Bivy

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Bivy is a relational art gallery centered on cross-disciplinary parity and participation. Bivy is open by appointment only. Closed the week prior to openings.

Open 5-9PM in occasion of the openings. Due to COVID-19 visits are one-by-one or members from the same household can visit together. Bivy is a contemporary art gallery founded by Simonetta Mignano in 2017 in Anchorage, Alaska, on the land of the Dena’ina. Bivy juxtaposes conceptual art and craft, through exhibitions, performances and participatory practices. Bivy establishes collaborations with the represented artists based on genuine creative endeavors, relations, continuity and process, beyond commercial purposes and binding contracts. Bivy also hosts a very small bookstore dedicated to artists’ books, zines and ephemera by artists and makers. In 2020 Bivy launched the School of Nonfunctional Studies (SNS), an open, informal and experimental school project, based upon the belief that meaning is not founded in output or productivity or ‘function’ as it is situated in capitalist culture, but that meaning and purpose is actually founded in what is nonfunctional in a capitalist society: interaction, presence, process, and awareness. PS: We do not read messages on Facebook frequently. Please write us at [email protected].

24/03/2026

Thank you to everyone who supported Bivy by participating in ESTATE SALE, our performative fundraiser, or by contributing to our online campaign. With your support we reached our goal.

Special thanks to some of the artists in the exhibition who shared their work and practice during the event: Amy Meissner, Alanna DeRocchi, Sally Carr, and Susan Joy Share.

We’re grateful for your support—truly, thank you for showing up for Bivy.

09/02/2026

Join us on Thursday, February 12 at 6:30 PM for “Extr/activism: Claiming the Possibilities of the Present Moment” a performative lecture by Michael R. Allen followed by an open discussion.

The liberatory potential of the early 21st century lies beyond the defeat of a conglomeration of late stage capitalism as technofascism, statecraft as carbon and mineral extractivist imperialism, economics as debt and death accelerationism and political imagination as survivalist identitarianism. From Venezuela to Gaza, Ohio to Alaska, Serbia to Ukraine – the problems are louder than the solutions. Meandering through critical theory and current events, invited dreaming and political satire, this performative lecture aims to announce new claims on the future that could revive dormant collectivism and break the human systems blockage. The old world is shattered but we wanted it broken. Why are we waiting to claim the present as ours? We may have nothing to lose except our loss.

Dr. Allen is a historian, writer and activist currently living in Morgantown, West Virginia.

This event is free. RSVP is appreciated but not required.

06/02/2026

Join us tomorrow, February 6, 5-9 PM for the opening of “We Are Going to Build a House,” a group exhibition with Sally Carr, Stephen Cysewski, Alanna DeRocchi, Cecilia Karoly-Lister, Young Kim, Amy Meissner, Susan Joy Share, j. Reto & art students from the University Alaska Anchorage Anthony Capala, Angie Dickinson, Joseph Glazener, Heejeong Kim Forbes, September Sell, Haylie Travis, Pearl Turney and Amber Williams.

We Are Going to Build a House is a group exhibition, a temporary home (a house party?), a gallery that once was an apartment. This exhibition is a full house indeed; it brings together paintings, sculptures, textiles, photography and works on paper by Anchorage-based artists.

The title is inspired by an excerpt of Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space (1975):
“Sometimes the house of the future is better built, lighter, and larger than all the houses of the past, so that the image of the dream house is opposed to that of the childhood home. Late in life, with indomitable courage, we continue to say that we are going to do what we have not yet done: we are going to build a house. This dream house may be merely a dream of ownership, the embodiment of everything that is considered convenient, comfortable, healthy, sound, and desirable by other people… Maybe it is a good thing for us to keep a few dreams of a house that we shall live in later, always later, so much later, in fact, that we shall not have time to achieve it… It is better to live in a state of impermanence than in one of finality.”

The exhibition is open until March 21, 2026. Bivy is open every first Friday of the month 5-9 PM, Saturdays 1-4 PM and by appointment.

Images: Something Borrowed, Sally Carr, 2026; The Guardian, Young Kim, 2021.

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02/01/2026

Today, Friday, January 2, from 5–9 PM, join us at Bivy for our first opening of 2026. On view is “When I waked, I cried to dream again,” featuring works by Alanna DeRocchi, Stephen Cysewski, and Guido Segni.

We also have a limited number of Bivy’s 2026 Fortune Scratchers available, along with Verso’s Radical Diary and Weekly Planner.

Images: Unheld, Alanna DeRocchi, ceramic, 2025; untitled photograph, Stephen Cysewski, archival pigment print, 1970s; Demand Full Laziness, A Five Year Plan 2018–2023, Guido Segni, still from video, 2018–2023.

