Jade Kuriki-Olivo (born 1989), known by the pseudonym Puppies Puppies, is a contemporary artist known primarily for her conceptual works of sculpture, installation, and performance art. Her practice mobilizes readymade objects and characters from popular culture while questioning the authority of various institutional practices in the medical field, the university, and museum space. Her 2017 work ''Liberté (Liberty)'', was the first and only work of performance art to be acquired by the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

for its permanent collection.

Early life and education

Puppies Puppies grew up outside of Dallas, Texas. Her mother is

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

and her father is Puerto Rican. She attended the

School of The Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...

, as well as

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

's MFA program. She became interested in performance as an art form in high school when she dressed up as her school's mascot. In 2010, the artist had a life-threatening brain tumor, which was successfully removed.

Work

The artist is known for working in a wide range of media and materials, including blood, ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

'' and ''

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

'' fan art, crab carapaces,

Swiffer Swiffer is an American brand of cleaning products that is made by Procter & Gamble. Introduced in 1999 the brand uses the " razor-and-blades" business model, whereby the consumer purchases the handle assembly at a low price, but must continue ...

s and Minions paraphernalia. her 2015 exhibition ''HorseshoeCrabs HorseshoeCrabs'' at the Freddy Gallery, Baltimore displayed various artistic interpretations of the

horseshoe crab Horseshoe crabs are marine and brackish water arthropods of the family Limulidae and the only living members of the order Xiphosura. Despite their name, they are not true crabs or crustaceans: they are chelicerates, most closely related to arachn ...

, an arthropod whose blood is often drained for use in pharmaceutical manufacturing. In 2016 she participated in the

Berlin Biennale The Berlin Biennale (full name: Berlin Biennale für zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art) is a contemporary art exhibition, which has been held at various locations in Berlin, Germany, every two to three years since 1998. T ...

, presenting a new video each day of the biennale. The following year, her work ''Liberté (Liberty)'' was included in the

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in ...

. The piece involved a performer wearing a green gown along with a crown standing on an outdoor terrace of the Whitney Museum; simultaneously, the Whitney's gift shop sold $5 liberty crowns to visitors. The work is the only piece of performance art in the Whitney permanent collection. In 2019,

Interview Magazine ''Interview'' is an American magazine founded in late 1969 by artist Andy Warhol and British journalist John Wilcock. The magazine, nicknamed "The Crystal Ball of Pop", features interviews with celebrities, artists, musicians, and creative thinke ...

published a conversation between

Laura Albert Laura Victoria Albert (born November 2, 1965) is an American author who invented the literary persona JT LeRoy, whom Albert described as an "avatar." She published various works of purportedly autobiographical fiction under the LeRoy name bef ...

and Puppies Puppies, where the artist publicly revealed her identity for the first time, coming out as a "Latinx transgender woman." Her 2019 solo show at

Remai Modern Remai Modern is a public art museum in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The art museum is situated along the west bank of the South Saskatchewan River, at the River Landing development in Saskatoon's Central Business District. The museum's build ...

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as t ...

engaged blood as a subject. The exhibition displayed a bag of the artist's own blood, as well as providing on-site HIV testing and blood donation services to visitors. Her work focuses on frequent collaboration, especially with other queer and trans artists such as Bri Williams and

Elliot Reed Elliot Reed (born 1992) is an American dancer and performance artist. Their projects span dance, video, performance, and sculpture and explores the relationship between physicality, time, and systems. Reed has shown internationally at venues like ...

. Kuriki Olivo routinely attends the

Stonewall Stonewall or Stone wall may refer to: * Stone wall, a kind of masonry construction * Stonewalling, engaging in uncooperative or delaying tactics * Stonewall riots, a 1969 turning point for the modern LGBTQ rights movement in Greenwich Village, Ne ...

Protests. Organized by Qween Jean and Joela Rivera, who hold weekly demonstrations for the past since the wake of the murder of

George Floyd George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd may have used a counterfeit twe ...

, the protests include groups like Riders4Rights and Musicians United NYC. For her first solo institutional show, ‘Nothing New’ at the

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sc ...

in New York City, the artist has transformed the space into a railroad-style apartment featuring a serene garden in the front, a cozy bedroom in the center, and a back room filled with thriving marijuana plants behind the galleries glass wall. The gallery and the museum’s café are both stocked with a diverse range of vibrant green products. At random intervals, the glass barrier that separates her from the audience goes white and turns opaque.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Puppies, Puppies Living people 1989 births 21st-century American women artists American contemporary artists American women performance artists American performance artists American transgender artists Hispanic and Latino American women in the arts Transgender women artists LGBT Hispanic and Latino American people American LGBT people of Asian descent LGBT people from Texas Artists from Dallas