Draft:Ed Woodham

Ed Woodham (born 1957 ) is an American conceptual artist engaged in social practice, performance and visual art. Utilizing queer aesthetic strategies and often employing humor to challenge social codes and conditions, Woodham's work activates specific contexts, bringing focus to the moment, along with shifts in awareness and perspective.  In one of his ongoing projects, "The Keepers", performers dressed in ghillie suits appear in circumstances of rapid urban development to address displacement, gentrification, environmental impact, and historical loss and / or erasure.  First performed in 2013 on beaches in Australia under the title "Numb and Number", and appearing in numerous locations over time and place, "The Keepers" showed up in 2023 in the neighborhood of Penn Station in Manhattan, which is undergoing rapid urban redevelopment.  

Woodham is the founder of Art In Odd Places AiOP, a festival that brings a thematically organized concentration of art experiences to public spaces.  Occurring annually in New York City since 2005, the festival has travelled nationally and internationally. The seed AiOP originated during the 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, which supported a robust Cultural Olympiad.  In 2018 the festival was invited by students at the University of Virginia to address the site of the 2017 Unite the Right rally. Art in Odd Places 2018: MATTER Charlottesville featured 16 local artists, three regional artists and nine national and international artists, and aspired to a renewal of the site through historical reclamation and expressions of community rights to public space.   As part of the festival, artist Leslie Scott-Jones had planned a celebration of the slaves who built the University of Virginia, but faced censorship by the University, marking a first in the festival's long history.

Woodham's practice also includes writing and archiving documentary materials. From 1990 to 1997 he was founder and director of the artists collective 800 East, an alternative art space in downtown Atlanta. Under the leadership of Randy Gue, Curator of Modern Political and Historical Collections at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library of the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Emory University, Woodham's archive of 800 East was acquired by the University library.   Prior to his return to Atlanta in 1988, Woodham spent 8 formative years in the East Village art scene in New York City, participating in spaces such as the Pyramid Club, Danceteria, The Mudd Club, and LaMaMa Theater. This peak moment of cultural production in the East Village coincided with the onset of the HIV/Aids in New York City, which had a direct impact on Woodham's decision to return to Atlanta at the time.

Currently based in New York City, he is faculty of the Visual and Critical Studies Department at the School of Visual Arts, and NYU's Hemispheric Institute. He is also a mentor in New Inc, the New Museum's cultural incubator.