Stephen Kaltenbach

About

PIEROGI is proud to introduce Conceptual artist, Stephen Kaltenbach, with two concurrent solo exhibitions: “What Death Does” at The Boiler in Brooklyn and “You Are Me.” at Pierogi in Manhattan, both curated by David E. Stone. The opening reception for “What Death Does” will be held at The Boiler on Thursday, February 21st from 6-9 pm. The opening reception for “You Are Me.” will be held at Pierogi on Saturday, February 23rd from 6-8 pm, with the artist in attendance at both events.

Stephen Kaltenbach is a pioneer of American Conceptual art, first active in New York during the 1960s and, from 1970 to the present, in Northern California creating works as one of his personas, Regional Artist. While in New York, in just three short years, he was busy producing a prolific body of vast and diverse work which challenged the limits of what can be considered art and how it could and should be exhibited. This vast array includes: Time Capsules, minimal sculpture, room constructions, kitsch paintings (attributed to another artist, Es Que?), rainbow buttons, half dollars cast in his own blood, bronze sidewalk plaques, and more. Kaltenbach placed a series of twelve anonymous advertisements in Artforum magazine between November 1968 and December 1969 consisting of phrases that he wrote which he privately referred to as “micro-manifestos.” The last ad cryptically was “You Are Me.”

The exhibition “You Are Me.” at Pierogi is an exploration of that energy and output. It is a survey of new work, re-examinations of classic work, and a focus on authorship, multiple personas, anonymity and authenticity, that demonstrates that Kaltenbach’s artistic oeuvre is as fresh and relevant today as it was in 1969.

“Kaltenbach’s departure [from the NYC art world in 1970] marked a rupture shot through with refusal and a defiance that critiqued the art establishment’s self-perceived exceptionalism. In one sense, it was a sharp break with the life and reputation he had built: He dramatically designated the action ‘Kill My Career.’ He was punk minus the anger, if such a thing exists. But Kaltenbach’s withdrawal to the margins was also a specific, premeditated art action integral to the development of his larger artistic project. …By dropping out, Kaltenbach was beginning a new, much larger and more radical, life-size art action.” He calls what he has done during this period …”the Elephant Project, 1970–, so named for its dizzying size and protracted, ongoing life span (forty years and counting).” (Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer, Artforum)

While most of Kaltenbach’s work is optimistic and occasionally humorous, there is another more somber side to some of his work. One could think of his Time Capsules as being tombs. Many of his works refer directly to death and morbidity like his “Bury with the Artist” time capsule or his “Coffin Cam Drawing.”

“What Death Does” at the Boiler features the premier installation of a three dimensional realization of Kaltenbach’s drawing of the same name. This includes a full-scale living room with no ceiling or roof, allowing rain to flow freely into the room and its furnishings, ultimately destroying its contents. Supplementing this work will be the original drawing, prints, time capsules, and other works that focus on the eventuality of death, all in the tomb-like environment of the Boiler exhibition space.

In writing about Kaltenbach’s Time Capsules, Daniel Byers (Curatorial Fellow at the Walker Art Center) wrote in the catalog for The Quick and The Dead, “Time Capsules, and their attendant acts of burial and excavation, also force a reckoning with death, confounding aging and decay with their timelessness and material preservation.”