SN37 and Google are back with the sixth season of Creator Labs. The program is a visual arts incubator that supports photographers and directors in the generation of content, grounded in social impact & cultural narrative – photographed on Google Pixel. Twice a year, Creator Labs introduces a new iteration of their program, inviting artists to create work around a unifying thematic prompt.

The new season introduces a series of new artists, and welcomes back a collection of Creator Lab veterans. Shikeith, Micaiah Carter, Coyote Park, Neva Wireko, Zamar Velez, Andy Jackson, Myesha Evon Gardner, Chiara Gabellini, Adrian Octavius Walker, and Lawrence Agyei bring new life to season six.  Andre D. Wagner, Kennedi Carter, Mayan Toledano, Anthony Prince Leslie, Aidan Cullen, Myles Loftin, Pegah Farahmand,  Texas Isaiah, Tim Kellner, Natalia Mantini, MaryV, Glassface, and June Canedo make their return to Creator Labs to show new bodies of work. Each artist brings about deeply personal conflicts, and explores wider social issues through their lens.

Themes of LGBTQAI+ issues, blackness, family values, and community play big roles in the different works for the new season. Artists such as Shikeith and Loftin explore the complexities of being black and queer.

Cullen, Velez, Wagner, Gardner, Gabellini, Walker, and Agyei look to surrounding communities for their inspiration. From California to the Brook Branch Skating Center each community tells a different story. Whether it’s highlighting the resilience of the community, or sharing the light of youth, each project promotes themes of social change.

Carter, Mantini, and Jackson focus on family values for their works. Through a series of images, Carter and Mantini express that family is not always blood. We chose which people come into our lives that we regard as family. Whether it’s a pet, a friend, or a community of people, family comes in a variety of different ways. Carter takes a different approach and turns the camera on herself as she documents her journey with motherhood. She documents intimate black and white images of herself pregnant with her lover and gives viewers a look into the journey of becoming a mother.

Isaiah, Park, and Toledano focus on the LGBTQAI+ issues for their respective pieces. Isaiah focuses trans-identifying rapper “Miss Boogie” to highlight the relationship that Black trans people have with their families. Park looks to find a “queer utopia” and dives into their “shapeshifting” abilities as they explore the different representations of their identity. Finally, Toledano focuses on the dynamic communities that are living in Mexico City’s LGBTQAI+ art capital.

Leslie, Carter, MaryV, and Wireko draw their attention to single subjects. Leslie focuses on his own identity and fashion and takes self-portraits for his new project. MaryV follows suits with a series of portraits that show her aging. Carter focuses his attention on British-Nigerian musician Oyinda. Oyinda serves as the muse of various fashion designers, such as Telfar, and becomes the main subject for Carter’s season six presentation. Wireko “transforms the material world into fantasy,… [and] challenge traditional narratives [to] allow the viewer to consider the existence of subjects and settings projected towards the future of a new world,” through a series of portraits.

For the final batch of creators, Farahmand, Kellner, and Canendo look to nature and abstract ideologies to discuss different issues that face the world today.

The sixth season of the Creator Labs project encapsulates a variety of topics that the world faces today. Each artist takes their subjects and presents them in varying lights to create an eclectic, and diverse grouping of projects.

The gallery show runs from May 20 through June 12. An opening reception will be held at the Seaport in New York City on May 20 from 5-10PM.