital age, they seek it out through a dating app. Both are pleasantly impressed by each other’s vibrant profiles and arrange to meet for the first time. Through our alter egos’ perspectives along with humor, satire, and absurdity, Yali Romagoza and I address the notions of identity, gender, feminism, and sense of belonging to ultimately celebrate freedom and the right to exist outside of patriarchal and societal categories. This work was created during the EmergeNYC 2022 flagship program.

Documentation of the live performance at Abrons Art Center 7.15.2022

TIME magazine

Dream client! TIME reached out to me to make an illustration that demonstrates the evolution of house music from black queer spaces to the mainstream, featuring Beyoncé, Lizzo, Drake, and Bad Bunny. I had a lot of fun imagining and creating the visual progression of sound with a joyful, summer vibe. The illustration was printed in the July 25th - August 1st, 2022 double issue and featured on TIME’s website alongside How House Music Became the Sound of Summer by Maura Johnston.

TIME reached out to me again to create another photo illustration, all about your favorite 90’s sitcoms and how their gushy sugar-coated reboots just don’t seem to hold up today. While making it, I thought about how wild it is that TV has evolved this much in just a few decades (my lifetime!) This illustration was printed in the September 26th - October 3rd, 2022 double issue and was featured on TIME’s website alongside Reboot and Our Nostalgia for a Family-Sitcom World That Never Was by Judy Berman.

what’s goin on?

What’s Goin On? is a therapeutic satire that uses the aesthetics of radicalism to question what radical really is in the year 2020. Two talk show hosts (played by Martha Wilson and Autumn Newcomb) on opposite sides of the age spectrum end up getting real with each other and finding out they have a lot more in common than they thought. Together they transform into angry, vulnerable punks who can’t hold their feelings in any longer after a trying year. This video was created during the BRICLab 2020-2021 Video Art Residency and aired on live TV 4.13.2021- 7.28.2021.

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DevaCurl

DevaCurl partnered with 6 women identified artists for their Time To Shine Holiday Campaign 2020. I worked with their creative team to create 12 assets that were used on their website to promote their new product line. We created a vibrant style to enhance their photography, incorporating their brand colors and adding energy and movement through a loose linear style. I also developed a custom sticker pack to ship alongside orders, and produced an Instagram Stories Takeover about my artistic practice.

Custom illustrated sticker pack for DevaCurl Holiday packages.

Artist Spotlight Video

Taco grams

Taco Grams were a labor of love to help spread human connection and raise money for social justice organizations during the 2020 pandemic lockdown. In exchange for donations to World Central Kitchen, The Bail Project, and G.L.I.T.S., I created and mailed out personalized Taco Grams to send to your loved ones.

Hairy Too? Bodega show

“A different version of popular” was used to describe the Hairy Who artist collective of Chicago in the 1960’s. This collaboration between Nicholas Newcomb, Nathan Schultz, Justin Goodall, and myself offered our own, different version of popular culture in asking if we are Hairy Too? As a part of The Brooklyn Clay Tour in 2018, we had a blast working with M&A Grocery Deli in Bushwick to create a unique gallery experience throughout their shop. My favorite conversations were around the juxtaposition of our work amongst the merchandise, which left tour-goers and bodega regulars engaging in conversation about art accessibility, collaboration, and community.

MAGIC MUGS

Magic mugs are a project by Flash Boom Clay, a collaboration between myself and my brother Nicholas Newcomb. Nic hand threw all of the mugs, and I supplied playful illustrations for each! Together we art directed an unconventional product shoot to promote the collection, and we sold them online through a website I designed. We donated our proceeds to Women Who Draw, an amazing online resource created to increase the visibility of women identified illustrators with an emphasis on illustrators of color and LBTQ+.

The queen daddy

The Queen Daddy is an ongoing, celebratory, gender-free symbol of radical joy resistance that I created in 2014. The Queen Daddy has danced amongst cows in upstate NY, grooved with go-go boys in gay clubs of San Francisco, and peacefully protested for human rights in NYC. This fabulous being reappears frequently in my work, has been spotted on Subway Creatures, and was once used as clickbait for the Gothamist. The Queen Daddy fights the power with love, and they invite you to join in celebrating.

The Queen Daddy: Brooklyn, 2019

The Queen Daddy, 2014.

LOst and found

I directed and edited this music video to accompany an original score by composer Molly Joyce. It stars the Queen Daddy and their alter egos in the ever so romantic New York City. Lost and Found premiered at The Dimenna Center for Classical Music on May 20th, 2016. This video was projected alongside a live performance by Echo Chamber. I also designed the event poster for our big premiere.