Bagarre dans les gradins
Chicago was a gigantic mega success. The Chcago Art Institute bought my video installation The White to be Angry and will be screening it till April 26th. I was invited to give a lecturina and presented No One Leaves Delilah. I never do anything the same way twice so for this iteration I didn’t take to the stage until after 15 minutes of a slide show which had many in the audience rumbling.
I was introduced by David Egeland the Society for Contemporary Art’s President and Solveig Nelson the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow in Time-Based Media.
The Fremont Hall in the Art Institute was packed with 500+ in attendance including my old pals from HomoCore Chicago Joanna Brown, and her girlfriend Caroline and Mark “Ears” Frietas of Spectra Sonic Records, along with sexy Circus Trainer extroidinaire Tera McBlaine, my hot and humpy ex student Stevie Hanley who is now the midwests leading musclebound art schtar, Albina Manning of VTape, David Getsy who is a studly professor at the School of the Art Institute, Mar-Teen of the punk band Limp Wrist, Ann Goldstein the Deputy Director, Chair and Main Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Art Institute, curator Hendrik Folkerts who hails from Holland, Chicago Bulls basketball star Zach LaVine, Malia Obama and her British beau Rory Farquharson. Will add more about Chicago and all the events I had in another post, so stay tuned.
Two of my beautiful New York children of high art Jonathan Berger and Aliza Shwartz will have big solo exhibitions soon. Do yourself the biggest favour and go check them out as they are beyond brilliant.
From Jonathan:
Greetings,
My new exhibition, An Introduction to Nameless Love, will open at Participant Inc on February 23rd. I have attached the announcement and you can also find a press release with more information here. The exhibition is co-organized by Participant Inc and the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard, where it was on view this past Fall.
This project is of great personal importance to me and was made possible through the generous collaboration of an incredible group of contributors, over the five years during which it was produced.
There will be no standard evening opening reception at Participant, as the pieces are very fragile, instead the gallery will be open 12-7pm on opening day. All details are below!
All the Best,
Jonathan
_______
In brief:
An Introduction to Nameless Love
Jonathan Berger
In collaboration with Mady Schutzman, Emily Anderson, Tina Beebe, Julian Bittiner, Matthew
Brannon, Barbara Fahs Charles, Brother Arnold Hadd, Erica Heilman, Esther Kaplan, Margaret
Morton, Richard Ogust, Maria A. Prado, Robert Staples, Michael Stipe, Mark Utter, Michael
Wiener, and Sarah Workneh.
On View
Feb 23 - April 5, 2020
Participant Inc.
253 East Houston Street
(Between Norfolk and Suffolk Street)
Hours: Wednesday-Sunday, Noon to 7pm
From Aliza:
Dear Friends,
Please join me for the opening reception of Purported on Thursday February 20, from 6-9pm at Art in General.
I have been told throughout my life to “use my own words,” as though the language of theory could never be mine. I’ve been told to believe in a feminism of “speaking for oneself,” as though such an act carried no risk. What both these injunctions communicate is how much is at stake in the belief that the language we use transparently represent an authentic, unchanging self—one that is easier to capture or prosecute.
Instead, we might think about how words and images misbehave. They diverge, always, from the body they purport to represent. This divergence, when acknowledged, becomes a medium with which to make visible representation’s disciplinary function. More importantly, that non-identity between ourselves and our words becomes an alibi for doing what we want.
This exhibition spans the past decade of my practice, and it is my first New York solo show.
So please do come have a drink with me :)
Aliza Shvarts: Purported
Curated by Laurel Ptak
Exhibition: February 21, 2020–May 9, 2020
Opening: Thursday, February 20, 6-9pm
Art in General
145 Plymouth Street (Map)
Dumbo, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Wednesday–Sunday, 12–6pm
Hope to see you there!