31/12/2025

Dear all,

Wishing you a Happy New Year. And to everyone who has supported Bivy since it reopened, thank you. It means everything.

Bivy is a totally independent project, and through the years we have gone to great lengths to sustain its program of exhibitions, performances, and events, alongside artists we are grateful to work with.

We are also heartened by the many artists who continue to reach out to us and wish to work with Bivy, we deeply appreciate their encouragement and trust.

We look forward to continuing working with and for you in the year ahead.

This Friday, January 2, 2026 from 5-9 PM we are open with the exhibition “When I waked, I cried to dream again” with works by Alanna DeRocchi, Stephen Cysewski and Guido Segni.

The images are a series of Bivy’s fortune scratchers we made for 2026 and they are available at the gallery.

08/12/2025

I am grateful to have received an Individual Artist Award from the Rasmuson Foundation in support of my curatorial practice at Bivy.

This award is inherently communal: it exists through the artists, audiences, and communities it supports, whose work and presence give Bivy its life.

As my first time applying, I am thankful that the independent work I did during Bivy’s first iteration (2017–2022) has been recognized and that this award will help take Bivy’s practice into its next chapter.

(1) Portrait by Anna Morosini.
(2) How to fold a fitted sheet by Hollis Mickey, Bivy, June 2018
(3) A note upon the ‘Mystic Writing Pad’ by Emma Sheffer, Bivy, February 2019
(4) Doing Doing, Susan Joy Share, Bivy, August - October 2019
(5) WORK / WEAR, group exhibition with Amy Meissner, Guido Segni, Karen Lowell, Hollis Mickey, and Juan Sandoval, Bivy, November - January 2020
(6) Using feelings to get rid of feeling VII, A Constructed World, with the participation of local performers and music direction by Quinn Christopherson, March - October 2020
(7) HOUSE PIECE, Olena Kalytiak Davis, Bivy, August 2020 - April 2021
(8) Rain Makes Little Lakes, with Indra Arriaga, Susan Joy Share, Olena Kalytiak Davis, Scott McDonald, Jimmy Riordan, Alicja Katchikian, and Zinc Comics, Bivy, August - September 2021
(9) S**t Must Stop Forever, “Chew gum and wear pearls,” on loan by Sean Licka, Bivy, June - July 2022
(10) Gathering on the roof of Bivy, last event after moving out of the building, July 2022
(11) OK Artissima, A Constructed World, Artissima, Art Fair, November 2022

18/11/2025

On Saturday, November 22 at 6:00 PM, join us for Garden Room, a playful movement piece performed by Susan Joy Share and Molissa Udevitz.

In this ~15-minute performance, Share engages with pieces from her exhibition The Value of Goods, in collaboration with Udevitz. The event includes an exhibition-inspired appetizer. Participation is limited to 25 guests due to the intimate setting, with a suggested $15 donation that includes an ephemeral artwork by the artist.

Please RSVP by replying to this newsletter or DM. Only a few spots remain.

The Value of Goods by Susan Joy Share is on view through Saturday, November 29, 2025. On closing day, Bivy will be open with extended hours from 1–6 PM.

12/11/2025

From last Friday’s ANC Zine Fair Little Library at the IGCA Annex, a pre-fair display and reading room featuring local zines from the 1980s to the present—most of the collection came from the Alaska Bookmobile.

Thanks to everyone who came by, and to the IGCA for generously opening their space for the event.

Zine Team: Jimmy, Joe, Julia, Leah, Meneka, Simonetta and Young.

Photos by Young Kim ().

05/11/2025

This Saturday, November 8, 12-6 PM there is the 2025 ANC Zine Fair () at The Nave () in Spenard! It’s a free and family friendly event.

Since 2019, Bivy has happily supported the ANC Zine Fair, a community-driven and grassroots gathering of zine-makers, independent publishers and activists—lots of which are really young!

The 2025 ANC Zine Fair design is by Shoko Takahashi ().

This year’s fair was made possible with the support of Out North (), the Alaska State Council on the Arts, an MOA Mayor’s Arts Grant, The Nave, the Alaska Bookmobile () and Bivy.

ANC Zine Fair team: Julia Bedell (), Joe Besl, Young Kim (), Simonetta Mignano () Leah Moss (), Jimmy Riordan () and Meneka Thiru ().

Photos of the 2024 ANC Zine Fair by Mike Conti ().

01/11/2025

A little visit to Bivy last night. 🎃

The current exhibition, The Value of Goods by Susan Joy Share, is on view until November 29, 2025. Open Saturdays 1-4 PM or by appointment.

Photo by Olena Kalytiak Davis.
Artwork hanging from the ceiling: Shell Book, Susan Joy Share, 1982.

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http://www.bivy.space/

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