Nov 17, 2017

When you ask me if I’m a feminist  I say to hell with loneliness To hell with powerlessness Yeah there are people in positions of power But so many more left in drudgery Photo Credit: Crosby Harrison. Artists from left to right: Ana da Silva, Anne Wood, Gina Birch. This November, Ana da Silva and Gina Birch of The Raincoats returned to The Kitchen after creating their first and only live record here in December 1982. Since then, they’ve toured across the world, broken up, gotten back together, been invited to play with Nirvana, switched out band members and worked on solo projects. Though their music inspired a generation of artists at the forefront of punk, they received little recognition during their time in the United States in the 1980s. Broke and st... Read On

Sep 8, 2017

To what extent does Marcel Duchamp figure into a narrative of The Kitchen’s history? That was the first question that came to mind when I was told I could contribute a post to The Kitchen’s blog, home to announcements and short essays from its curators and ruminations like these from its interns. While discussions of Duchamp may be old hat for many, he is nevertheless the proverbial Rome of my thinking about art and its history—all roads lead to him. In a sense, The Kitchen owes almost everything to Duchamp, but only in the rather banal way that most art spaces dedicated to presenting work from the last fifty years or so do too. A quick look at The Kitchen’s past programming and one sees an esteemed history of experimentation in what art historian and theorist Thierry de Duve calls “ar... Read On

Aug 15, 2017

Dear Friends, During the past year, The Kitchen has regularly been gathering artists to reflect on the organization's role at an urgent moment in both art and culture. And among their most energizing comments is that artists—and especially emerging ones—are able to see themselves within the organization's history. The place creates a sense of belonging to a common legacy of innovation across generations that is felt all too rarely in these times. This autumn we're proud to present work by numerous artists presenting at The Kitchen for the very first time, as well as others who were here in our earliest years. Opening in the gallery on September 13 is Meriem Bennani , whose immersive video installation will consider intergenerational conflicts in Morocco around chickha performances, ... Read On

Aug 11, 2017

“All the ‘straight’ people were trying to get out of New York but all the freaks… we were trying to get in.” -Maripol in Blank City (2010) The Kitchen regularly invites summer interns to write blog posts related to their ongoing projects. While working in the archives, I was impressed by the variety of musicians who have performed at The Kichen throughout its 46 years. Upon further research, I became interested in the role The Kitchen played in shaping the downtown New York music scene in the 1970s and 1980s. Rhys Chatham, David Linton, Nina Canal, and Ned Sublette performing Guitar Trio at The Kitchen in 1981. Photo: Paula Court The Kitchen was founded by Steina and Woody Vasulka in 1971 as a presentation space for video artists. Later that year, the Vasulkas added music to t... Read On

Jun 13, 2017

This summer The Kitchen is participating in I ♥ John Giorno, an unprecedented collaboration between leading non-profit and alternative spaces across New York, which are joining forces for the first time to mount a multilayered retrospective on the poet, artist, activist, and muse John Giorno. I ♥ John Giorno is a work of art by Giorno’s husband, the Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone.Expanding upon the exhibition that took place at Palais de Tokyo in Paris from October 2015 to January 2016, I ♥ John Giorno has been re-conceptualized specifically for New York, highlighting Giorno’s significant relationship with the city, and his singular role in creating and fostering community here. The exhibition has been divided by Rondinone into chapters reflecting the layers of Giorno’s life and work, his l... Read On