Siren Arts:
STATES OF MATTER
10th Annual Siren Arts Summer Artist Residency Program
& Public Performance Art Series
July 14 - August 21, 2026
Artist Talks: 6pm Wednesday
Siren Arts at 4th Ave & Kingsley St, Asbury Park, NJ
Performances: 7pm Thursdays
2nd Avenue Beach, Asbury Park, NJ
All Audiences Welcome; All Programming Presented Free of Charge
SCROLL DOWN TO VIEW ARTIST & PERFORMANCE INFORMATION!
RESIDENCY & PERFORMANCE ART SERIES MEDIA:
Press Release // Postcard
Transformer celebrates the 10th year of its Siren Arts Summer Artist Residency Program & Public Performance Art Series in Asbury Park, NJ by highlighting diaspora, immigrant, and 1st generation US citizen artists. Presented in tandem with, and sharing the title, States of Matter - a sound & sculptural installation by Philadelphia based artist Raúl Romero on view at Siren Arts exhibition space - Siren Arts’ 2026 summer residency program artists and their performance art works explore how culture and language traverse a diversity of physical and metaphorical waters.
Exploring themes of identity, our bodies as vessels of spatial and political inquiry, labor, rituals of healing, the wisdom of nature and our interconnectedness with all living things, ecology, memories, and spiritualities: the participating Siren Arts’States of Matter artists incorporate elements of performance art - a time-based visual art form where artists use their own bodies, actions, and presence as the primary medium - to build connection and understanding within themselves, and with the communities they engage with their work.
This summer’s roster of superbly innovative and visionary artists was selected for States of Matter through a curatorial collaboration with Art in Odd Places (AiOP), the independent New York City project renowned for placing experimental visual and performance art into unexpected public spaces. Special thanks to AiOP Founder and Director Ed Woodham (and Siren Arts alumnus), and to Arantxa Araujo and Pancho López, co-curators of AiOP 2026: UTOPIAS, the 21st edition, taking place September 26–27, 12-5pm along 14th Street in New York City. artinoddplaces.org
Siren Arts’ States of Matter performances will run approximately 45 minutes and are open to all, free of charge. Audiences are encouraged to gather on Asbury Park’s 2nd Ave beach at 6:45pm, bringing beach towels or chairs for seating. In case of rain, please visit @sirenartsap on Instagram for rain location details.
Additional thanks to the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Grunin Foundation, the CrossCurrents Foundation, Starfield, the City of Asbury Park, and to multiple individual angel donors from both our DC and Asbury Park communities for making this 10th summer season of Siren Arts possible!
RESIDENCY & PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE
Niki Afsar (Washington, DC)
July 14 - July 17
Artist Talk: Weds. July 15
Performance: Thurs. July 16
Sara Kostić (NYC)
July 21 - July 24
Artist Talk: Weds. July 22
Performance: Thurs. July 23
Jessica Desmond (Asbury Park, NJ)
July 28 - July 31
Artist Talk: Weds. July 29
Performance: Thurs. July 30
Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful
Espejo Ovalles Morel Atrib (NYC)
August 4 - August 7
Artist Talk: Weds. August 5
Performance: Thurs. August 6
Raúl Romero (Philadelphia, PA)
August 11 - August 14
Artist Talk: Weds. August 12
Performance: Thurs. August 13
Larissa Velez- Jackson (NYC)
August 18 - August 21
Artist Talk: Weds. August 19
Performance: Thurs. August 20
ABOUT SIREN ARTS /
Launched in 2017 by Transformer's Founder & Director Victoria Reis, Siren Arts is an innovative program based in Asbury Park, NJ that supports multidisciplinary emerging artists through exhibitions, a summer artist residency program, and a public performance art series. Transformer’s goal with Siren Arts is to empower participating artists, and to build and connect community in celebration of the ocean, the intersectional effects of climate change, and human & environmental interconnectedness, while introducing and advancing innovative contemporary art practices.
