Dec 27, 2013

A good question to pose of The Kitchen at the end of 2013 is a relatively straightforward one, revolving around the art world’s continuing, even painfully familiar institutionalization of dance and performance. Just where is The Kitchen situated within this context? What are its goals? Along these very specific lines, it’s best first to frame The Kitchen in terms of the past decade’s need to build another language—both in vocabulary and practice—for contemporary art. And this need, if we look at the contemporary landscape more broadly, requires in turn a brief step back from The Kitchen’s mission, in order to recapitulate a contrapuntal relationship between performance and dance in art, and culture more generally. Such a proposition will hardly come as a surprise to anyone rea... Read On

Oct 28, 2013

The Kitchen sends endless thanks to Lou Reed for his profound effect on how we all listen to and look at the world through his art and his life. We also wish to thank him for his support of The Kitchen over the years and send our deepest condolences to our longtime board member Laurie Anderson. Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed, The Kitchen Spring Gala Benefit 2007 © Stephanie Berger, All Rights Reserved Read On

Oct 17, 2013

We often talk about what constitutes community at The Kitchen, and how it has changed significantly from our origins as a loft space in Soho. At that time, most of our audiences were friends and collaborators, lived in the neighborhood, and had only a handful of venues to choose from. More than forty years later, The Kitchen is a far larger institution, and one of the few non-profits still holding ground in the heart of New York’s commercial gallery district. While the art world has grown exponentially, the very idea of community even within our walls has become stratified; between the disciplines we present, and the many sub-genres within those disciplines, between the audience which has been with us since the 1970s, and the constant influx of those who are discovering us for the firs... Read On

Sep 9, 2013

Among the more intriguing back-stories of Gretchen Bender’s Total Recall, a 24-monitor, three-film-projection installation of what the artist termed “electronic theater”—currently on view at The Kitchen through September 21—is that her work took its name from a film that was only in production at the time. Originally appearing at The Kitchen in 1987, Bender’s endeavor was, in other words, titled “after” a film it nevertheless preceded—namely, Paul Verhoeven’s science-fiction action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which found its release only some three years later. Whatever past the work recalled was only yet to come. Apparently, Bender (1951–2004) was quite fond of such exercises in ambiguous temporality, regularly scanning Hollywood weeklies and dailies for the names of movi... Read On