anonymous presents If Work a group exhibition which brings together new and existing works by nine artists from the 2023–23 Interdisciplinary Art and Theory Program (IATP), on view from August 3–19, 2023. The exhibition is curated by Francesca Altamura and Miranda Samuels. A publication, organized by Kiyoto Koseki and Laura Genes, will feature contributions by the participating artists, as well as a curatorial statement written by Christine Bootes.
If Work brings into conversation artists, curators and writers who have spent the past year investigating the relationship between art and labor for the 2022-23 Interdisciplinary Art and Theory Program. Its title is drawn from IATP’s Distinguished Faculty Guest Julia Bryan-Wilson and her text Art Workers: Radical Practice in the Vietnam War Era, which traces the development of the ‘art worker’ in the 1970s as a collective political identity. What the category implies, she argues, is that the labor of art has shifted from a focus on the processes of artmaking and towards the broader socio-political matrices in which artists produce. The writings of philosopher Herbert Marcuse are identified as exercising particular influence on this transition, as he believed that revolution should synthesize work and art: “If work were accompanied by a reactivation of pre-genital polymorphous eroticism, then it would tend to become gratifying in itself without losing its work content.” That is, if work were combined with instinctual gratification—play—then it would be pleasurable without losing productivity, a bulwark against alienated labor.
Many artists in If Work return to objects themselves as implicit sites of both play and work by foregrounding themes of process, materiality, experimentation, and performance. Others marshal forms such as the comic book or public sculpture to surface counter-histories of collective, collaborative labor. Though they embrace a range of conceptual tactics and media, what all share is a concern for the interactions between artmaking and the social, intellectual, and political systems in which art operates. Indeed, the debates articulated by Bryan-Wilson in Art Workers are germane to our contemporary era. Though their contours have changed, the unionization drives; ascendence of liberation movements; critiques of capitalism; and proposals for radically alternative modes of living remain relevant to the current climate.
IATP was founded in 2018 by writer Avi Alpert, artist Anthea Behm, as well as artist Co-Director of Graduate Studies in Painting/Printmaking at Yale University Meleko Mokgosi, as a spin-off of the Whitney Independent Study Program. “Founded in 2018, the IATP takes questions around the gnoseological as its point of departure. It is a space to question how particular aesthetic objects are historicized and institutionalized, to ask questions around who benefits from the construction of specific discursive frameworks, and to think through what sorts of strategies are available for challenging established conventions and canons; for "re-discovering what the canon's priestly mantle would conceal" as Griselda Pollock puts it,” says Mokgosi. Tuition-free and running over the course of the academic year, the Program provides weekly seminars and workshops to examine dominant and underrecognized frameworks for the production, distribution, and consumption of art. “[We were] interested in the idea of the Free School – to set up a structure that did the same kind of teaching that we were doing in formal universities to people who are paying a lot more, but for free. Carbon offset,” says Alpert. Grounded in the global tradition of critical theory, the Program is designed to help practitioners in the fine arts and adjacent fields deepen their understanding of the art institution and build a critical community around their work. IATP is kindly supported by Jack Shainman Gallery since its inception.
The 2022-23 IATP cohort––a mix of artists, curators, organizers and researchers, all balancing day-jobs and other professional commitments––met weekly for seminars, lectures, and symposia dedicated to the theme of art and labor. Seminars were led by core faculty including Meleko Mokgosi, Kristen Hileman, and Isabel Venero and guests including Adelita Husni-Bey, William Powhida, Ciarán Finlayson, and Dana Kopel, among others. The schedule featured distinguished lectures with Professors Boris Groys and Julia Bryan-Wilson in the Fall and Spring respectively, as well as workshops on labor organizing and vocational topics including teaching job applications. Guest faculty from previous years have included Mary Kelly, Diana Al-Hadid, Paulina Pobocha, Jane Pannetta, Gabriel Rockhill, Mia Locks, and Che Gossett, among many others. Alumni from the program include American Artist, Justin Sterling, Lila Nazemian and Umber Majeed, among many others.
Participating Artists
Gita Blak
Brett Ginsburg
Kearra Amaya Gopee
Annabelle Heckler
Li-Ming Hu
Chris Kojzar
Kiyoto Koseki
Naomi Lisiki
Lily Moebes
Kayla Weisdorf
About the Interdisciplinary Art and Theory Program
The Interdisciplinary Art and Theory Program is a free continuing education program based in New York City. The program facilitates the examination of both dominant and underrecognized epistemological frameworks that inform the system of art, including its production, consumption, distribution, and exhibition. Participants include artists, critics, curators and other creatives. The program has been conceived to help art-makers to deepen and develop their understanding of the art institution, as well as its place in confronting the violences and inequalities of the present. Every year, the program will be structured around a general theme or concept, which will be studied in more specific terms through readings and seminars hosted by seminar leaders and visiting faculty. artandtheoryprogram.org
2022-2023 Seminars
The 2022-2023 seminars have examined themes around art and labor, with a focus on historical, political, and aesthetic perspectives related to conventional and non-conventional notions of art and labor practices. Seminars have considered a range of methods for analyzing cultural labor and the role of artists within the context of different political economies, looking at historical and recent theoretical texts published by and about arts workers as well as adjacent global art historical movements.
The Fall distinguished lecture was delivered by Professor Boris Groys, and the Spring by Professor Julia Bryan-Wilson. Seminars have been led by Avi Alpert, Gordon Barnes Jr, Ciarán Finlayson, Oliver Herring, Adelita Husni-Bey, Kristen Hileman, Meleko Mokgosi, William Powhida, Miranda Samuels and Isabel Venero. Guest workshop leaders and studio visitors have included Shobun Baile, Dana Kopel, Orlee Malka, Vijay Masharani, Jennifer Pranolo, and Emma Safir.
2022–23 Cohort
Francesca Altamura
Željka Blakšić aka Gita Blak
Christine Bootes
Gabrielle Figueroa
Laura Genes
Brett Ginsberg
Kearra Amaya Gopee
Annabelle Heckler
Li-Ming Hu
Chris Kojzar
Kiyoto Koseki
Jen Liu
Naomi Lisiki
Lily Moebes
Kayla Weisdorf
Press Contact
Miranda Samuels, artandtheoryprogram@gmail.com