Siren Arts is a direct result of the success of Promised Land - Transformer’s 2014 pilot residency and exhibition in Asbury Park, NJ, which brought together twelve east coast based emerging visual artists to pursue creative research related to the city’s history and culture. Supported by a special curatorial grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, as well as Asbury Park Boardwalk Developer Madison Marquette, the Promised Land exhibition presented in the Asbury Park Boardwalk’s 5th Avenue Pavilion included a diverse variety of visual mediums including painting, video, installation, sculpture, performance art, sound art, and photography.
SIREN ARTS: STATES OF MATTER ARTISTS
Niki Afsar
(Washington, DC)
Artist Talk: Weds. July 15
Performance: Thurs. July 16
Photo by Niki Afsar
“My work has always been rooted in my myriad identities, including as an American-born Iranian, a queer person, and an agender person. My practice has been one of internal discovery, listening and responding to my intuition, voice, and body; as well as discovering my Iranian-ness as a person in the diaspora. This has involved relearning/returning to Farsi and drawing inspiration from Iranian, Southwest Asian, and Central Asian artistic practices. One of these practices is ayaneh-kari, the artisan mirror-work in Iranian art and architecture. In developing my practice, rather than cutting mirrors into shapes and designs, I have been experimenting with broken mirrors: how to arrange, sculpt, and hang shards while still creating the incandescent and mesmerizing effect of ayaneh-kari. I dream of creating my own mirrored, enshrined space that viewers can stand inside of and see themselves reflected back in all directions by hundreds of irregular yet cohesive shards. As a self-taught artist, I have experimented with adhering broken mirror pieces to materials like wood, glass, and screens. I’ve tried suspending mirrors from fishing-line to create a cascading effect.
My Siren Arts performance will involve an iteration of a mirrored piece, tied and netted together, that I will be able to drag behind me, move with, and pull on and over my body. I leave it to the audience to make their associations with yearning, longing and belonging, the fractures and destruction of revolution, war, and migration, and reconstructing light and beauty from the pieces we hold onto.”
Niki Afsar (they/them) is a nonbinary, Iranian-American interdisciplinary artist living and working in the Washington, DC area. Drawing influences from personal, familial, and cultural histories steeped in poetry and paradox, they experiment with a number of mediums including devised movement and performance; poetry and text; live singing and sound making; and mirror work. They have shown their work at Rhizome DC, Transformer, and Eye St Gallery, among others. These works have included visual art, performances, and facilitated events and workshops. They have received several artist residencies, including at Double Edge Theatre, Monson Gallery, the Nars Foundation, and the Kimmel-Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. In DC, they split their time between their practice, local organizing, and finding the sacred in the everyday. For more information visit:nikiafsar.com; Instagram: @neekeejoon.
Sara Kostić (NYC)
Artist Talk: Weds. July 22
Performance: Thurs. July 23
Photo by Bojana Janjic
“My practice operates at the intersection of performance art, installation, and architectural design, using the physical body as a vessel of spatial and political inquiry. Through site-specific performance, duration, and installation, I seek to activate the narratives embedded within local landscapes.
For Siren Arts, my new project explores how the human body interacts directly with the environment and landscape of Asbury Park. I am developing a site-specific project that explores human and environmental interconnections at the coastline. Grounded in Siren Arts' focus on the intersectional effects of climate change, the project investigates the ocean as both a physical border and a transformative space of ecological urgency. By connecting the endurance of the body with the shifting nature of the beach and ocean, the project will strive to map the delicate relationship between human-made structures and the natural world.”
Sara Kostić (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist working across performance, visual arts, and architecture. She holds an M.A. in Architectural Design from the University of Belgrade. Her artistic formation is rooted in Belgrade’s alternative dance and performance scene. Her work engages phenomenologies of the social, political, and physical body. She examines transformative relationships between borders and possibilities. Sara is active on the international performance art scene, having presented and performed at Venice International Performance Art Week (Italy), Biennale Mardin (Turkey), Grace Exhibition Space (New York), and many other venues. For more information visit: www.sarakostic.com; Instagram: @arbor_sara.
Jessica Desmond
(Asbury Park, NJ)
Artist Talk: Weds. July 29
Performance: Thurs. July 30
Photo by Sara Stadtmiller
Ode to Pachamama (Mother Nature) is a movement and meditation experience inspired by the wisdom of nature and our interconnectedness with all living things. Through dance, music, guided reflection, and sound healing, we gather on the shoreline to celebrate the elements that sustain us—the earth beneath our feet, the water that flows through us, the wind that carries our deepest thoughts, and the sun that gives life. Together we remember our place within the natural world and offer our gratitude to the sacred earth that holds us all.
