Richie Shazam has long been a fixture of the New York creative vanguard, a presence defined by fluidity and a certain kinetic energy. With her debut solo exhibition, *I Was Never Meant to Survive This*, currently showing at the McLennon Penn Co. gallery in Austin, Texas, Shazam moves beyond the ephemeral nature of performance into a more permanent, material exploration of selfhood. The show is an exercise in radical visibility, arriving at a moment when the identities she embodies—trans, immigrant, Guyanese-American—are increasingly contested in the American public square.
The exhibition comprises 39 works that blur the lines between photography, sculpture, and set design. Shazam treats her own body as both subject and substrate, integrating it with found objects, floral arrangements, and human hair. This tactile approach suggests that identity is not merely a social construct but a physical accretion—a collection of materials gathered and repurposed over time. By placing herself at the center of the gaze, Shazam transforms the act of being seen from a vulnerability into a deliberate, sculptural statement.
Choosing Austin for this debut adds a layer of geographical tension to the work. Against a backdrop of legislative efforts targeting trans and immigrant communities, Shazam’s presence in Texas feels less like a provocation and more like an act of quiet resilience. The exhibition serves as a bridge between her supportive community in New York and a broader, more complicated national landscape. It is an invitation into a world where survival is not just an outcome, but a creative process.
With reporting from i-D.
Source · i-D
