MoMA
Posts in ‘Artists’
September 16, 2016  |  Artists, Behind the Scenes
Art/Work: MoMA’s Creative Minds: Elizabeth Riggle

Elizabeth Riggle has been a full-time preparator at the Museum for 16 years (not counting the four years she was a temporary employee). Selflessly, Elizabeth gives her all to make every part of the exhibitions she works on perfect. Her attention to detail comes through in her lush, flowing, painterly works that mine an array of forms including flowers, bones, or comic book characters. A freedom of movement, play, and rich palettes happily seduce the viewer. Immerse yourself!

MoMA: When are you able to work on your artwork?

I live like I’m in the military. I have to be rigorous about my schedule weekends are not weekends. True for a lot of us in this position.

What is the best and worst part of being an artist working at the Museum?

September 13, 2016  |  Artists, Behind the Scenes
Art/Work: MoMA’s Creative Minds: Mark Williams

Mark has been a full-time preparator at the Museum for 22 years, as well as a practicing artist for over 40 years. He has exhibited extensively in the United States, Europe, and most recently in Asia. Mark’s unassuming, sweet demeanor belies an intelligent, articulate, and committed painter who has not shied away from experimenting and pushing his work in new directions. Take a look.

All artwork by Mark Williams. Beat. 1994. Acrylic on wood, 8” x 32”. “This is the first painting I made when I changed the guidelines of my art making.”

MoMA: When are you able to work on your artwork?
Evenings and weekends; I’m pretty disciplined about that. I look at each coming week and pencil in studio time. There is always something I can do even if it is 5 to 10 minutes. If I looked for the perfect block of time it would make it prohibitive to get any work done.

What is the best and worst part of being an artist working at the Museum?

Continuing the Conversation: How Will Art Solve Problems?

Kameelah Janan Rasheed leads Agora, How Will Art Solve Problems?, Wednesday July 6, 2016.
Photo: Manuel Martagon. © 2016 The Museum of Modern Art, New York

As part of the July 6 Agora series, I had the privilege of hosting a conversation with attendees addressing the question: How Will Art Solve Problems?

Continuing the Conversation: How Will Art Survive Us?
<img src="https://moma.org/wp/inside_out/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/MoMA_Agora_Tal_Beery_020.jpg" alt="Tal Beery with Agora participant from "How Will Art Survive Us?" Wednesday July 20, 2016, Photo: Manuel Martagon. © 2016 The Museum of Modern Art, New York" width="577" height="385" class="size-full wp-image-42598" />

Tal Beery with Agora participant from “How Will Art Survive Us?” Wednesday July 13, 2016, Photo: Manuel Martagon. © 2016 The Museum of Modern Art, New York

How Will Art Survive Us? I had the pleasure of presenting on this beautifully provocative topic at MoMA’s Agora program this past July. I discussed two works, one ongoing pedagogical project, School of Apocalypse at Pioneer Works, and one sculpture, Eroding Plazas and Accumulating Resistance, made with the Occupy Museums collective. Facing social and ecological changes that may threaten the very survival of our species, our times require large-scale collective adaptation. The arts, and arts institutions, are crucial here. They hold space for new stories and act as arenas for the rehearsal of new structures and modes of engagement that will be the most effective tools for surviving what we have become.

From the Archives: Faith Ringgold, the Art Workers Coalition, and the Fight for Inclusion at The Museum of Modern Art
Faith Ringgold. American People Series #20: Die. 1967. Oil on canvas, two panels, 72 × 144″ (182.9 × 365.8 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase; and gift of the Modern Women's Fund. © 2016 Faith Ringgold/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Faith Ringgold. American People Series #20: Die. 1967. Oil on canvas, two panels, 72 × 144″ (182.9 × 365.8 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase, and gift of Sarah Peter. © 2016 Faith Ringgold/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

After seeing Faith Ringgold’s monumental, harrowing painting, American People Series #20: Die (1967), currently installed in the Museum and reading Thomas J. Lax’s incredibly thoughtful and moving post (as well as this recent notice from ARTnews, I was inspired to reflect upon this new acquisition.

July 9, 2016  |  Artists, Collection & Exhibitions
How Do Black Lives Matter in MoMA’s Collection?

Less than a month after 49 people were killed and 53 wounded by a single gunman at a gay Latino party in Orlando, Florida, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile’s gruesome murders by police officers were captured on video and widely circulated. The two recordings of Sterling’s death were made by Abdullah Muflahi, a local store owner, and Arthur Reed, an activist, while Castile’s was made in a lucid, terrifying account by his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, under police duress as he died next to her. At least 5.4 million people have seen Reynolds’s video as of Saturday morning.

May 27, 2016  |  Artists, Collection & Exhibitions
Lasting Impressions: The Monotype Medium from Edgar Degas to Elizabeth Peyton

A selection of monotypes from the Museum’s collection currently on view highlights the unique qualities of this printmaking process and reflects an enduring interest in the monotype medium within the context of an extended investigation into one artist’s experimentation with the technique: the exhibition Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty. To create a monotype, an artist draws with ink or paint on a metal plate, which is then sandwiched with a damp sheet of paper and run through a printing press.

May 17, 2016  |  Artists, Learning and Engagement
Experiments in Engagement with Wafaa Bilal

As the fellow for public programs at MoMA, part of my focus is working with artists to develop experimental programs that position the Museum as a resource for the public, artists, and “non-artists” alike. This season, I worked with artist Wafaa Bilal to develop a two-day public workshop, Dynamic Encounters: Experiments in Engagement to develop, execute, and present what Bilal calls an “open-ended performance” workshop that became a space for experimentation not only for participants but for Bilal and the Museum as well.

May 6, 2016  |  Artists, Learning and Engagement
“It’s amazing we don’t have more fights”: A Workshop on Museum Intimacies

Two weekends ago I had the pleasure of facilitating “It’s amazing we don’t have more fights,” a workshop version of my ongoing project The Book of Everyday Instruction. The Book of Everyday Instruction is an eight-chapter project (continuing through the end of 2017) investigating one-on-one social interaction. Each chapter focuses on a different central question. For chapter four, “It’s amazing we don’t have more fights,” I want to know how we shape stories simply through the relationship of two bodies in space.

April 29, 2016  |  Artists, Collection & Exhibitions
Exploring the Legacy of Marcel Broodthaers with Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Rodney Graham

In 1964, the 40-year-old Marcel Broodthaers entered the world of art with his first solo exhibition. Until the early 1960s, he was a poet and photographer with ventures in filmmaking, journalism, and dealing books—but he had not yet exhibited visual art. He heralded his arrival on the art scene with an invitation printed in block lettering that declared: “I, too, wondered whether I could not sell something and succeed in life.” In this sideways shift, Broodthaers launched his own career with the same wit and skepticism that would characterize his approach to art.