Born in Colombia and adopted into a loving family, Jessica Desmond draws inspiration from both her South American roots and her upbringing in Asbury Park. She feels a deep connection to the Indigenous Muisca people of Colombia, whose culture honored the natural world, celebrated the Sun and Moon, and lived in harmony with the rhythms of the Earth. This reverence for nature continues to influence her work as an artist, dancer, and wellness practitioner. Growing up in Asbury Park, Jessica has dedicated much of her work to serving the local community through movement, meditation, wellness education, and healing-centered practices. Through performance, choreography, and holistic wellness, she strives to help others reconnect with themselves, each other, and the natural world—creating spaces where people can move, heal, and thrive. For more information visit: www.jessicadesmond.com; Instagram: @jessdesfit.
Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful
Espejo Ovalles Morel Atrib (NYC)
Artist Talk: Weds. August 5
Performance: Thurs. August 6
Photo by Sarah Ainslie
“For Siren Arts, I will co-create a circle by the ocean in Asbury Park, NJ, to open conversation with participants by the water, as it pertains to memories, the ecology, and spiritualities. This gathering stems from my experience co-hosting a Death and Dying circle for two years with healing Circles Global, and is inspired by my studies on Restorative Justice Circles with New York Peace Institute (NYPI), where I serve as a mediation volunteer.
I am a Lebanese-Dominican of Afro- and Euro-Caribbean heritage who has lived in New York City for almost four decades, and who treads a path that manifests itself through experiences where the quotidian and art overlap. Although my creative praxis is made up of individual and defined artworks, visually and conceptually speaking, I approach it as ONE single ‘piece’ that opens up into life and responds to the day-to-day as it comes in contact with peoples, places, communities and lived experiences. This transdisciplinary work is rooted in social concerns, and with a democratic approach like that taken by seminal figures in both visual arts and performance art with whom I have been closely involved as a student, mentee, or have collaborated with in some capacity: Linda Mary Montano, Martha Wilson, Annie Sprinkle, Elizabeth Stephens, Linda Sibio, and Coco Fusco to name a few. My work has also been informed by a strong personal interest in gender, immigration, cultural syncretism and my investigations of the subject of identity as it relates to the U.S.-American context from the perspective of a Lebanese-Dominican, Dominicanyork who in 2011 was baptized as a Bronxite: a citizen of the Bronx.”
Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel Atrib treads an elusive path that manifests itself through creative experiences that he helps unfold within the quotidian. He has exhibited or performed at Madrid Abierto/ARCO, The IX Havana Biennial, PERFORMA 05/07/21, IDENSITAT, Prague Quadrennial, Pontevedra Biennial, Queens Museum, MoMA, Printed Matter, P.S. 122, Sculpture Center, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance BAAD!, Hemispheric Institute of Performance Art and Politics, City as Living Laboratory, Princeton University, The Bee Friendly Trust, Anthology Film Archives, El Museo del Barrio, Center for Book Arts, Longwood Art Gallery/BCA, The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Franklin Furnace, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, among others. Nicolás has received mentorship in art in everyday life from Linda Mary Montano, a historic figure in the performance art field. For more information visit: https://www.interiorbeautysalon.com/ ; Instagram: @interiorbeautysalon
Raúl Romero (Philadelphia, PA)
Artist Talk: Weds. August 12
Performance: Thurs. August 13
Photo by Susan Romero
Presented as part of the States of Matter exhibition at Siren Arts, Romero will present a live performance that recontextualizes Francis Alÿs’ seminal 1997 work, Paradox of Praxis I (Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing). Where Alÿs originally pushed a heavy block of ice through the streets of Mexico City until it melted into a faint trail of water, Romero's iteration infuses the act with contemporary political urgency. By explicitly tying the physical block of ice to the acronym ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), the performance explores the chilling metaphors of institutional pressure, systemic erasure, and the melting away of human rights. As the block dissolves under the friction of the hot asphalt and the coastal air of Asbury Park, the act of ‘making something lead to nothing’ becomes a stark commentary on bureaucracy, borders, and the exhausting, invisible labor of survival within the diasporic experience.
