WILLARD MORGAN - WRITER & PERFORMER

Willard Morgan is a New York performance artist, actor and filmmaker. Creating visually striking personas for the stage with word, music and performance, he also produces provocative music videos and films that explore his inner obsessions, as well as the trends and issues of the day.

In 2005, Morgan founded Ideal Glass, an art studio located in the heart of the East Village. His team creates multimedia live performance and video in collaboration with national and international guest artists. Front man of Ideal Orkestra, a kinetic international band with a highly theatrical bent, Morgan created the solo rock shows Saint Hollywood based on the lives of the denizens of the Boulevard, and Jelvis (the Jewish Elvis), a comedy parody act performed at New York City venues (B.B. King’s, The Highline, The Cutting Room), in Los Angeles (Genghis Cohen, The Comedy Store, M Bar,  and The Three of Clubs) and in Paris (La Scala and Regine’s). His latest production, Vestiphobia, was developed at fringe fashion festivals internationally.

Morgan has a long history with Cuba. In February 2017, he and his production team brought Vestiphobia to the Fabrica de Arte Cubano, Cuba’s renowned arts venue. Collaborating with over thirty Cuban actors, dancers, models, designers, and choreographers, he presented one of the largest coproductions undertaken by a Cuban – American production. The performance featured live performance and films related to fashion, as well as workshops in which sustainable clothing was manufactured and ultimately used in fashion shows at the venue. Morgan is Vestiphobia’s Executive Producer and performer.

RUCO NISHINO - PERFORMER & SINGER
Ruco is an R&B singer/song writer born in Sapporo, Japan. She grew up listening to Soul and R&B music with the influence from her parents' record collection. At 19 she enrolled in LAMA (Los Angles Music Academy) to study singing and vocal technique. After graduating from LAMA she moved back to Tokyo, Japan to write and record with major and indie record labels, and also to record for her own career. To further her solo career she moved to New York City where she currently resides. Singing lead vocals with Days of Wild, led by former Sly and the Family Stone drummer Papa Guyocious, and doing back up vocals for Ideal Orkestra. While in NYC she has recorded two music videos which have been aired on television in Europe and Japan.

UTA BEKAIA - DESIGNER

Uta Bekaia is a Georgian born (1974) multimedia artist currently residing and working in New York and Tbilisi. He had studied Industrial Design at Tbilisi Mtsire Academy. He debuted as an artist at AMA (Avant-Guard Fashion Assembly) with a sculptural performance. He creates performances and installations inhabited with wearable sculptures, exploring his historical cultural background, genetical codes and cycles of the universe. Currently he is a resident artist at ART OMI, New York, and in partnership with ERTI Gallery , Tbilisi.

As Bekaia + Mindiashvili , he has collaborated with Levan Mindiashvili on several projects, including “Night Intervention” at State Silk Museum, Tbilisi (Goergia) and “Unintended Archeology” at The Lodge Gallery, NYC. Among his exhibitions are Kiev 2nd Biennial, ArtIsterium 2015, Popiashvili Gvaberidze Window Project, The Vasquez Building, Brooklyn; His current performance pieces are “41o” Art Villa Garikula; Tbilisoba Festival; “Vestiphobia”, Ideal Glass, New York; “Fua Sia Tata Sia”, The Movement Theater, “Berikaoba” for Tbilisi; Tbilisi City Parade.

Uta Bekaia engages multiple artistic mediums, creating wearable sculptures, performances, and videos, where the borders between the disciplines are blurred, and the cultural references are synthesized in his own, personalized vision. With the background in fashion and costume making in the beginning of his career, Bekaia transformed these mediums into the main means, to approach human body and fully emerge into performances. Inspired by ancient mythology, fairy tales, Italian Baroque, and Georgian Dada, Bekaia with his exuberant, sculptural costumes, reinvents and re-stages long lost, never-before-documented rituals. Believing in genetical transferability of communal memory, Bekaia attempts to re-connect with the ancient knowledge and impregnate it with his own experiences and new meaning.