Today Dia announced programmatic highlights in 2021 across its 11 sites. Exhibitions include the reopening of Dia Chelsea with an exhibition of new work by Lucy Raven, following a two-year-long building project; five new exhibitions at Dia Beacon of work by Charles Gaines, Joan Jonas, Imi Knoebel, Charlotte Posenenske, and Franz Erhard Walther, as well as the reinstallation of work by Fred Sandback; a new exhibition at Dia Bridgehampton of work by Maren Hassinger; and the release of the second part of Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme’s Artist Web Project.
The newly expanded and renovated Dia Chelsea reopens in April 2021 with an exhibition by multidisciplinary American artist Lucy Raven, who has been working with Dia for over four years on several large-scale commissioned installations.
Dia Chelsea offers free admission to its exhibitions on reopening, which marks a milestone for Dia: all five of its locations and sites in New York City are soon to be free to all.
For more information about Dia’s new opening hours, ticketing, and health and safety protocols, please visit our Visitor Guidelines page.
Dia Chelsea
537 West 22nd Street, New York, New York
Lucy Raven
April 2021–January 2022
The expanded and upgraded Dia Chelsea reopens in April 2021 with an exhibition of newly commissioned work by Lucy Raven. Following a four-year engagement with Dia, Raven presents the film Ready Mix (2021) and a new installation from her Casters series (2021). Together these two projects address the formation and depiction of landscapes and civic spaces, particularly of the western United States, and simultaneously propose abstraction as a tool for (re)perceiving these spaces.
Dia Beacon
3 Beekman Street, Beacon, New York
Charles Gaines
Opening February 12, 2021, Long-Term View
This focused, collection-based survey follows Dia’s recent acquisition of a body of work by Charles Gaines. The exhibition brings the artist’s first mathematically determined grid drawings and early experiments with transcribing photographic images into numerical notations together with more recent investigations into how image, identity, and language are represented and deconstructed.
Charlotte Posenenske
Opening March 26, 2021, Long-Term View
Following the major 2019 exhibition at Dia Beacon, Charlotte Posenenske: Work in Progress, this display consists of a number of works subsequently acquired by Dia, shown in an entirely new configuration. Spanning one of the largest galleries at Dia:Beacon and shown in close proximity to collection-based displays of contemporaneous German artists Imi Knoebel and Franz Erhard Walther, this presentation expands the narrative of this period of art in Germany.
Franz Erhard Walther
Opening April 16, 2021, Long-Term View
Franz Erhard Walther is recognized for his five-decade-long investigation into the spatial, sensorial, and temporal dimensions of forms. Spanning Walther’s early creative output between the years 1963 and 1973, this collection-based display at Dia Beacon brings together 58 of his working drawings that relate to 1. Werksatz (First Work Set, 1963–69).
Imi Knoebel
Opening May 28, 2021, Long-Term View
Imi Knoebel’s work of the 1960s and 1970s grapples with questions of presentation, installation, and form. In the mid-1970s, Knoebel began working with abstract shapes layered with a type of paint typically used for industrial purposes. The ten-part series Mennigebilder (1976) features some of his earliest production in this vein, pairing abstract form and utilitarian use of lead pigment. Although the Mennigebilder entered Dia’s collection in 1982, the series has never before been shown in the United States. This presentation follows important restoration work on the series and also includes additional work by the artist.
Joan Jonas
Opening October 8, 2021, Long-Term View
This exhibition brings together three collection works by Joan Jonas, a founding figure of video and performance art during the 1960s and 1970s. Presented in the lower-level galleries, Dia’s display features the large-scale installation The Shape, the Scent, the Feel of Things (2004), a performance commission that premiered at Dia in 2005–06, as well as two additional recently acquired works.
Fred Sandback
Opening December 2021, Long-Term View
Using subtle methods and an economy of materials, Fred Sandback’s work creates striking perceptual effects in response to the surrounding architecture. Previously on view since the opening of Dia Beacon in 2003, and following a pause of three years, a long-term installation of several Sandback’s yarn works from Dia’s collection returns to the galleries in winter 2021.
Dia Bridgehampton
23 Corwith Avenue, Bridgehampton, New York
Maren Hassinger
June 2021–May 2022
Continuing Dia’s engagement with artists who have lived and worked on Long Island, Maren Hassinger presents a new exhibition at Dia Bridgehampton in summer 2021. During the exhibition, the artist expands on her community gatherings and will engage with the local region.
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, May amnesia never kiss us on the mouth
Part II, Launching Online Summer 2021
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme launch part two of their new online work as part of Dia’s long-standing Artist Web Projects series. A co-commission with The Museum of Modern Art, May amnesia never kiss us on the mouth (2020– ) revolves around collected online recordings of everyday people singing and dancing in communal spaces in Iraq, Palestine, and Syria. This work brings these recordings together with new performances conceived by the artists, a dancer, and a group of musicians in the cultural underground in Ramallah, Palestine.
Dia Art Foundation
Taking its name from the Greek word meaning “through,” Dia was established in 1974 with the mission to serve as a conduit for artists to realize ambitious new projects, unmediated by overt interpretation and uncurbed by the limitations of more traditional museums and galleries. In addition to Dia Beacon and Dia Chelsea, Dia maintains and operates a constellation of commissions, long-term installations, site-specific projects, and Land art, nationally and internationally. As part of a strategic and comprehensive plan to further advance its mission, program, and ongoing operations, Dia is currently upgrading and expanding its principal programming spaces of Dia Chelsea, Dia SoHo, and Dia Beacon. The revitalized Dia Chelsea opens in April 2021.
Dates are subject to change. Please confirm information with the press office prior to publication. For additional information or materials, visit diaart.org, email press@diaart.org, or call T 212 293 5518.
