‘Exposition de groupe’ Includes Paintings, New York and Arizona Musicians, and Serge Bard Film at The Kitchen
The Kitchen (512 West 19th Street)Exhibition Dates: Oct 31–Dec 21Hours: Tue–Fri, 12–6:00 p.m. and Sat, 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.Opening Reception: Oct 30, 6–8:00 p.m.FREE
Paintings, Motorcycles, and Amy Granat & Drew Heitzler Film at French Embassy
Cultural Services of the French Embassy (972 Fifth Avenue)Exhibition Dates: Oct 31–Nov 21Hours: Mon–Fri, 12–6:00 p.m.FREE
New York, October 18, 2013—The Kitchen and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy have partnered to present a two-location survey of works by Swiss abstract painter Olivier Mosset, alongside contributions from his circle of peers and collaborators. For Exposition de groupe, Mosset has included a selection of films, custom motorcycles, and musicians from New York and his adopted home in Tuscon, Arizona. The exhibition is curated by Thomas Delamarre, Sophie Claudel of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, and Tim Griffin of The Kitchen.“Exposition de groupe” is free and will run October 30–December 21 at The Kitchen (512 West 19th Street). Exhibition hours are Tuesday–Friday, 12–6:00 p.m. and Saturday, 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Opening reception takes place October 30, 6–8:00 p.m. at The Kitchen. Paintings, custom motorcycles, and a video collaboration between Amy Granat and Drew Heitzler will be on view October 31–November 21 at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy (972 Fifth Avenue).Concerts by Tucson musicians Al Perry and Al Foul, and by New York–based Airport 7, will take place November 22–23 at The Kitchen. Additional public programs involving Mosset and The Kitchen L.A.B. are forthcoming.With a generous spirit of collaboration, Mosset has worked since the 60s to deny individual authorship and make visible the influences of his various social spheres, choosing here to present what he calls a “group show” that underscores how the legibility of any artwork is possible only in the context of a larger, living collectivity. At The Kitchen, Mosset’s large-scale, shaped monochromatic paintings literally spell out various words associated with the works of Marcel Duchamp, including “Tu’m” and “Mutt,” effectively bringing together notions of the readymade and audience reception.
His paintings will be on view beside a projection of Serge Bard‘s 1968 film Fun and Games for Everyone—a passage of which captures the audience for a Mosset opening in the wake of the May ‘68 protests in Paris.At the French Embassy, Mosset will also mount an installation of nine monochromes, alongside custom Harley Davidson and Triumph motorcycles, and a video collaboration between Amy Granat and Drew Heitzler. Screened as part of the 2008 Whitney Biennial, Granat and Heitzler’s T.S.O.Y.W. (“The Sorrows of Young Werther”) is a 200-minute double following a young protagonist across the vast American landscape on a motorcycle, passing major earthwork sites along the way (Spiral Jetty, Lightning Field, Sun Tunnel). Across generations, cultures, and artistic forms and styles, Mosset and his colleagues draw an unlikely through-line connecting themes of community, tradition, and abstraction.
About the ArtistsOlivier Mosset
was born in 1944 in Bern, Switzerland. For many years, he has lived and worked in Tucson, Arizona, and has spent considerable time in New York and Paris. In the 1960s, he was a member of BMPT, a group of conceptually driven painters, along with Daniel Buren, Michel Parmentier, and Niele Toroni. The group sought to democratize art through radical procedures of deskilling, implying that the art object was more important than its authorship.In the 1970s, Mosset undertook a long series of monochrome paintings on shaped canvases that made comment on the circuits of production and exchange.
For four decades, he strived to redefine the future of painting, exploring new formats and materials for geometric abstraction, while always remaining focused on neutrality, appropriation, and repetition. The artist voluntarily abandons all anecdotal, significant or interpretative content, and invites the contemplation of the meditative calm of monochromes.Mosset’s career has been marked by his collaborations, whether in the form of the Radical Painting Group in the late 70s (with Joseph Marioni and Marcia Hafif) or more recently with Indian Larry (Lawrence DeSmedt), a motorcycle mechanic and stunt rider whose customized bikes were shown alongside Mosset’s paintings in New York in 2007.
Amy Granat was born in St. Louis, Missouri and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Throughout her body of abstract film and photography, Granat physically manipulates the celluloid through scratching and puncturing, or by applying washes of color and acid. After completing her art studies at Bard College in New York, Granat has participated in exhibitions at venues such as the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; the Swiss Institute, New York; the 2008 Whitney Biennial, New York; the Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin, and Palais de Tokyo, Paris; among others. In addition to a number of private collections, the artist is also represented in several public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain in France.
Drew Heitzler was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Heitzler received his MFA from Hunter College in 2000. His films and film-based projects have been screened and exhibited internationally at galleries and institutions including Renwick Gallery, The Project, Orchard Gallery, The Swiss Institute, Sculpture Center, Anthology Film Archives, and PS1 Contemporary Art Center in New York; Blum and Poe, Redling Fine Art, China Art Objects, TRUDI, and LA><ART in Los Angeles; The Suburban in Chicago; Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Poland; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen in Switzerland; and Magasin Centre National d’Art Contemporain in Grenoble, France. Drew’s collaborative film with Amy Granat, T.S.O.Y.W., was included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial.
Funding CreditsExposition de groupe is made possible with support from Dedalus Foundation, Inc., and the Cowles Charitable Trust.Programs at The Kitchen are supported with public funds from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
About The Kitchen
The Kitchen is one of New York City’s most forward-looking nonprofit spaces, showing innovative work by emerging and established artists across disciplines. Our programs range from dance, music, performance, and theater to video, film, and art, in addition to literary events, artists’ talks, and lecture series. Since its inception in 1971, The Kitchen has been a powerful force in shaping the cultural landscape of this country, and has helped launch the careers of many artists who have gone on to worldwide prominence.
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About Cultural Services of the French Embassy
The Cultural Services of the French Embassy provides a platform and resources for cultural exchange between French and American artists, intellectuals, curators, and arts professionals. Based in new York City, Washington D.C., and eight other cities across the US, the Cultural Services’ principal fields of action are the arts, literature, cinema, French language programs and higher education.
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For more information, please contact Patrick Leonard or Blake Zidell atBlake Zidell & Associates, 718.643.9052, patrick@blakezidell.com or blake@blakezidell.com.