“New York Practice: Panel Discussion at Independent Curators International (ICI) with Noah Becker, Sue de Beer, and Ryan McNamara,” moderated by Meaghan Kent, August 1, 6:30-8pm, Independent Curators International (ICI), 401 Broadway, Suite 1620, TriBeCa, New York

image: Diane Arbus, Two Boys Smoking in Central Park N.Y.C, 1962

On August 1 at Independent Curators International (ICI), Meaghan Kent will moderate “New York Practice,” a panel discussion with artists Noah Becker, Sue de Beer, and Ryan McNamara. The conversation will focus on each individual’s practice through the lens of the panel’s experiences of living in New York City. The panel discussion is in conjunction with the SITE95 annual project, “Dead in August.”

“Dead in August (DiA)” is an exhibition and event series that uses available space in New York to create in-depth projects highlighting New York-based artists. “DiA” takes advantage of a seemingly down time in New York City and activates it with performances, screenings and exhibitions. In its third year, the exhibition and events of “DiA” will take place on the LILAC, located on Pier 25 in TriBeCa, New York. The LILAC is a 1933 steam-powered lighthouse tender that was decommissioned in 1972 and is now a museum ship. The exhibition on the LILAC will comprise site-specific installations by Peter Brock, Maureen Cavanaugh, Naomi Clark/Fort Makers, Myeongsoo Kim, Jordan Rathus, Colette Robbins, Chad Stayrook, Molly Surno, Naama Tsabar, and Byron Westbrook with scheduled events throughout the course of the exhibition. More information on site95.org.

SITE95 Journals will accompany the exhibition and events of “DiA.” Journal 02_05 will feature interviews with artists participating in the LILAC exhibition as well as a unique series of photographs of the LILAC by Cary Whittier. Journal 02_06 will include studio conversations with Noah Becker, Sue de Beer, Ryan McNamara, and Doug Ashford. Journals will be available online and in print at all accompanying events.

About the panel:

Artist Noah Becker was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1970 and grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and studied at the Victoria College of Art. Becker is Editor-in-Chief of Whitehot Magazine, an online contemporary art magazine he founded in 2006, and has written on contemporary art for numerous publications, including Art in America. In 2012, Becker produced “New York is Now,” a documentary chronicling the contemporary New York art world. A follow-up documentary, “The Secret History of Contemporary Art,” featuring Ornette Coleman and narrated by Anthony Haden-Guest, is set to debut in late 2013.

Sue de Beer lives and works in New York. De Beer collaborated with Andy Comer for the project ‘Radio Play,’ at The Kitchen in October 2009. Her work ‘Permanent Revolution’ was shown at MuHKA Museum in Antwerp in 2008, curated by Dieter Roelstraete. In 2011, De Beer presented “The Ghosts” in association with Art Production Fund at the Park Avenue Armory. The following year, the film traveled to Berlin in a solo exhibition at Christian Ehrentraut Gallery.

Ryan McNamara creates situation-specific works that collectively form an expanded view of participation within art production. His works involve other artists, viewers and dance professionals as collaborators. He forms a unique social discourse, developing events that break with traditional notions of performance and embrace realism and interaction as necessary aspects of viewing experience. The participants themselves are central to the primary activity or action and McNamara is the engaged enabler of a situation he has authored with an undefined final outcome. Recent projects include: “Survey: Personal Performances,” Showroom, MAMA Rotterdam, “And Introducing Ryan McNamara,” Collectorspace, Istanbul, and “To Be Real – performance and performativity,” Kunstmuseum Bonn.

Meaghan Kent is the Director and Chief Curator of site95. Kent was a gallery director for the past ten years and has worked at Casey Kaplan, Andrea Rosen Gallery, and I-20, managing the careers of internationally emerging and established artists and coordinating exhibitions locally and worldwide. Prior to her move to New York, Kent completed her MA in art history at George Washington University, Washington, DC and her BA at the College of Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2012, she participated in the ICI Curatorial Intensive in New York. Kent has written and curated independently, most recently contributing to Art in America. Recent curated exhibitions include: “City Limits: John James Anderson” at Locust Projects, Miami and “Trombly Rodriguez: The Fabric of a Space” at the Abrons Arts Center, New York.

“DiA” has been organized by Meaghan Kent with Maureen Cavanaugh, Tyler Gorky, Kaitlin Henderson, Pooja Kakar, and Molly Surno. Our great thanks to Mary Habstritt, Museum Director and President of the LILAC Preservation Project, and Kate Fowle, Renaud Proch, Maria del Carmen Carrión, and Misa Jeffereis of Independent Curators International (ICI). Further details on “DiA,” including biographies on each of the artists, can be found at site95.org. More information on the LILAC is located at lilacpreservationproject.org. Additional information on Independent Curators International is available at curatorsintl.org. Please contact info@site95.org with any questions.