The Kitchen Announces Winter-Spring Season Announced

The Kitchen, founded in 1971, is one of the most enduring non-profit arts organizations in the rapidly changing landscape of New York, serving as an important catalyst for a broad community of groundbreaking artists working across disciplines. In recent seasons, artists have been recasting and redefining The Kitchen's gallery and theater spaces according to the changing contours of their individual projects.

In Winter-Spring 2020, The Kitchen continues to nod to its loft-culture roots, as artists use the building's raw space as a springboard for expansive interdisciplinary visions. At the same time, the organization is newly emphasizing partnerships with and activations of other sites around the city: The season sees the continuation of a multi-year partnership with Queenslab (1611 Cody Avenue, Ridgewood, NY), installation artist Jim Hodges' 17,000 square foot building. This partnership allows The Kitchen to free artists up to combine residency time and public installations over the course of six weeks, while using a drastically different-scale space to experiment with performance and exhibitions. As The Kitchen expands its programming beyond its own building, it also examines and strengthens its roots in its Chelsea home, spotlighting its role at the heart of the neighborhood's late-20th-century artistic history, its present, and its future.

The Kitchen's season kicked off in January with the U.S. premiere of Richard Maxwell's "stark, eloquent...hypnotic" (The New York Times, Critic's Pick review) Queens Row at The Kitchen and an on-the-spot exploration of songwriting by artist and musician Lonnie Holley (accompanied by trombone and drums duo Nelson Patton) at The Dance NYC. The season continues with Felix Bernstein and Gabe Rubin's residency taking shape as a video installation titled Vomitorium at Queenslab, The Kitchen's partner space. Through this partnership in Ridgewood, The Kitchen is able to provide artists space outside the structure of a gallery or theater. Here, artists and The Kitchen can work together on novel approaches to production and audience engagement. On view at Queenslab from February 22 to March 22, Vomitorium traces the eponymous structure from its origin as the Greek amphitheater's exit and entryway to today's socially reflexive architecture built for Instagram selfie-stories. The installation is their largest-scale project to date, matching the vastness of the Queenslab space with equally massive projections that contain, as Rubin offers, "different voices and characters in a panoramic attack of word vomit" and that evoke what Bernstein refers to as "a feeling of the monstrous sublime." Interdisciplinary artist Autumn Knight-whose work draws from her training in theatre and the psychology of group dynamics in performances that reshape perceptions of race, gender, and authority-will respond to Queenslab's architecture with improvisation, text, choreography, and sculpture across a six-week residency (May 18-June 27). Dance and Process, curated and facilitated by Moriah Evans and Yve Laris Cohen, will take place this year at Queenslab (April 5-May 2), with Leslie Cuyjet, Kennis Hawkins, Kristopher K.Q. Pourzal, and Alex Rodabaugh in residence for the collaborative process.

All three floors of The Kitchen's space-typically separated into a theater, gallery, and offices-will be treated as a blank slate for a momentous benefit exhibition opening April 28, in advance of the organization's 50th anniversary. Curated by Board Members Wade Guyton and Jacqueline Humphries and The Kitchen, it will feature artists including Ai Weiwei, Cory Arcangel, Tauba Auerbach, Carol Bove, Cecily Brown, Dan Colen, Robert Gober, Wade Guyton, Peter Halley, Rachel Harrison, Jacqueline Humphries, Alex Israel, Barbara Kruger, Simone Leigh, Robert Longo, Laura Owens, Matthew Ritchie, Haim Steinbach, Pat Steir, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rosemarie Trockel, T.J. Wilcox, Christopher Williams, and more.

