Kathe Burkhart
21 Oct 2007 - 21 Jan 2008
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center is proud to present Kathe Burkhart's first solo U.S. museum exhibition. The core of this exhibition will be a selection from her signature Liz Taylor Series of paintings, and an installation which incorporates the film stills comprising the source material for this ongoing series. Also featured are works in installation, photography, and video. This exhibition will be on view from October 21, 2007 through January 21, 2008.
Working since the early 1980s, Burkhart has consistently and frankly engaged gender roles, sexuality, celebrity, performativity, and language in an interdisciplinary practice. Her Liz Taylor Series uses Pop Art imagery and assemblage to critique representation and the sexual politics of identity. Images of Liz Taylor overlaid with profanities provide a platform in which Burkhart addresses feminist resistance, female dominance and sexual power. Additionally, the exhibition will feature haikus by the artist, who is also known as a writer. The poems will be presented as wall pieces in dark and white chocolate lettering.
Just as the Liz Taylor Series deconstructs the genre of the self portrait, and the Hardcore series of digital photographs on canvas deconstructs the still life, Burkhart’s new photography series reconfigures the genre of the nude. The exhibition premieres these new inkjet prints from a series of covert documentary-style portraits taken at clothing-optional public beaches. The performative nature of this work positions the artist as both a voyeur and a participant, and the camera becomes the recording device capturing the limits of bodily freedoms.
Part diary, part documentary, part love letter from afar to the Netherlands, Persephone 02 is a video by Burkhart also on view. It is a montage using the ancient Greek myth of Persephone as a contemporary metaphor for the subject of transnational identity and the dual identities of immigrant and expatriate that it encompasses.
Kathe Burkhart is an interdisciplinary artist and writer. Her visual art has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally, including the 1993 Venice Biennale; SMAK Museum, Ghent, Belgium; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina; Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York; Banff Centre for the Arts, Alberta, Canada; The FlashArt Museum, Trevi, Italy; Galleria d' Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy; and the Groningen and Helmond Museums, Netherlands, among others. She has had 30 solo exhibitions, including Participant Inc, Alexander Gray Associates, Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, and Galerie Lumen Travo, Amsterdam. Her work appeared on the cover of Flash Art in December 1990, and was the subject of leading article, "Bad Girl Made Good." She is the author of three books of fiction, Between the Lines, Hachette, Litteratures, January 2005; Deux Poids, Deux Mesures (The Double Standard) Participant Press 2005 and Hachette Litteratures, Paris, 2002; and From Under the 8 Ball, LINE, 1985. She teaches art and critical theory at New York University, and divides her time between New York and Amsterdam. The Liz Taylor Series: The First Twenty Five Years, is forthcoming from Regency Arts Press in October.
Kathe Burkhart is organized by P.S.1 Curatorial Advisor Lia Gangitano.
The exhibition is supported by the Mondriaan Foundation.
Working since the early 1980s, Burkhart has consistently and frankly engaged gender roles, sexuality, celebrity, performativity, and language in an interdisciplinary practice. Her Liz Taylor Series uses Pop Art imagery and assemblage to critique representation and the sexual politics of identity. Images of Liz Taylor overlaid with profanities provide a platform in which Burkhart addresses feminist resistance, female dominance and sexual power. Additionally, the exhibition will feature haikus by the artist, who is also known as a writer. The poems will be presented as wall pieces in dark and white chocolate lettering.
Just as the Liz Taylor Series deconstructs the genre of the self portrait, and the Hardcore series of digital photographs on canvas deconstructs the still life, Burkhart’s new photography series reconfigures the genre of the nude. The exhibition premieres these new inkjet prints from a series of covert documentary-style portraits taken at clothing-optional public beaches. The performative nature of this work positions the artist as both a voyeur and a participant, and the camera becomes the recording device capturing the limits of bodily freedoms.
Part diary, part documentary, part love letter from afar to the Netherlands, Persephone 02 is a video by Burkhart also on view. It is a montage using the ancient Greek myth of Persephone as a contemporary metaphor for the subject of transnational identity and the dual identities of immigrant and expatriate that it encompasses.
Kathe Burkhart is an interdisciplinary artist and writer. Her visual art has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally, including the 1993 Venice Biennale; SMAK Museum, Ghent, Belgium; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina; Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York; Banff Centre for the Arts, Alberta, Canada; The FlashArt Museum, Trevi, Italy; Galleria d' Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy; and the Groningen and Helmond Museums, Netherlands, among others. She has had 30 solo exhibitions, including Participant Inc, Alexander Gray Associates, Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, and Galerie Lumen Travo, Amsterdam. Her work appeared on the cover of Flash Art in December 1990, and was the subject of leading article, "Bad Girl Made Good." She is the author of three books of fiction, Between the Lines, Hachette, Litteratures, January 2005; Deux Poids, Deux Mesures (The Double Standard) Participant Press 2005 and Hachette Litteratures, Paris, 2002; and From Under the 8 Ball, LINE, 1985. She teaches art and critical theory at New York University, and divides her time between New York and Amsterdam. The Liz Taylor Series: The First Twenty Five Years, is forthcoming from Regency Arts Press in October.
Kathe Burkhart is organized by P.S.1 Curatorial Advisor Lia Gangitano.
The exhibition is supported by the Mondriaan Foundation.