One Night Only With Richie Shazam’s “I Was Never Meant To Survive This”
In April, we gathered for one night only within Richie Shazam’s “I Was Never Meant To Survive This” for a site-specific performance of ILOVEYOU by Austin artist and icon María.
Thank you to our long-time collaborators McLennon Pen Co. for the invitation and guided tour! Austin was truly lucky to host this ground-breaking debut collection of Richie Shazam’s mixed media works.
ENJOY THE VISUAL RECAP.
All photos by Sarah Bork
BEHIND THE SHOW
“I Was Never Meant To Survive This”
Richie Shazam’s debut solo exhibition in Austin presents a new series of self-portraits exploring identity as a continual state of becoming and means of survival. Across seven characters Shazam, like a modern La Castiglione, transforms herself to examine shifting perceptions, memory, and the dualities of existence—where dreamscapes and disruptions collide.
Each character was shot within the confines of an eight-by-ten-foot wooden box complete with seven unique sets, costumes, hair, make-up and prosthetics. The result is seven tableaux each occupying a domestic interior, forming an immersive environment that reflects the character's self-constructed world. Richie is a collector, she stockpiles and accumulates things, scraps and ideas which go on to adorn her future work. Flowers, objects, hair and ornaments spill out of the wooden frame, which eventually broke down as a result of constant creation, renovation and demolition within it.
The pieces function as a study in survival, an intimate psychological landscape shaped by a relentless quest to create images of our deeply ingrained inner worlds. A soft violence of memory runs throughout, revealing the complexities of how memory operates and how experience imprints itself onto the body. Here, the flesh is divine—a site of reclamation and consciousness regained.
Novelist Garth Greenwell said “the history of queer art is taking stigma and turning it into style” and for Richie, what began as a trauma response becomes an act of authorship. By situating each scene within a different room of the home, Richie completes what is often a final step in trauma therapy—visiting the site of harm. Through the construction of a singular idea across multiple selves, Richie reclaims her own story, her choice of space, and her ongoing states of becoming.
The work reflects experiences that Richie should never have had to endure and therefore these are portraits she should never have had to make. But what choice did she have? In Audre Lorde’s A Litany for Survival she remarks “but when we are silent / we are still afraid // So it is better to speak / remembering / we were never meant to survive”. This show, these characters, their frame and Richie herself exist against erasure, asserting presence through ownership of flesh, form, and narrative.
Richie Shazam (@richieshazam)
Richie Shazam is an artist who was born and lives in New York City. After graduating from Trinity College she entered the fine art space working in galleries and museums with a focus on curation. She started to model which led to a full immersion in the fashion world where she eventually began working on both sides of the camera, shooting a variety of campaigns, celebrities and magazine covers. Unsatiated still, she turned the lens on herself creating a book of self portraits titled Shazam. The process's creative fulfillment and commercial success inspired Richie to take the concept a step further, using new mediums like sculpture, set design, and an expansive array of photographic techniques to build physical worlds. To manifest her fullest vision, Richie created Shazam Studios, a collective of creatives that turn dreams into physical realities creating a portal for all who wish to join Richie in the construction of self.
María Rivera Felizardo
María Rivera Felizardo es una performista electrónica, DJ y mujer Trans inmigrante Mexicana. María is more widely known for her multimedia project “p1nkstar” in which she embodies an electronic pop superstar to build utopic horizons for trans+ communities through music, art, nightlife experiences and social media. Now touring internationally, Maria is the first Trans person to receive an Austin Music Award and has received 3 Best of Austin awards for her work in art and nightlife.
Through her ILOVEYOU performance series, María uses drag to build experimental multimedia performances exploring experiences growing up queer in a Mexican city led by conservative Catholic values and infested by drug cartel violence.
As a project based in improvisational practices, every ILOVEYOU performance becomes audience-specific and site-specific. In past performances, María usually strips down from large sculptural costuming to undergarments, all while using electronic music equipment to process her vocals into new voices and create sonic landscapes. Simultaneously, María will throw down on DJ decks, dance, perform her teenage poetry or lipsync to pop songs to create a deconstructed narrative. A standard ILOVEYOU performance lands somewhere between drag, sound art, live punk music performance and strip-tease.
McLennon Pen Co. Gallery
McLennon Pen Co. is located at 1114 W 5th St #202, Austin, TX 78703. McLennon Pen Co. Gallery was founded by Jill McLennon in March 2023 with a commitment of showcasing the work of emerging and internationally established artists. The gallery aims to present contemporary art that is exciting, poetic, and emblematic of the times, while also placing the work within a historical context.
In June 2025, the gallery expanded from its original East Austin house gallery into a new 2,300 square foot commercial location at 1114 W 5th Street, at the gateway to Clarksville and Old West Austin.
Prior to relocating to Austin, McLennon spent thirteen years working in New York City for globally renowned commercial art galleries and auction houses in placing contemporary artwork in private and public collections, curating exhibitions, and supporting some of today’s most esteemed living artists in their career development.
The name of the gallery has been passed down from McLennon's grandfather who established a luxury pen shop in downtown Chicago that originally opened in 1934.
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