With multi-instrumentalist and performer Ka Baird and intermedia artist Max Eilbacher joining forces for an exploration/ deconstruction of piano (April 3-4) and Claire Chase performing the premiere of the latest solo flute composition (by Liza Lim) in the seventh part of her twenty-three-year project Density 2036 (May 15-16), this season also reflects The Kitchen's unflagging legacy as a champion of artists at the vanguard of eclectic musical forms. This year's gala (April 15) follows this legacy back to 1980, when Debbie Harry participated in Dubbed in Glamour, a three-day extravaganza of music, performance, and video at The Kitchen. Cindy Sherman, whose Untitled Film Stills made their New York premiere at The Kitchen in 1980, will also be honored at the 2020 Gala, which will feature performances by Sharon Van Etten and more. Likewise connecting The Kitchen's past and present is an ongoing 50th Anniversary conversation series, which began earlier this month in a talk with Dara Birnbaum and Sondra Perry and continues March 21 with a group of choreographers-DANCENOISE (Anne Iobst and Lucy Sexton), Neil Greenberg, Ishmael Houston-Jones, koosil-ja, Sarah Michelson, Dean Moss, and Tere O'Connor-reexamining The Kitchen's dance programming in the late 1980s and 1990s.

More information on The Kitchen's Winter-Spring 2020 programming is below. Tickets are available online at thekitchen.org; by phone at 212.255.5793 x11; and in person at The Kitchen (512 West 19th Street) on days when events are taking place at this location, starting two hours before showtime.

THE KITCHEN WINTER-SPRING 2020 FULL PROGRAMMING

[VIDEO INSTALLATION]

Felix Bernstein and Gabe Rubin

Vomitorium

Queenslab, 1611 Cody Avenue, Ridgewood, NY

February 22-March 22

Opening reception: February 22, 7-10pm

Gallery hours: Wednesday-Sunday, 1-7pm (Vomitorium screens from 1-4pm and 4-7pm)

FREE

The video installation Vomitorium is a tragicomic reflection on the history of metatheatre from religious ritual to livestreaming. As in Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, wherein the protagonist listens to old recordings of himself, the artists replay their own digitally mediated grief on loop, risking banality and injury. Transitioning between genre, gender, and age, they play through multiple tropes, eras, and personae-juxtaposing baroque complexity with the currently fashionable metaphysics of presence, transparency, and immersion. Curated by Tim Griffin and Matthew Lyons.

[CONVERSATION SERIES]

50th Anniversary Conversation Series

In anticipation of its 50th anniversary in 2021, The Kitchen is proud to begin a series of conversations among artists across generations who will discuss their work and their perspectives on the organization's evolving role in the cultural landscape. These programs create opportunities to draw out connections within The Kitchen's community and to reflect on the organization's history through the lens of first-hand accounts.

Choreographers Convening

The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, New York, NY

March 21, 1-5pm (Panel 1: 1-2:30pm; Break: 2:30-3:30pm; Panel 2: 3:30-5pm)

FREE

The second event in this series of conversations (following an event with Dara Birnbaum and Sondra Perry in February) brings together a group of choreographers to explore The Kitchen's dance programming in the late 1980s and 1990s and its place within the broader ecologies of dance. Across two panel discussions, participants will discuss the program models that The Kitchen devised to support dance and the material conditions across the field of dance in this era. Participating choreographers include DANCENOISE (Anne Iobst and Lucy Sexton), Neil Greenberg, Ishmael Houston-Jones, koosil-ja, Sarah Michelson, Dean Moss, and Tere O'Connor. Organized by Alison Burstein, Matthew Lyons, and Tere O'Connor.

[MUSIC]

Ka Baird with Max Eilbacher

Vivification Exercises
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, New York, NY

April 3-4, 8pm

$15 General / $10 Members

For their first live collaboration, multi-instrumentalist and performer Ka Baird and intermedia artist Max Eilbacher join forces to create a multichannel exploration/deconstruction of the piano, the newest incarnation of Baird's Vivification Exercises series. Baird is heralded for her raw, ecstatic, and boundary-pushing live solo performances which often involve energetic and experimental body movements, vocal and mic techniques, and flute playing. Eilbacher's practice draws upon traditions of electroacoustic, musique concrète composition, and process-intensive computer music. Organized by Matthew Lyons.

