The Artists of Salon 8
Santo Jacobsson (he/him)
2023 Visual Artist in Residence
“here for the community.”
Santo Jacobsson is a is a Swedish-Ecuadorian illustrator based in East Village. He is a proud American Illustration Award winner and has had work at Lincoln Center. Currently working on his brand @coming4yourneck and doing freelance graphic design. His work focuses on the surreal experience of living as a trans person. He uses art as a tool to build community with other trans and non-binary people around the world.
Franco Giacomarra (he/him)
2023 Performance Artist in Residence
“Finding your place in between two worlds”
Franco Giacomarra is a New York City-based writer, composer, and performer who makes original works for the stage, page and screen. From an early age, Franco always knew that my path in life would be to cultivate my passion for music and writing in order to tell impactful original stories. Franco hails from the Philadelphia area, and maintains a borderline unhealthy preoccupation with all the requisite sports teams and cultural ephemera (Go Birds). He moved to New York to receive his B.A. from Fordham University Lincoln Center in Theatre and Music, and subsequently became radicalized about the importance of an asset-based approach to making one’s own work.
Franco’s obsession with collaboration has led to an eclectic body of original projects in media ranging from theater, to original music, short films, comics, and a touch of cultural criticism - all as either a writer, actor, composer, technician or some combination thereof. Franco identifies as a pop culture omnivore who draws from sources far and wide, often resulting in unique and idiosyncratic combinations of forms, genres, subject matter etc. He is most often drawn to writing about identity, and characters that feel ill-at-ease in different aspects of their being - whether it’s shapeshifting aliens acclimating to Earth, or a bicultural kid like him trying to roll his R’s just so.
Franco is currently an artist-in-residence with The Village, A Fenix 360 Artist to Watch, and a member of the Barrow Group and the Freeman Studio. His work has recently been presented with The Green Room 42, Alchemical Studios, The Latine Musical Theater Lab, The Crypt at Columbia, and more. Franco is proudly first generation Sicilian and Puerto Rican.!
Akil (he/him)
“Navigating the world and understanding the self (Photography as Anthropology)”
Akil is a Brooklyn-born photographer and UX researcher with an education in psychology. His work is a culmination of his day-to-day experiences, travels, friendships, interests, emotions, and mindset. In many ways, photography is a therapeutic process for him, allowing the visualization of growth and change in his life. In 30-50 years, Akil hopes that he or anyone else can look at his work and think, "Yeah, I have a good idea of who Akil is," as defined by the world he interacts with.
Antonyio Artis (he/him)
“I create work that marries the nerd and the black experience within me!”
Antonyio Artis is an actor, singer, and writer who graduated with his BFA in Acting from Brooklyn College in the spring of 2022. When he was 16, he wrote and performed an original rap song for Lin Manuel Miranda, the original cast of “Hamilton”, and a crowd of 1300 fellow students and teachers at the Richard Rodgers Theater. Credits include New Jack City: Live! (national tour), New Girl Now (Cellunova Festival), Storme (Playwrights Horizon), Project Sankofa (The Tank Theater), etc. Artis received a certification in unarmed stage combat and loves reading and obsessing over actors. God. Grace. Gratitude.
Shannon Constantine (she/her)
“Illuminating dreams, loss, heartbreak & bliss”
Shannon Constantine is a standup comedian and writer who has written for the Upright Citizens Brigade, and performed at several iconic New York venues including The Comedy Cellar and Union Hall. Her scripts have received honors within the Austin Film Festival and the ScreenCraft TV Pilot Script Competition, among others. Her monthly standup show, We're Listening, is the second Thursday of the month at Solas Bar in the East Village.
Celia Luz (she/they)
“I take my photographs, print on wood or canvas, and paint on top to create one-of-a-kind artworks.”
Statistically speaking, I shouldn't be where I am today. I was born into a low income Puerto Rican family and grew up in the Marlboro Projects in Brooklyn. Although my childhood was filled with multigenerational trauma and alcoholism, there was a lot of love...and a lot of art. I have fond memories of staying up late to watch my dad make his abstract artworks and it wasn't long before I found myself taking pleasure in the same. I was comforted by the stereotype of artists being different and misunderstood as that made me feel like I wasn't alone in this world.
I moved to Santa Fe, NM at the end of 2003, hoping to finish art school, but I struggled with an artist block that would keep me from drawing for about 5 years. This prompted me to buy my first camera in an effort stay creative. That decision forever changed how I perceive my surroundings and create. My work transformed from illustrating fantasies, to capturing the magic in the mundane...and I haven't stopped taking photos since. The foundation I received in drawing, color theory and painting lends itself to how I approach photography and the mixed media works I make today.
