Ayana Evans: Nobody’s Gonna Love You the Way I Do

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM) presents a newly-commissioned performance and a community-centered event in conjunction with Ayana Evans’s first survey exhibition, Nobody’s Gonna Love You the Way I Do.

Sparkle #8 Performance Premiere: Friday, October 9, 6-7pm CST. Register here
C.R.E.A.M. Fair: Saturday, October 10, 10am–3pm CST. Register here
Both events are free and open to the public

Ayana Evans’s performances are vehicles through which she explores and challenges how economic status, race, gender, and sex structure broader sociopolitical attitudes. Evans was mentored by the inimitable artist Lorraine O’Grady and over the past two decades, she has established an unapologetic and emotionally invigorating voice as a performance artist. Whether she’s orchestrating intimate or collective experiences, or inviting audiences into her process, Evans’s work is accessible and humorous, provocative and profound. Her approach is deeply improvisatory and, ultimately, therapeutic.

Sparkle #8 builds upon recent performances in Venice and Montreal. When performing live, Evans often assigns individual and collective tasks that turn audience members from viewers into participants, creating a shared experience that speaks to pressing concerns. “I hope people leave feeling like they participated in something instead of just observing it,” says Evans. “Even if it’s brief. Even if it feels strange. If people leave feeling a little less separate from each other, then that’s enough.”

The C.R.E.A.M. Fair is a serial, community-centered event that’s part-block party and part-opportunity fair. Named for the Wu-Tang Clan’s song “C.R.E.A.M.” (Cash Rules Everything Around Me), this event connects community members—including artists, students, job seekers, queer folks, prison-affected individuals, and more—with free resources, entertainment, and supportive services provided by local individuals and organizations. 

Nobody’s Gonna Love You the Way I Do celebrates Evans’s longstanding dedication to performance and live arts by bringing together documentation of recent and past works with ephemera and new performance commissions. The exhibition, curated by Ferring Foundation Chief Curator Dean Daderko with support from Grace Early, Exhibitions Assistant, is on view at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis through February 7, 2027; it is generously supported in part by Shereen and Michael Fischer, Pat Whitaker and Dick Miles, and Whitaker Foundation. Sparkle #8 is generously supported in part by Alison and Sam Foxman. The C.R.E.A.M. Fair is generously supported in part by Jenny Birgé and Alison and Sam Foxman.

Concurrent exhibitions on view at CAM include
Great Rivers Biennial 2026: Vaughn Terrell Davis Jr., Lauren dela Roche, and Vincent Stemmler
CAM x Counterpublic: Tony Cokes
CAM x Counterpublic: Juanita McNeely

For more information, visit camstl.org