[DANCE]

Dance and Process

Queenslab, 1611 Cody Avenue, Ridgewood, NY

April 5-May 2

Leslie Cuyjet, Kennis Hawkins, Kristopher K.Q. Pourzal, and Alex Rodabaugh will be in residence at Queenslab during the month of April as part of Dance and Process. This group process, curated and facilitated by Moriah Evans and Yve Laris Cohen, centers around sharing work and feedback and culminates in public presentations of new work. By creating space for sustained conversations and collaboration, Dance and Process stages an interrogation of methods of choreographic and dance practice, enabling artists to challenge default structures in both their own work and the field at large. For information on performance times and tickets, visit www.thekitchen.org.

[GALA]

The Kitchen Spring Gala Honoring Debbie Harry and Cindy Sherman

The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, New York, NY

April 15

The Kitchen is proud to honor artists Debbie Harry and Cindy Sherman. In 1980, Harry took part in The Kitchen's three-day extravaganza called Dubbed in Glamour, and in the same year, Sherman's Untitled Film Stills made their New York premiere here. Hosted by a committee including honorary chairs such as Robert Longo, Eric Bogosian, and Molly Ringwald, the Gala will feature performances by Sharon Van Etten and more. For more information and tickets, visit www.thekitchen.org or email lauren@thekitchen.org.

[BENEFIT EXHIBITION]

50th Anniversary Benefit Exhibition

The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, New York, NY

Opening April 28

Curated by Board Members Wade Guyton and Jacqueline Humphries and The Kitchen, the 50th Anniversary Benefit Exhibition features artists from across The Kitchen's community who have donated major works in support of the organization as it approaches this significant historical milestone. Artworks will be installed across all three floors of The Kitchen's Chelsea building, moving away from each floor's previously defined functions as offices, gallery, and theater. Through non-traditional displays, the exhibition will spotlight the unique physical characteristics that remain from the space's former uses as an ice house in the early 20th century and, more recently, as a movie studio. For more information on participating artists and exhibition hours, visit www.thekitchen.org.

[MUSIC]

Claire Chase

Density 2036, part vii
Queenslab, 1611 Cody Avenue, Ridgewood, NY

May 15-16

Claire Chase presents the next performance in Density 2036, her twenty-three-year project to commission an entirely new body of repertory for solo flute each year until the 100th anniversary of Edgard Varèse's groundbreaking 1936 flute solo, Density 21.5. For the seventh year of this project, Chase premieres a new work entitled Sex Magic by celebrated Australian composer Liza Lim, whose ongoing compositional concerns include the roots of beauty (in noise), time effects in the Anthropocene, and the sensoria of ecological connection. Organized by Matthew Lyons. For information on performance times and tickets, visit www.thekitchen.org.

[PERFORMANCE]

Autumn Knight

Queenslab, 1611 Cody Avenue, Ridgewood, NY

May 18-June 27

During a six-week residency, Autumn Knight will merge her practice of improvisation with new text, choreography, and sculpture that responds to the architecture of the Queenslab space. Her body of work often leverages institutional resources toward inclusion through live performance and immediacy. During the residency period, Knight's work will be concerned with the generative potential of satirical and sonic histories. Curated by Lumi Tan. For information on the public performances that will take place during Knight's residency, visit www.thekitchen.org.

[MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM]

The Kitchen L.A.B.

Location varies

January 13, February 5, March 16, and additional dates through June, 6:30pm

FREE

The Kitchen L.A.B. (Language, Art, Bodies) is a yearlong series that brings together artists and writers across disciplines to unpack how the meaning of artistic and cultural terms may shift-and become more resonant or ambiguous-over time. Building on three conversations that took place in fall 2019, the series continues its exploration of the term "regeneration." Speakers include Lauren Bakst, Felix Bernstein, mayfield brooks, E. Jane, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Wayne Koestenbaum, Narcissister, Ethan Philbrick, Gabe Rubin, and Tourmaline. Organized by Alison Burstein. For information on dates and locations, visit www.thekitchen.org.

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