New Museum Events

Get Weird: Andrew WK Thu May 15, 2008

NewMuseum.org — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:56:13 -0500

Experimental party starter Andrew WK makes a special solo appearance for May’s Get Weird event. On the heels of his explosive post-frat live shows across the globe, WK has been, of late, handling production duties for Lee “Scratch” Perry, lecturing at Yale, vibing with Will Oldham, spoofing the McLaughlin Group, and performing with avant-folkie Baby Dee and teen supergroup Hanson. We really have no idea what this performance will be like, but we know it will be awesome. And probably weird.

http://www.andrewwk.com/

Thu May 15, 07:30 PM–Thu May 15, 09:30 PM

Paul Chan: Tin Drum Trilogy followed by a Q&A with the artist Fri May 16, 2008

NewMuseum.org — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:46:14 -0500

The New Museum presents the New York premiere of Paul Chan’s Tin Drum Trilogy: RE:THE_OPERATION (2002), BAGHDAD IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER (2003), and NOW PROMISE NOW THREAT (2005), followed by a Q&A with the artist. A departure from Chan’s exhibition, “The 7 ~~Lights~~” on the third floor of the New Museum, these video works delve into the real or projected perspectives of Chan’s would-be enemies. According to the artist:

“I realized after finishing the last single-channel video (NOW PROMISE NOW THREAT) that what I've done isn't another piece but the third installment of a three-part series. Each video in the series was made utilizing different experimental traditions, but with one consistent theme: that to love your enemy is to know your enemy. I essentially sleep with the enemy and the time spent creating these sleep-works becomes the space to both escape from and engage with what it means to live through an infinite war. The Bush administration (in RE:THE_OPERATION ), Iraqis (in BAGHDAD...), and the religious right living in red-state America (in NOW PROMISE NOW THREAT) are all perceived, rightly or wrongly, as enemies. The task of all three videos have been to make the friend/enemy distinction more difficult while at the same time giving a time-based critique of the political tragedy/farce that is our first five years of the twenty-first century.”

RE:THE_OPERATION
(2002, 26 min)

"Ideas were pressing against one another like rams. Hate had a sanitary pace. Old age drew laughter and the child was encouraged to bite. The world was all flags." —Henri Michaux

Based on a set of drawings that depict members of the George W. Bush administration as wounded soldiers in the war against terrorism, RE:THE_OPERATION explores the sexual and philosophical dynamics of war through the lives of the members as they physically engage each other and the "enemy." Letters, notes, and other textual ephemera written by "Bush" and others are narrated and accompanied by digital snapshots from around the world as they articulate the neuroses and obsessions that drive them toward infinite war.

BAGHDAD IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
(2003, 51 min)

"It is very nearly the end. It is very nearly life." —Hélène Cixous

BAGHDAD IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER is an ambient video essay of life in Baghdad before the American invasion and occupation. Video by Chan and a host of Iraqis working with Voices in the Wilderness, a Nobel peace prize-nominated activist group working in Iraq to stop the drive for war, BAGHDAD IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER intimately portrays Iraqis singing, dancing, and struggling as they await the coming of another war. Subtitled in seven languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish).

NOW PROMISE NOW THREAT
(2005, 33 min)

"Now too late, he understood her. The heart that pumped out love, the mouth that spoke the Word, didn't count." —Toni Morrison, Beloved

Part documentary, part visual hallucination, NOW PROMISE NOW THREAT uses Omaha, Nebraska (population 390,000, literally located in the middle of the U.S.) as a site and subject to follow the often unexpected lines connecting people, religion and politics in "red-state" America. An evangelical pastor opposes the mixing of church and state on religious grounds. An anti-abortion mother deplores the hypocrisy of the pro-life movement for being pro-war. A young man wants to die for his country so he can at last have a life worthy of living. NOW PROMISE NOW THREAT mixes interviews with locally produced footage and kidnapping videos from Iraq transformed into fields of undulating color to create a moving apologia for the United Red States of America.

Fri May 16, 07:30 PM–Fri May 16, 09:30 PM

A Discussion About Abstraction with Thomas Nozkowski and Dana Schutz Sat May 17, 2008

NewMuseum.org — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:23:08 -0500

In conjunction with the current exhibition by Tomma Abts, Kraus Family Senior Curator Laura Hoptman will moderate a discussion on abstraction as a method and idea with artists Thomas Nozkowski and Dana Schutz.

Thomas Nozkowski is a painter who has had sixty-eight one-person shows. His most recent exhibitions include an installation of new work at the 2007 Venice Biennial, a midcareer survey at the Ludwig Museum in Koblenz, Germany, 2007 and the Fisher-Landau Center, New York, 2008, and a one-person exhibition at Pace Wildenstein, New York, 2008. The New York Studio School presented a twenty-five-year survey of his drawings in January 2003. His work is represented in the collections of the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the High Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Phillips Collection among many others. Currently, Nozkowski is the Bob and Happy Doran Visiting Artist at the Yale University Art Gallery. He is also Professor of Painting at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Forthcoming one-person exhibitions include The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and the Musée d’art contemporain, Montreal, Canada.

Dana Schutz was born in Michigan in 1976 and currently lives and works in New York. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions in commercial galleries in New York, Boston, and Paris. Schutz’s paintings have also been presented in a number of group exhibitions including “Eclipse: Art in a Dark Age,” Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2008; “USA TODAY,” The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, 2007; “Fractured Figure,” DESTE Foundation, Athens, 2007; “Art in America: 300 Years of Innovation,” Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 2007; “Closer to Home,” 48th Corcoran Biennial, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2005; “Greater New York,” PS1, Queens, (2005); “The Triumph of Painting,” The Saatchi Gallery, London, 2005; and the Venice Biennial, 2003. Her work is represented in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and many others. Currently, a group of new work by Schutz is on display at Contemporary Fine Arts in Berlin. In July, she will participate in “After Nature,” a group exhibition at the New Museum.