Katherine McClintic (she/her)
“Investigating where the body meets the words in collaborative art”
Katherine McClintic is a choreographer, producer, and writer based in NYC. She is curious about everything, in particular, building poetic, visceral, and imaginative movement landscapes in film, TV, music performance, and theatrical projects. She is the creator and EP of "Ending the War On My Body", a project consisting of a book of poems, 6 films, an evening length dance piece, a full-length score, and the collaboration of over 60 cast, crew and creatives.
Jessi Olarsch (she/her)
"Painter of purple people"
Jessi Olarsch is a figurative painter based in NYC. In her work, memory, image, and desire combine in a purple dreamscape that tells an unfolding story of queerness. Her paintings consider the shifting boundaries of public and private life, the raw tenderness of queer friendship, and the complicated joy of coming into your own.
Emma Payne (they/she)
“A silly songwriter with a bittersweet heart”
Emma Payne is a singer/songwriter and actor based in NYC. They received their BA in theatre from Fordham University, and then decided to pivot and focus more on music and songwriting. Emma's debut EP is coming out 12/19, and they are bewildered and so excited to have their work out so soon. They also in a past life studied movement and clown in Italy and now teach a movement class every month! Link to class is in their Instagram bio.
Billy Reece (he/him)
“Writing songs about the unsung”
Billy Recce is a billboard charting composer, songwriter and performer living in New York City. One of the most prolific young musical theatre writers of his generation, Billy recently achieved the rare feat of having three musicals running simultaneously Off-Broadway. These included the return engagement of A MUSICAL ABOUT STAR WARS at the AMT Theatre, the Seinfeld Musical Parody SINGFELD!: A Musical About Nothing at the Jerry Orbach Theatre, and LIGHTHOUSE: An Immersive Drinking Musical at Soho Playhouse. Billy’s career began with the award winning and international headline making Balloon Boy: The Musical, for which he was the youngest writer ever selected for the New York Musical Theatre Festival at 17. It has since been produced across the country. Billy has written or co-written songs for Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin, Laura Benanti, Jessica Vosk, Lillias White, and Alice Ripley. and Tituss Burgess. His all star concept album “Little Black Book” debuted at #11 on the Billboard Charts and #6 on the Apple Music charts. Orchard Project Greenhouse member, Relentless Award semi-finalist, Eugene O’Neill Finalist, NAMT finalist, Two Time Wallowitch Award finalist, 2022 Jonathan Larson Grant Finalist. Billy is currently under commission with EST/Sloan Project.
His work has been performed at 54 Below, The New Amsterdam, Broadway in Bryant Park, Lincoln Center, The Tilles Center, The Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Ars Nova, The York Theatre, The Green Room 42 and beyond. His TYA work has recently been singled out in The NY Times. Recently, he has been creating short form musical content on TikTok, amassing over 2 Million views in his first month on the app. He is a proud member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild.
Sofia Riley (she/her)
Dive into my world of colorful nostalgia!
Sofia Riley is a San Francisco native who currently resides in New York City. In 2017, Sofia began attending Fordham University studying Visual Arts with a concentration in Painting and Drawing. The program allowed her to solidify her skills as a painter as well as explore new ones, like film photography and collage. As a senior, she partook in Fordham’s Senior Thesis program where she created a body of work that expressed her love of home and bittersweet nostalgia.
As a child the phrase Sofia used most was “I’m making something!” She loved the way she saw the world and wanted to record every moment of it in the only way she knew how. Whether it was painting, drawing or taking too many nature photos in the backyard, Sofia was always creating. As a recent graduate, she continues to experiment with a variety of mediums, themes and media. Sofia still sees the world as tiny moments of magic and creates her work to remind us of just that.
Manatsu Tanaka (they/them)
"In hope of provoking an emergence within your heart"
Manatsu Tanaka is a bicultural multi-disciplinary artist who grew up and has been performing in both Japan and the US. Having had that “always in between places”, they utilize that sense as an opportunity to create a prism effect through their creative practices, hoping to offer new perspectives. They are drawn into illustrating humanness through their physical canvas. At the core of their heart, Manatsu is committed to using their creativity and artistry to join the frontline of trans and gender non-conforming artists in the dance and theater world.
Our Team
Caroline Potter Shriver, Co-Founder & Programming Director
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Dana Seach, Managing Director
Riva Dhamala, Creative Consultant & UX Designer
Annabel Hope, Creative Consultant
Special Thanks
Alchemical Studios
Other Half Brewing
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Syndey Skye
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