12/03/2025
Join Jax Neal at Lawndale Art center for the debut of “7 Days in December” from December 7 - 13 in the John M O’Quinn Gallery. During this durational performance, Neal will lie down in a running shower for 6 hours each day. The gallery hours will shift to be 11 AM - 5 PM from Sunday-Saturday of that week.
In the words of Neal:
“The shower is the place we go to take the rain, to be drained of what we know, and what we wear, what we fear, and what we believe, and to see what is left of us when it’s all been washed away.
“The performance is not just the shower, it is also the end of the day, when the faucet turns off, and that lights go away, and the artist gets up, dries off, goes home, and comes back to do it the next day.
“Artists are known to make, to do, and for me, to move. But in this work I want to do the opposite. To sit down, to undo, to remove. And look at what is left.”
Jax Neal is a multidisciplinary poet, choreographer, and performance artist currently based in Los Angeles, California. Born in Houston, Texas, Neal grew up writing and performing with Meta-Four Houston, an internationally-acclaimed poetry slam collective. Neal now creates hybrid Gesamtkunstwerk, incorporating performance art, physical theater, poetry, and dance, often combining vulnerable storytelling with highly physical tests of endurance.
Please note: gallery hours will be Sunday, December 7 – Saturday, December 13 from 11 AM – 5 PM. Free & open to the public
The shower, fabricated by Matt Fries of Moon Papas, is a stage prop which cycles water in a closed loop system.
This project is funded in partnership with the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts
Images courtesy of the artist, image stills of Jax Neal performing “The Obligations,” 2023
