Today is a historical marker for the New York City based performance art venue, Grace Exhibition Space [NYC] as it celebrates 15 years of performance actions, happenings, lectures, workshops, festivals and so much more. Grace Exhibition space has focused primarily on contemporary performance art over its 15 year tenure but it has also provided a Space for experimental theatre and unconventional dance. Performance art luminaries such as Martha Wilson, Ron Athey, Linda Mary Montano and La Pocha Nostra have performed at Grace along with an incredibly diverse array of international and emerging artists. Co-Directors Jill McDermid and "Hoke" Hokanson have devoted their lives to not only creating space for performance art to happen but they have also cultivated a community. Even throughout the dreaded pandemic they continued presenting performance from artists across the world. Notably last spring nearly 100 artists contributed live, virtual performances from across 11 different countries. WILD & ALIVE opens today as a kick-off to their 15th year anniversary program. The exhibition will feature artifacts of past performances from both their Brooklyn and Lower East Side (NYC) locations. Expect an eclectic array of energized objects, piercingly captivating images and raw, hand held video documentation. The true essence of Grace and performance art as it has evolved in New York City will be on view and this is a must see. The exhibition is scheduled to continue through May 2022 with ongoing performance programming interspersed throughout the fall and spring seasons Visit the exhibition: Friday, September 17th 2021 9pm EST Grace Exhibition Space 182 Avenue C, New York, NY 10009 DONATE to help keep the space alive. The pandemic has made it extraordinarily challenging for performance spaces and Grace needs financial support now more than ever. A BRIEF HISTORY OF GRACEOpened in 2006 by friends and performance artists Jill McDermid and Melissa Lockwood, Grace Exhibition Space is devoted exclusively to Performance Art. We offer an opportunity to experience visceral and challenging works by the current generation of international performance artists whether emerging, mid-career or established. Our events are presented on the floor, not on a stage, dissolving the boundary between artist and viewer. This is how performance art is meant to be experienced and our mission is the glorification of performance art.
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I had the great pleasure of meeting and working with our next featured artist, Mette Loulou von Kohl, through the performance series The Sphinx Returns at Grace Exhibition Space. von Kohl presented an emotionally charged performance fusing her personal and political relationship with the historic figure Leila Khaled. Within the feature below, von Kohl reveals elements of her performance practice, thoughts on "gender politics" and the integration of choreography and performance art. - Quinn Dukes
Later this month, performance artist, educator and social choreographer ERNESTO PUJOL will present 9-5, a new group performance produced and commissioned by More Art at Arts Brookfield. The site-specific performance is tailored to the contemporary architecture of Brookfield Place and its glass Pavilion situated in lower Manhattan.
Pujol presents 9-5 in the city that he has called home for nearly half of his life. The physical and economic landscape of NYC has changed considerably over Pujol's residency. I wondered if Pujol's NYC experiences influenced the creation of 9-5 so I reached out to him with a few questions. In this week's interview, Pujol reveals the project's inspiration and performative structure. I am honored to share our conversation below. If you are in New York City, October 26-28, give yourself the gift of this experience! -Quinn Dukes The roving 14th Street performance and visual art festival, Art in Odd Places (AiOP) launches its 11th year of programming today! Many of the visual artists (sculptors, video artists, mixed-media... etc.) have already installed their works along 14th street for you to discover. If you happen to find an umbrella tumbleweed sculpture (Tim Thyzel) or roadkill stuffed animals (L. Mylott Manning), success! You have found the festival. There are over 40 artists presenting work in this year's exhibition marking an "odd numbered milestone" for the organization.
Grace Exhibition Space Directors, Erik "Hoke" Hokanson and Jill McDermid-Hokanson | photo by Miao Jiaxin Grace Exhibition Space launched the Great American Performance Art Festival (GAPAF) in February 2015. The festival runs thru June 2015 and is the long-term vision of Jill McDermid-Hokanson, (chief curator, director and co-founder of Grace Exhibition Space). Thus far the festival has offered performance workshops, lectures and of course- live performances from both local and international artists.
