Presented by The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art, Conversations: Among Friends explores works of art as reflections of their political and social contexts.
This evening's program features a conversation between artist Robin Rhode and founding director and curator of Performa, RoseLee Goldberg. Following the program, guests are invited to continue the conversation and meet the participants at an intimate reception catered by Fantasy Fare.
Doors open at 6:45 p.m.
Program begins at 7:00 p.m.
Followed by a reception at 8:15 p.m.
Tickets ($35) may be purchased at information and film desks, online at moma.org, or through the Friends of Education office. All tickets will be held at the door.
Robin Rhode (b. 1976, Cape Town, South Africa), was raised in Johannesburg, and graduated from the South Africa School of Film, Television and Dramatic Arts, Johannesburg, in 2000. Based in Berlin, Rhode is a multidisciplinary artist who utilizes a variety of visual languages including photography, performance, drawing, and sculpture to create narratives that are brought to life using quotidian materials such as soap, charcoal, chalk, and paint. Coming of age in a newly post-apartheid South Africa, he was exposed to new forms of creative expression motivated by the spirit of the individual rather than dictated by a political or social agenda. The growing influence of hip-hop, film, and popular sports on youth culture, as well as the community’s reliance on storytelling in the form of colorful murals encouraged the development of Rhode’s hybrid street-based aesthetic. His strategic interventions transform urban landscapes into imaginary worlds, compressing space and time, as two-dimensional renderings become the subject of three-dimensional interactions by a sole protagonist, usually played by the artist or by an actor inhabiting the role of artist. Melding individual expression with broader socioeconomic concerns, Rhode’s work reveals a mastery of illusion, a rich range of historical and contemporary references, and an innate skill for blending high and low art forms. Rhode’s major solo museum exhibitions include the Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2007); the Hayward Gallery, London (2008); the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2009); the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (2010); the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2013); and the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York (2014). He has participated in group exhibitions including New Photography 2005, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2005); the 51st Venice Biennale (2005); Staging Action: Performance in Photography Since 1960, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2011); and the Sydney Biennale (2012). His work is included in numerous public collections, including the Castello di Rivoli, Turin; Centre Pompidou, Paris; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida; Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
RoseLee Goldberg, Founding Director and Curator of Performa, is an art historian, critic, and curator whose book Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present, first published in 1979, pioneered the study of performance art. She is also the author of Performance: Live Art Since 1960 (1998) and Laurie Anderson (2000), and is a frequent contributor to Artforum and other publications. Goldberg was previously director of the Royal College of Art Gallery in London and curator at The Kitchen in New York. Recent awards and grants include two awards from the International Association of Art Critics (2011), the Agnes Gund Curatorial Award from Independent Curators International (2010), Curatorial Research Fellowship from the Warhol Foundation (2008), and Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters from the French Government (2006). In 2004, she founded Performa, a non-profit arts organization committed to the research, development, and presentation of performance by visual artists from around the world, and launched New York’s first performance biennial, Performa 05 (2005), followed by Performa 07 (2007), Performa 09 (2009), Performa 11 (2011), and Performa 13 (2013). Performa 15, the sixth biennial, will take place Nov 1–22, 2015. Since 1987, Goldberg has taught at New York University.
Presented by The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art, Conversations: Among Friends explores works of art as reflections of their political and social contexts.
Conversations: Among Friends is made possible by TD Bank.