Opening Reception:
Co-Prosperity Catskill
391 Main Street, Catskill, NY
Friday, March 31st, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
(March 31st - June 2nd, 2023) Public Media Institute and Co-Prosperity Catskill are thrilled to announce that Reckless Rolodex, a group exhibition that originated at Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois Chicago, will be exhibited at our gallery in Catskill, New York!
Curated by Matthew Goulish, Lin Hixson, and Caroline Picard, Reckless Rolodex presents the work of ten contemporary artists to highlight the lasting, though largely overlooked, influence of Chicago performance artist, writer, and filmmaker Lawrence Steger, unearthing an artistic predecessor too-easily marginalized by his early death in 1999.
The originating exhibition on view January-March 2023 was named as a “Must-See” in ArtForum, listed on New-City’sTop 5 list, and featured in the Chicago Reader and Art Papers.
“The exhibition imparts urgency and impresses intimacy upon Steger’s legacy and honors the artistic communities that continued in his absence. There is a type of magic that occurs when one is dislocated in time and place. It is in these moments that one can join something bigger than the self. This magic is what “Rolodex” offers viewers.” - The Chicago Reader
Exhibiting Artists
Susan Anderson, Lilli Carré, Edie Fake, Max Guy, Young Joon Kwak, Devin T. Mays, John Neff, Betsy Odom, Derrick Woods-Morrow, and Cherrie Yu.
About the Exhibition
Reckless Rolodex (March 31 - June 2) highlights the lasting, though largely overlooked, influence of Lawrence Steger, described by the Chicago Tribune as “one of the most important, and most influential, performance artists in Chicago during the late 1980s and 90s.” Lawrence Steger explored desire and sexuality in performance until his early death in 1999 due to AIDS-related complications. Rather than eulogize the artist’s life, Reckless Rolodex underlines Steger’s legacy through works by contemporary artists responding to his work and research practice. A skilled director, writer and performer, Steger relied on the disciplines of theater and a community of collaborative artists to realize his intricately constructed performances, reflecting his deep knowledge of a wide range of sources, from pop culture and film to the writing of Jean Genet and the Fluxus-style works of Yoko Ono. Mercurial, mordant, stylish, and comical, he presented himself refracted through historical figures such as Ludwig II, the nineteenth-century “Mad King” of Bavaria, or imaginary personas like nocturnal figures that populate cabaret dreams and nightmares.
Rather than eulogize the artist’s life, Reckless Rolodex underlines Steger’s legacy with a constellation of works by contemporary artists in response to his performances and research practices, engaging theatricality and transecting media and emotional registers to undermine the notion of a static self. Artist Edie Fake has designed a stage, central to the exhibition, for the presentation of performances, lectures, and conversations. Other works include an exploding cast of a mirror ball by Young Joon Kwak; paper masks by Max Guy; a gestural installation by Devin T. Mays; kitchen knives fabricated from graphite by Betsy Odom; a mattress sculpture by Derrick Woods-Morrow; an oversized ceramic door chain by Lilli Carré; a deconstructed archive wall painting by John Neff; a video work by Cherrie Yu exploring dance, labor, and mimicry; and Susan Anderson’s portrait of Steger. Exhibition essays by Joao Florencio and Matthew Goulish will be available in free publications.
Exhibition materials can be found in plain text and in audio recordings here.
Following the closure of Reckless Rolodex in June, Co-Prosperity Catskill’s subsequent exhibitions by artists Nicole Marroquin, Diana Solis, and Jen Delos Reyes will each incorporate the stage Edie Fake produced for Reckless Rolodex, illustrating how a conversation inspired by Lawrence Steger continues to unfold today.
Support
Reckless Rolodex originated at Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois Chicago January 13 to March 18, 2023 with support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency; and the School of Art & Art History, College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts, University of Illinois Chicago.