I was astonished to receive an invitation announcing live performances by seminal performance artists, Linda Mary Montano and Martha Wilson in conjunction with GAPAF. Both Montano and Wilson have presented performances around the world since the 1970's. They shared the roster with both seasoned and new performance art practitioners. As the evening grew closer, the artist roster grew. Ultimately, I witnessed nearly 5 hours of performance art from 9 performers! The following day Preach R. Sun led a street action as a continuation of the festival. Overall the programming was truly inspiring. After a weekend of viewing historic performances, I was reminded of the incredible significance and influence of the curator. The Great American Performance Art Festival is a wonderful example of artists curating artists. It provides an audience and space for performance art- a medium that scarcely receives funding. Of course, GAPAF is not the only festival of its kind (thank goodness!). Rapid Pulse in Chicago is currently in its final days of an equally compelling group of performers and events. For this week's post, Jill McDermid-Hokanson provides further insight into curating performance art in America. All too often the efforts of curators are overlooked, so I am pleased to share our conversation with you. Enjoy! -Quinn
Performance artists frequently occupy the blurred conceptual boundaries between art and life. Chun Hua Catherine Dong spoke to this nebulous territory in her Artist Feature stating "Performance has the capability to blur boundaries because it is live art that can happen at any place and any time - with or without audiences."
Weaving through the boundless art/life fusion requires tenacity and vulnerability, something distinctively present within JOHN BONAFEDE's performance works. Bonafede is a multi-disciplinary artist and curator based in New York City. For our next Artist Feature, Bonafede traces his performance art lineage extending from experimental theatre to social activism. He also discusses the compelling influences of curation and pronounced ties between athleticism and durational performance. Enjoy! - Quinn
Next week NYC kicks off Armory Week. Thus far, only a few fairs have promoted performance art as a part of their programming (sigh). With the break of Fountain Art Fair from Armory Week this year, performance art viewing possibilities are noticeably lean.
I am delighted to report however that SPRING/BREAK ART SHOW will present performance art programming throughout the duration of Armory Week thanks to the curatorial selections of AKArt in an exhibition titled, Transgressive Inversions + Identities. The multi-media exhibition will feature works by 7 artists including live performances by KATYA GROKHOVSKY and UJIN LEE. I have always deemed Katya an entertaining, relevant and critical performance artist. This is a wonderful opportunity to view her live works.
According to the press release, Grokhovsky will engage with exhibition attendees during 'Slow Dance', a participatory, live, durational performance-intervention — and 'Status Update', a durational action-intervention, in which digital social media status updates are transported into physical reality via acrylic-on-canvas banners. Lee will present 'Small Rotunda' a participatory, site-specific performance during which Lee fills the exhibition space with a common household item bojagi—traditional cloths collected from Lee’s hometown of Seoul, South Korea, used for wrapping and transporting goods from time immemorial.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE Rooms 4024-4026 Katya Grokhovsky Tuesday, March 3, 5-8pm Wednesday, March 4, 5-7pm (Status Update) Thursday, March 5, 4-7pm (Slow Dance) Saturday, March 7, 4-7pm (Status Update) Sunday, March 8, 3-6pm (Slow Dance) Ujin Lee Tuesday, March 3, 1-5pm Saturday, March 7, 12-4pm There is an exciting series of performance events scheduled for the last week of February entitled "PERFORMING FRANKLIN FURNACE" organized by a true performance art pioneer, Martha Wilson. Please find details about the event below. Well hello world! Today embarks the beginning of a new venture in performance art. My name is Quinn Dukes. I am a New York based performance artist, activist and curator. I have viewed powerful performances from artists based around the world. My viewing experiences are largely due to the incredible curatorial efforts of Jill McDermid at Grace Exhibition Space, Brookyln, NY. The performance art community emerged in the 1960's during a radical time in art history. These performances are heavily documented and readily available for emerging artists and academic scholars. During my time in academia, I have come to realize that institutions struggle to keep up with performance artists working TODAY. This site is intended to share the names and work of influential performance artists working today, around the world. Performance is Alive. If you find yourself in New York, make sure to check the calendar for Grace Exhibition Space!
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CONTRIBUTORSIan Deleón Archives
July 2023
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