EVALUATING THE CURRENT: Artist Presentation and discussion with Marni Kotak and Rob Andrews
Marni Kotak [NYC]
Marni Kotak is a Brooklyn-based performance artist who creates multimedia works in which she presents her everyday life as art. Referring to her daily activities, life experiences and personal milestones as Found Performances, she has publicly performed everything from giving birth, to attending her grandfather’s funeral, to being forced to wear a dunce cap on a third grade field trip, to losing her virginity in a glittery blue Plymouth Acclaim. She recently garnered worldwide attention for her Birth of Baby X exhibition in which she gave birth to her first son as a live performance at Microscope Gallery. Kotak’s work has been featured in PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, the New York Times, the Village Voice, NY Arts, New York Press, Art New England, The Brooklyn Rail, Time Out Chicago and more. She has performed and/or exhibited both nationally and internationally. She received a BA from Bard College and an MFA from Brooklyn College. She is represented by Microscope Gallery in Brooklyn, New York: www.microscopegallery.com.
Rob Andrews [NYC]
Rob Andrews lives and works in Brooklyn. He has shown work at the Museum of Modern Art, Exit Art, Grace Exhibition Space, and is represented by English Kills Art Gallery. He recently enacted mass group feet cleanings in Union Square as part of Art in Odd Places, and in Bitola, Macedonia as part of the Exchange Radical Moments Live Art Festival on 11.11.11. He is a 2010-11 Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art recipient.
artist statement:
I am drawn to performance as one of our oldest forms of storytelling. The fear. Blood and spit--the susurration of gain and loss beyond language, beyond objects. I'm afraid we'll lose this art, or it will change so much we'll forget the stink of each other.
I enact rituals and tell stories using my body and the bodies of others. If stories aren't re-told and distorted, they petrify. I steal from tradition, religious practice, and from my collaborators and get their stories wrong on purpose in order to make them right in another way.
My practice involves personal intervention into the muck of inherited mythology, public actions, and volunteer and forced collaborations. I try to join hands and muddy the waters we stand in because, after all, they are our waters.
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GRACE:
Grace, n. - simple elegance or refinement of movement
Grace Period - an extended period granted as a special favor
The Three Graces (Greek Mythology) - charm, grace, and beauty
Opened in 2006, Grace Exhibition Space is devoted exclusively to Performance Art. We offer an opportunity to experience visceral and challenging works by the current generation of international performance artists whether emerging, mid-career or established. Our events are presented on the floor, not on a stage, dissolving the boundary between artist and viewer. This is how performance art is meant to be experienced and our mission is the glorification of performance art.
Grace Exhibition Space presents over 30 curated live performance art exhibitions each year, showcasing new work by more than 400 performance artists from across the United States and the world since 2006.
Grace Exhibition Space for International Performance Art Space IRS tax-exempt 501(c)3 status in 2015.
Grace Exhibition Space follows the We Have a Voice Collectives Code of Conduct to Promote Safe(r) Workplaces in the Performing Arts For more information and resources, visit: www.wehavevoice.org