LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) is proud to present a re-invention of Allan Kaprow’s seminal Happening –18 Happenings in 6 Parts – originally presented in 1959 at the Reuben Gallery in New York. The original work featured a cast of performers including Allan Kaprow, with Rosalyn Montague, Shirley Prendergast, Lucas Samaras, Janet Weinberger, Robert Whitman, Sam Francis, Red Grooms, Dick Higgins, George Segal, and others.
To re-invent this work in 2008, LACE invited artist Steve Roden to assemble a creative team, which includes Rae Shao-Lan Blum, Michael Ned Holte and Stephanie Smith. The team is joined by performers Simone Forti, Steve Irvin, Flora Wiegmann with Elonda Billera and Skylar Haskard creating key props and installations. They will bring this innovative and historically significant Happening to LACE, with performances April 22-26, 2008 beginning at 8pm. Special guests will join the performance each night. This new vision of the work is grounded in the team’s intensive research and dialogue, based on Kaprow’s original notes and writings. “I’d like to be sure that Kaprow’s intentions and ideas surrounding the work are not lost in attempts to replicate a historical moment.” (Steve Roden)
LACE, a non-profit art venue that thrives on experimentation and exploration, is proud to present the work of this incredibly influential and groundbreaking artist as part of the city-wide Happenings effort. 18 Happenings in 6 Parts is timed to coincide with the exhibition Allan Kaprow–Art as Life, on view at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, and organized by the Haus der Kunst München in cooperation with the Van Abbemuseum. The curatorial concept for this exhibition was developed in close collaboration with the recently deceased artist, and curators Stephanie Rosenthal (Munich) and Eva Meyer-Hermann (Eindhoven). One aspect of this large-scale retrospective is the re-invention of many of Kaprow’s Happenings, which will take place at 29 local institutions throughout Southern California. Thanks to a generous grant from the Getty Foundation, MOCA has invited Los Angeles-area art schools, academic institutions, arts organizations, museums, and artist-run spaces to reinvent a diverse selection of Kaprow’s Happenings. Happenings, a term coined by Allan Kaprow in the late 1950s, define an art form in which an action is extracted from the environment, replacing the traditional art object with a performative gesture rooted in the movements of everyday life.
Happenings are coordinated by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and made possible by generous support from the Getty Foundation. Allan Kaprow—Art as Life is organized by the Haus der Kunst, Munich, and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. The exhibition is on view at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA from March 23 to June 30, 2008. www.moca.org
