In support of The Kitchen’s next 50 years
October 15, 2020–March 13, 2021
The Kitchen is pleased to announce the final phase of Ice and Fire: A Benefit Exhibition in Three Parts, featuring new artworks by artists from throughout the organization’s community in New York and beyond.
Organized by artists and Kitchen board members Wade Guyton and Jacqueline Humphries with The Kitchen’s curatorial team, Ice and Fire will raise crucial funds toward a renovation of our spaces in anticipation of The Kitchen’s 50th anniversary—helping ensure the organization will remain in the historic and beloved building it has called home in Chelsea since 1986.
This latest iteration takes place in all areas of The Kitchen—from gallery and theater to dressing room and offices—presenting new and major artworks by artists such as Ei Arakawa, John Armleder, Tauba Auerbach, Ed Atkins, Carol Bove, Tony Cokes, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Trisha Donnelly, Sam Falls, Peter Fischli, Mark Grotjahn, Mary Heilmann, Charline von Heyl, Michael Krebber, Louise Lawler, Robert Longo, Rodney McMillian, Senga Nengudi, Albert Oehlen, Virginia Overton, Laura Owens, Matthew Ritchie, Taryn Simon, Haim Steinbach, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rosemarie Trockel, Danh Vō, Lawrence Weiner, Christopher Williams, and Anicka Yi. Also among newly-installed works created for The Kitchen are sculptures by Rirkrit Tiravanija and Virginia Overton, and a video-based installation by Kevin Beasley and Ralph Lemon revisiting their collaborative performance Rant #3, staged at The Kitchen on February 28, 2020.
The Kitchen’s 19th Street space is open to the public only by appointment, in keeping with COVID-19 safety protocols. But Ice and Fire also takes speculative shape as a dynamic online viewing room featuring both installation views and images of featured artworks. Works from previous phases of Ice and Fire, including pieces by Cecily Brown, Simone Leigh, and others, remain on view here. Additionally, newly commissioned projects by artists Roe Ethridge and Tony Oursler document the exhibition, allowing viewers to see the installation and Kitchen building through the artists’ lenses.
The Kitchen is grateful to all these artists, as well as to our gallery and foundation partners, for their incredible generosity. Over the course of the exhibition, Exclusive Print Partner Absolut Art will also produce three benefit prints to raise funds for The Kitchen, the first of which was made by Lawrence Weiner. This partnership underscores the commitment that Absolut Art and The Kitchen share to making a diverse range of artworks accessible to a broad public.
The exhibition is named after The Kitchen’s inaugural event in our Chelsea space, New Ice Nights, which took place in January 1986 and was described as “two evenings of performance and media: a fire sale to accelerate the current thaw.”
To explore the Ice and Fire online viewing room, visit 512w19.thekitchen.org.
To learn more about Ice and Fire and the history of The Kitchen, read the exhibition text here.