Raúl Romero is a Philadelphia-based artist who combines sound and the environment in installations, sculptures, and other visual and sensorial experiences. Drawing on his Puerto Rican heritage, Romero uses material language to foster intercommunication between people and their surroundings. Romero's career is marked by notable honors, including being named a 2024 PEW Fellow in the Arts and receiving a Philadelphia City Council Resolution in recognition of Hispanic Heritage, underscoring his impactful contributions. Current exhibitions are on view at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in NYC and at Transformer’s Siren Arts exhibition space in Asbury Park, NJ. For more information visit: https://www.raulromero.com/; IG: @rauoool
Larissa Velez-Jackson (NYC)
Artist Talk: Weds. August 19
Performance: Thurs. August 20
Photo by Alex Escalante
“I come from a lower-income, working-class family in Newark, NJ, raised on my grandmother's stories from rural Puerto Rico. These were my first encounters with notions of deep spiritual devotion and our family’s psychic abilities, which to me were my Puerto Rican birthright. My commitment to improvisational practice is my way of activating my inherited intuition, of creating my own rituals of healing, and telling my stories and those of my collaborators’ that are often erased by the dominant White patriarchal system. The formality of my work reflects a purposeful ritual timing that represents my way of thriving amidst life-threatening illness and disability.
I direct my works using absurdity and an openness to failure in order to find freedom, question norms, uncover deeper meanings, experience delight and as a practice of body inclusivity (particularly around illness, injury, age and disability). My performance for Siren Arts will be the first ever live encounter with Dr. Absurd Joy, my YouTube ASMR alter ego and facilitator of community care on the internet, joined by their assistant Captain Jon. The work blends absurdist beach ritual with actual sound healing techniques (of which I am certified), as I ‘prescribe’ simple dance choreographies from my disability practice to volunteer audience members for entertainment and healing. Together we will experience an immersive theater work unfold, one that is allowed to be silly, revelatory, possibly profound and truly whatever it desires to be.”
Larissa Velez-Jackson (LVJ) (she/they) is a NY-based choreographer, movement educator and creator of their original performance practice called Star Pû Method (f.k.a. Star Crap Method) and is a co-creator of the band Yackez with their husband Jon Velez-Jackson. Called “an adroit physical comedian” who “seems to be questioning entrenched conventions of contemporary performance” in The New York Times, LVJ’s interdisciplinary work blends movement, sound, storytelling and intergenerational community practice. As an ongoing cancer survivor, LVJ’s work now incorporates disability practice and advocacy. They launched an ongoing multimedia community care project called Dr. Absurd Joy ASMR, available for free on YouTube. For more information visit: www.larissa-velez-jackson.com; Instagram: @lareesa_lvj, @dr.absurdjoy_asmr, @yackez_newyork.
Siren Arts:
STATES OF MATTER
10th annual Summer Artist Residency Program & Public Performance Art Series
featuring an exhibition by Raúl Romero
Exhibition by Raúl Romero:
June 20 - September 5, 2026
Community Open House: Sat. June 20, 2026 | 12 - 6PM
Meet the Artist Reception: 4 - 6 PM
Siren Arts Exhibition Space:
Asbury Ocean Club / Corner of 4th Ave & Kingsley St, Asbury Park, NJ
Exhibition Hours: Wednesday - Saturday | 12 - 6 PM
See below for performance ART SERIES
& residency information!
EXHIBITION MEDIA:
PRESS RELEASE
POSTCARD
PRICE LIST
Transformer’s Siren Arts program is honored to announce States of Matter, a sound & sculptural installation by Philadelphia based artist Raúl Romero. This conceptual, site-specific exhibition by Raúl Romero is also the inspiration for Siren Arts’ 10th Annual Summer Artist Residency Program & Public Performance Art Series, featuring Wednesday evening artist talks at Siren Arts, with Thursday evening performance art events on Asbury Park’s 2nd Avenue Beach July 15 – August 20, 2026.
