Camille Cooper: SHOWPIECE

From pinned moths to a praying mantis encased in glass, Camille Cooper’s SHOWPIECE presents a robust entomological showroom complete with display tables and scientific labels. A puppeteer, multidisciplinary artist, and self-identified transsexual, Cooper has meticulously crafted each insect out of “transgender ephemera,” including Hormone Replacement Therapy packaging and prescription papers collected from his community. Through this use of material, Cooper celebrates gender variance while drawing a comparison between society’s treatment of trans people and the way we regard bugs, challenging notions of disgust and visibility. Cooper deconstructs the semiotics of entomology departments at natural history museums, sharply critiquing their methods of display; being pinned and kept under glass becomes a metaphor for the ways in which trans people are rendered hyper-visible. He finds resonances between the life cycles and metamorphic processes of these insects and the lived experiences of trans people. For example, Cooper finds affinity in the cockroach’s proclivity for community, noting that they band together and exhibit collective decision-making. Their sociality represents the trans community’s care for one another and ability to build chosen family, as the otherwise treacherous roaches transform into affectionate, social beings.  

Public Program: Meet the Artist on Sunday, October 4 at 3PM.

Organized by Curator of Visual Arts Rachel Raphaela Gugelberger, the Sunroom Project Space is an open call opportunity for emerging, New York-area artists to develop and exhibit a site-specific project as a solo exhibition. The 2026 applications were reviewed by a panel of arts professionals including Klaudia Ofwona Draber, a curator, Strategy Consultant, Director of Programs at Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, and founder of KODA—a social practice residency for mid-career artists; artist Magdalena Dukiewicz (2025 Sunroom Project Space), whose practice is rooted in processes and materials that explore the intersections of the organic and industrial materials; and Gugelberger.