2026 Treat a Stranger Grant Recipient

Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) (b. 1989), widely known by the moniker Puppies Puppies, expands ideas around the readymade by imbuing ubiquitous and everyday objects, signifiers, and actions with a personal and political charge. She has, for example, reconfigured antibacterial gel dispensers, toilet bowl liquid, the color green, as well as the acts of sleeping, peeing, and taking a pill in installations and performances that challenge ableist frameworks of artistic and capitalist production. Many of Puppies Puppies’s exhibitions have also included actionable components: a GoFundMe campaign to support a friend’s transition fund, free HIV testing and counseling, and a working shower available for use by the public. Kuriki-Olivo thus asserts that life can be viewed as its own form of endurance practice, especially for those whose very survival is at stake, including trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people of color. (written by curator Vivian Crockett) 

I’ve had facial feminization surgery and breast augmentation in the past year and a half. I had to stop my art career to fundraise and heal post surgery. I needed these gender affirming procedures to survive as a trans woman of color. I got behind on my rent and bills during this process. I rely on art to survive and get the gender affirming care I need because my insurance doesn’t cover it. This grant helps me climb out of the hole of debt these surgeries and time off work has put me. I’m so grateful there are people looking out for me. It feels so radical in this time to care for our people. It conjures the radical nature of John Giorno and continues his legacy on the most beautiful way.

GoFundMe link here (the surgery happened but this GoFundMe is still assisting me in the debt accrued)