Rooted in artist Raúl Romero’s identity as a Puerto Rican living on the mainland USA, his comprehensive and evolving States of Matter exhibition at Siren Arts explores how culture and language traverse the very water that both separates and connects the island to the mainland. From the historical, resistant rhythms of Bomba to the global sonic dominance of Bad Bunny, culture undergoes its own states of matter: evaporating from one shore to condense, transform, and reshape the landscape of another.
Utilizing audio recordings captured from the Atlantic Ocean along the coastlines of Asbury Park and Ocean Grove, in addition to studio recordings of ice melting, Romero constructs a series of ‘sound pictures’. These auditory landscapes serve to illuminate what is happening beneath the surface, giving voice and light to the historically unseen and unheard narratives of migration. The ocean is recontextualized not merely as a geographic barrier, but as a vast archive of movement, memory, and continuous transition.
The physical centerpiece of the exhibition features custom, hand-hammered copper reflecting pools filled with water. Activated by transducers, these vessels are resonated with low-frequency audio from Bomba music recordings and oceanic sound. As acoustic frequencies pass through the metal, they manifest as physical ripples and standing-wave patterns on the water's surface—offering a striking visual translation of sound while embodying the literal transmission of energy through a fluid medium. Visible after dark through Siren Arts expansive corner window facade, a large-scale video projection transforms the space into a public beacon. This component draws upon the ancient practice of using still reflecting pools as flat, liquid mirrors to precisely chart the night sky and map the cosmos.
In maritime history, this relationship is inverted: sailors look up at the stars to chart their course across the open, dark expanse of the sea. By casting moving imagery through the glass, the projection bridges these two forms of navigation. The gallery windows become an active horizon line where the night sky, the interior copper pools, and the nearby Atlantic Ocean collapse into one another. It speaks directly to the diasporic experience of finding one’s way across open water, guided by a shared celestial canopy that spans both the island of Puerto Rico and the mainland.
Exploring the physical properties of water as a metaphor for the diasporic body, Romero’s conceptual prompt is also inspiration for Siren Arts’ States of Matter summer artist residency, with public performance art events by US east coast based immigrant and 1st generation US artists being presented Thursday evenings July 16 –August 20, 2026 on Asbury Park’s 2nd Avenue Beach. Just as water shifts form—moving fluidly between liquid, solid, and gas while retaining its core molecular identity— these artists navigate geographic, linguistic, and political shifts while preserving and expanding their diasporic cultural essences
Raúl Romero Artist Talk: Wednesday, August 12, 6pm
Raúl Romero Performance: Thursday, August 13, 7pm
As part of States of Matter, Siren’s Arts’10th Annual Artist Residency Program & Performance Art Series, Romero will present a live performance that recontextualizes Francis Alÿs’ seminal 1997 work, Paradox of Praxis I (Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing). Where Alÿs originally pushed a heavy block of ice through the streets of Mexico City until it melted into a faint trail of water, Romero's iteration infuses the act with contemporary political urgency. By explicitly tying the physical block of ice to the acronym ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), the performance explores the chilling metaphors of institutional pressure, systemic erasure, and the melting away of human rights. As the block dissolves under the friction of the hot asphalt and the coastal air of Asbury Park, the act of "making something lead to nothing" becomes a stark commentary on bureaucracy, borders, and the exhausting, invisible labor of survival within the diasporic experience.
About Raúl Romero: Raúl Romero is a Philadelphia-based artist who combines sound and the environment in installations, sculptures, and other visual and sensorial experiences. Drawing on his Puerto Rican heritage, Romero uses material language to foster intercommunication between people and their surroundings. Romero's career is marked by notable honors, including being named a 2024 PEW Fellow in the Arts and receiving a Philadelphia City Council Resolution in recognition of Hispanic Heritage, underscoring his impactful contributions. In the summer of 2026, he will present commissioned artwork that activates Roberto Clemente Park for Art Philly's What Now festival. In the spring of 2027, he will present a public sound monument for the project, Birdsong, a citywide exhibition with Monument Lab, curated by Yolanda Wisher.
States of Matter Exhibition Hours: Wednesday - Saturday, 12 – 6 PM. Image Credit: Raúl Romero.