ARTISTS ON ART FALL 2006

Contemporary Artists Meet Himalayan Art at K2, Friday evenings at RMA
Contemporary Artists Meet Himalayan Art at K2, Friday evenings at RMA
RMA and ArtAsiaPacific collaborate: individual takes on looking at Himalayan Art

RMA (Rubin Museum of Art) is inviting contemporary artists to give informal talks and tours of the Museum’s galleries on Friday evenings from September 15 to November 17. Between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. there is no charge to visit the galleries.

Organized by ArtAsiaPacific, Artists on Art invites speakers from the international and New York contemporary art scene, ranging across generations from artists such as Charwei Tsai, Derrick Adams and Marc Handelman to Jaishri Abichandani, David Abir, Sheela Gowda and Susan Kleinberg, as well as Chinese choreographer Shen Wei. Each artist will interact with and informally discuss their impressions of the richly colorful, largely figurative work that makes up the body of this ancient art form from the Himalayas and surrounding regions. Artists on Art launched successfully in Spring 2006 with participants including Shahzia Sikander, Guy Ben-Ner and DJ Spooky.

Artists on Art is one of four programs taking place at the museum on Friday nights. In addition to Artists on Art there are theater programs at 7 p.m., Cabaret Cinema at 9:30 p.m. and either a DJ or live music in the K2 Lounge.

From its inception, the Museum has made it a part of its mission to demonstrate the many connections between Himalayan art and contemporary sensibilities. Kiki Smith initiated a project that included over 100 artists in designing prayer flags that were strung from the roof of the Museum the day it opened in October 2004. The first program at the Museum was a discussion on art and impermanence between Joan Jonas, Arlene Shechet and Julian LaVerdiere. An exhibition of contemporary art titled "The Missing Peace: Contemporary Artists Consider the Dalai Lama" is scheduled for the spring of 2007.


SCHEDULE

Friday, September 15th, 2006: Sheela Gowda,7:30p.m. Admission is free. Blurring the line between fine art and craft, Sheela Gowda questions the role of female subjectivity in the volatile mix of religion, nationalism, and violence in contemporary Indian society. Her work is currently on exhibit at Bose Pacia Gallery, New York.

Friday, September 22nd, 2006: Shen Wei, 7:30p.m. Admission is free. Marking the premiere of his new work, Re-, at the Joyce Theater (Sept 26 through Oct 1), Chelsea, choreographer Shen Wei leads a tour of the galleries.

Friday, September 29, 2006: Jaishri Abichandani, 7.30p.m. Multimedia artist and curator whose work explores schisms between sexuality, gender and representation. Jaishri is currently included in the group show “Believe” at Rush Arts Gallery, New York, and is co-curating the Queens International 2006 at the Queens Museum of Art, opening October 1.

Friday, October 6, 2006:Charwei Tsai, 7.30p.m. Addresses the dialectics of purity and perversion, emptiness and exploitation by meticulously copying out Buddhist mantras on unconventional surfaces such as tofu and plants. Recent exhibitions include the Hydra School Project in Greece and the inaugural Singapore Biennale, through November 12.

Friday, October 13, 2006: Derrick Adams, 7.30p.m. Brooklyn-based performance and mixed-media artist whose works revisit childhood innocence through costumes, play and subliminal erotic and ritualistic undertones. Recent exhibitions include Marvelli Gallery, New York, and Performa05 in 2005 and Momenta Art, New York, in 2006.

Friday, October 20, 2006: Susan Kleinberg, 7.30p.m. Multimedia artist who has presented installations at the Venice Biennale in 1995 and 2001. Susan will discuss her work Fear Not (2001), for which she interviewed figures ranging from Bill Clinton to Gore Vidal about “courage,” in relation to the Buddhist hand gesture “fear not.”

Friday, October 27, 2006: David Abir, 7:30p.m. Composer and multimedia artist whose collaborators include Alfredo Jaar and Shirin Neshat. David is currently developing a sound installation recreating the anatomical structure of the human ear. It will premiere at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Connecticut, in 2007.

EVENT DETAILS: Rubin Museum of Art - 250 W 17 St / 6th and 7th Avenues / 212.620.5000

Click here to view Spring 2006 participants.