Ceremonies Out of the Air: Ralph Lemon

About

This fall, MoMA PS1 will present a major exhibition of artist Ralph Lemon (b. 1952, Cincinnati), featuring more than forty artworks made over the last decade across disciplines and a program of six collaborative performances. Opening on November 14, 2024, Ceremonies Out of the Air comprises dance, drawings, photographs, sculpture, paintings, and video throughout the Museum’s expansive third-floor galleries, alongside a synchronous program of live works staged in a dedicated performance space. One of the most significant figures to emerge from New York’s downtown scene in the 1990s, Lemon engages deeply with the legacies of postmodern dance in the US and the capacity for storytelling through movement—reflecting on the state of performance in the museum, on stage, in celebration, and in daily life. Together, Lemon’s works position the body as an archive of raw emotion, physical labor, and received histories to challenge the ways we have been taught to see the world.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is Rant redux (2020–24), a major four-channel video and sound installation realized with Kevin Beasley and based on the live performance Rant (2019–ongoing). Composed of layered movement, sound, and video, this energetic tour de force is enacted by some of the most influential artists working in performance today—including Beasley, Okwui Okpokwasili, Samita Sinha, Darrell Jones, and Lemon himself. The opening weekend will feature an ensemble presentation of Tell it anyway (2024), commissioned and premiered by the Walker Art Center, and made in collaboration with Beasley, Okpokwasili, Sinha, Jones, April Matthis, Paul Hamilton, Mariama Nougera-Devers, Dwayne Brown, Angie Pittman, Roderick Murray, Mike Taylor, and Lysis (Ley). In spring 2025, a special presentation of Rant #6 will transpose the cinematic suspension of the Rant redux (2020-24) installation back into real time. A full schedule of performances will be announced in the lead-up to the exhibition.

Learn more about the exhibition on our website.

Ceremonies Out of the Air: Ralph Lemon is organized by Connie Butler, Director, MoMA PS1, and Thomas Lax, Curator, Department of Media and Performance, MoMA, with Kari Rittenbach, Assistant Curator, MoMA PS1.