THE KITCHEN PARTNERS WITH BERGGRUEN ARTS & CULTURE TO PRESENT WORK BY RHEA DILLON AT BERGGRUEN’S PALAZZO DIEDO, OPENING APRIL 20
The Kitchen Continues to Expand its “Without Walls” Approach to Programming, Presenting Work from the Artist, Writer, and Poet in Venice’s First Major New Space Dedicated to Contemporary Art in More than a Decade
The Kitchen partners with Berggruen Arts & Culture to present work from artist, writer, and poet Rhea Dillon (b.1996; lives and works, London, UK) at Palazzo Diedo, as part of the launch of the new Berggruen Arts & Culture exhibition space (from April 20). Two works by Dillon act as sculptural interventions in the space—an 18th-century building by architect Andrea Tirali, once home to one of Venice’s most powerful families and formerly a primary school and court.
Dillon has described her practice as “playing with ‘rules of representation’ to undermine people’s myths of contemporary Western culture, referenc[ing] the power of harnessing Black people’s natural abstracted existence, and refract[ing] embedded assumptions concerning gender and racial inequalities.”
In Janus pause leaking fortified enclaves, a sapele mahogany cross will slowly drip water onto the floor of Palazzo Diedo throughout the duration of the exhibition. The second work installed in the space is The Door of the Woman is the glass slipper (Atlas, in transit laid to rest), a 2022 sculpture that engages with the history of assemblage.
With this presentation at Palazzo Diedo, The Kitchen expands its relationship with Dillon, having presented her film (Working Title) Browning 2025 in The Kitchen’s online Video Viewing Room in 2022.
The multidimensional nature of The Kitchen’s engagement with Dillon’s artistry speaks to the organization’s recent exploration of “without walls” programming. Undertaken during the renovation of its home in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, the storied New York City organization’s vision for reconsidering and transcending the bounds of institutional space has brought avant-garde artistry into broadcast, unconventional and evocative locations outside of its traditional home, cross-institutional collaborations, televised web presentations, and now this momentous intercontinental partnership.
Teaming with Berggruen, The Kitchen draws on its 50-year history of cross-cultural celebration of artistic risks and experimentation. This momentous project exemplifies the institution’s position at the nexus of local, national, and international arts ecosystems and conversations, and furthers The Kitchen’s existence in dialogue with kindred boundary-breaking institutions that exemplify and uphold the framework of experimental creative practice and pedagogy. As part of these collaborations, the organization in 2022–2023 invited the School for Poetic Computation and Montez Press Radio into residence, as well as announced an ongoing porous collaboration with the Dia Arts Foundation that debuted with Matthew Lutz-Kinoy’s solo exhibition and ballet Filling Station.
The Kitchen Executive Director & Chief Curator Legacy Russell says, “The Kitchen is delighted to partner with the Berggruen Institute and with its generous support present the work of Rhea Dillon, whose practice sets a high bar for the future of the avant-garde and calls for new sightlines into systems of strategy and liberation as instructed by the Black diaspora.”
Rhea Dillon’s solo presentation will be shown simultaneously with Berggruen’s inaugural exhibition Janus, which features site-specific commissions by 11 internationally acclaimed artists, as well as another special project from Berggruen and the Polaroid Foundation.
Janus is presented by Berggruen Arts & Culture at Palazzo Diedo in partnership with The Kitchen, with special thanks to Olivier Berggruen, Trustee at The Kitchen, and to The Kitchen’s Global Council, for the special project by Rhea Dillon.
About Rhea Dillon
Rhea Dillon (b. 1996) is an artist, writer and poet based in London. Dillon’s first institutional solo exhibition, An Alterable Terrain, was recently held at Tate Britain as part of the Art Now series. To accompany this major exhibition a book of the same title was recently published by Tate Publishing. This Spring, the artist will be featured as part of the exhibition Each now, is the time, the space at Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore. Recent exhibitions include The Black Fold at Kevin Space, Vienna (2023); We looked for eyes creased with concern, but saw only veils at Sweetwater, Berlin (2023); The Sombre Majesty (or, on being the pronounced dead) at Soft Opening, London (2022); Real Corporeal at Gladstone Gallery, New York (2022); Love at Bold Tendencies, London (2022); an online screening at The Kitchen, New York (2022); Drawing a Blank curated by Ben Broome, London (2022); Janus at Soft Opening, London (2021); Pressing at Division of Labour, Salford (2021); Dishwater and No Images as part of Distant Peak at Peak Gallery, London (2020); No Man is an Island at Almine Rech, London (2020) and Uchronia et Uchromia online at External Pages (2020). Dillon was an artist in residence at Triangle - Astérides, Marseille and previously at V.O. Curations, London, which culminated in a solo exhibition, Nonbody Nonthing No Thing, and the publishing of poetry chapbook Donald Dahmer (both 2021). The artist presented Catgut – The Opera as part of Park Nights 2021 at the Serpentine Pavilion; a publication of the same title was recently published.
About Berggruen Arts & Culture/Palazzo Diedo
Over the last two years, Berggruen Arts & Culture has completed a major restoration of Palazzo Diedo, sympathetic to its history while readying it for a new beginning as a space of creativity and inspiration. Two significant fresco cycles and a Roman capricci—a scene that combines historical and fictional elements—by Francesco Fontebasso (1707-1769) and Costantino Cedini (1741-1811) have been fully restored. In 2022, Sterling Ruby presented the first project at Palazzo Diedo, a facade-based sculpture called HEX, installed before the completion of the restoration. Established by Berggruen Arts & Culture, a charitable foundation set up by collector and philanthropist Nicolas Berggruen, Palazzo Diedo aims to deepen the connection between contemporary art and the past, and between East and West. It will host artist residencies, exhibitions, events, film and performance across five levels and a total area of 4,000 square meters.
About The Kitchen
Founded in 1971 as an artist-driven collective, The Kitchen today reaffirms and expands upon its originating vision as a dynamic cultural institution that centers artists, prioritizes people, and puts process first. Programming in a kunsthalle model that brings together live performances, exhibition-making, and public programming under one roof, The Kitchen empowers its audiences and communities to think creatively and radically about what it means to shape a multivalent and sustainable future in art. The Kitchen seeks to cultivate and hold space for wild thought, risky play, and innovative and experimental making, encouraging artists and cultural workers alike to defy boundaries and sending them into the world to remake art history and catalyze creative change.
Among the artists who have presented significant work at The Kitchen are Muhal Richard Abrams, Laurie Anderson, ANOHNI, Robert Ashley, Charles Atlas, Kevin Beasley, Beastie Boys, Gretchen Bender, Dara Birnbaum, Anthony Braxton, John Cage, Lucinda Childs, Julius Eastman, Philip Glass, Leslie Hewitt, Darius James, Joan Jonas, Bill T. Jones, Devin Kenny, Simone Leigh, Ralph Lemon, George Lewis, Robert Longo, Robert Mapplethorpe, Sarah Michelson, Tere O’Connor, Okwui Okpokwasili, Nam June Paik, Charlemagne Palestine, Sondra Perry, Vernon Reid, Arthur Russell, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Spiegel, Talking Heads, Greg Tate, Cecil Taylor, Urban Bush Women, Danh Vō, Lawrence Weiner, Anicka Yi, and many more.
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Press Contact: Blake Zidell at Blake Zidell & Associates: blake@blakezidell.com or 917.572.2493