*This event is free with Museum admission but tickets are required.

Sat May 17, 03:00 PM–Sat May 17, 05:00 PM

Rhizome Commissions 08
Conversation with eteam, Steve Lambert, Evan Roth, and Rafael Rozendaal Thu May 22, 2008

NewMuseum.org — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:02:05 -0500

The Rhizome Commissions Program was founded in 2001 to provide support to emerging artists working with new technologies. The forty-four works commissioned to date represent some of the most innovative, pioneering efforts in the field. Tonight, artists eteam (Hajoe Moderegger and Franziska Lamprecht), Steve Lambert, Evan Roth, and Rafael Rozendaal, who received support in the 2008 cycle, present their finished projects as well as other select projects. Additional Rhizome Commissions will be presented in August and October.

2008 Commissioned projects:
http://www.rhizome.org/commissions/2008/

Thu May 22, 07:30 PM–Thu May 22, 09:30 PM

Please note, there will be no Thursday night Night School this month Thu May 29, 2008

NewMuseum.org — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:54:12 -0500

Please note, there will be no Thursday night Night School this month.

Thu May 29, 07:30 PM–Thu May 29, 09:30 PM

Night School Public Seminar 5: Okwui Enwezor Fri May 30, 2008

NewMuseum.org — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:55:43 -0500

Okwui Enwezor is Dean of Academic Affairs and Senior Vice President at San Francisco Art Institute. He is Adjunct Curator at International Center of Photography, New York and previously Adjunct Curator of Contemporary Art, at the Art Institute of Chicago. Enwezor is Artistic Director of the 7th Gwangju Biennale, opening September 2008. He was previously Artistic Director of the 2nd International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Seville, Spain (2005-2007); Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany (1998-2002); and the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale (1996-1998). Enwezor has organized numerous exhibitions around the world, including “The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945-1994”; “In/Sight: African Photographers, 1940-Present”; “Global Conceptualism”; and most recently “Archive Fever: Photography Between History and the Document.”

Enwezor is founder and editor of the critical art journal Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art. As a writer, critic, and editor, Enwezor has been a regular contributor to numerous exhibition catalogues, anthologies, and journals including: Third Text, Documents, Texte zur Kunst, Grand Street, Parkett, Artforum, Frieze, Art Journal, Research In African Literatures, and others. Enwezor has published several books including Reading the Contemporary: African Art, from Theory to the Marketplace co-edited with Olu Oguibe; Mega Exhibitions: Antinomies of a Transnational Global Form and the four-volume publication of Documenta11Platforms: Democracy Unrealized; Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice and the Processes of Truth and Reconciliation; Creolité and Creolization; Under Seige: Four African Cities, Freetown, Johanneburg, Kinshasa, Lagos. He is co-editor of Modernity and Contemporaneity: Antinomies of Art and Culture after 20th Century, and is currently completing two books: The Postcolonial Constellation: Contemporary Art and the Global Stage and Archaeology of the Present: The Postcolonial Archive, Photography and African Modernity. Enwezor lives and works in New York and San Francisco.

Night School is an artist's project by Anton Vidokle in the form of a temporary school. A yearlong program of monthly seminars and workshops, Night School draws upon a group of local and international artists, writers, and theorists to conceptualize and conduct the program.

*This event is free, but tickets are required. Tickets can be reserved online or at the Museum prior to the seminar's start; a limited number of tickets will be available the day of the event.

Fri May 30, 07:30 PM–Fri May 30, 09:30 PM

Night School Public Seminar 5: Okwui Enwezor Sat May 31, 2008

NewMuseum.org — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:56:45 -0500

*This event is free, but tickets are required. Tickets can be reserved online or at the Museum prior to the seminar's start; a limited number of tickets will be available the day of the event.

Sat May 31, 03:00 PM–Sat May 31, 05:00 PM

Target First Saturdays for Families: Enigmatic Abstraction Sat Jun 07, 2008

NewMuseum.org — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:50:37 -0500

Unique colors, lines, and shapes are some of the formal elements painter Tomma Abts uses in her abstract compositions. Explore how this artist creates her meticulous and complex paintings through a guided discussion of the fourteen works in the show. Create your own abstract painting inspired by Abts’ unique style!

Target First Saturdays for Families are free of charge. This program is designed for families with children 5 to 15 years old, and includes free Museum admission for up to 3 adults per family. Children under 18 are always admitted free. No pre-registration is required. Tickets are given out on a first-come, first-served basis.

For more information about Target First Saturdays for Families, email targetsaturdays@newmuseum.org.

Sat Jun 07, 10:00 AM–Sat Jun 07, 12:00 PM

Target First Saturdays for Families: Double Album Sat Jul 05, 2008

NewMuseum.org — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:54:55 -0500

The playful sculptures, installations, and drawings of artists Daniel Guzmán (born 1964, lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico) and Steven Shearer (born 1968, lives and works in Vancouver, BC, Canada) are brought together in the New Museum exhibition “Double Album: Daniel Guzmán and Steven Shearer.” Both artists work in a variety of mediums and address issues of male identity, adolescence, and rock culture. Participate in a guided conversation about the exhibition and then collaborate with your family to create sculptures that reflect your own identity and icons of your generation.