The Kitchen is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary avant-garde performance and experimental art institution located at 512 West 19th Street , between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan , New York City . As the organization undergoes a multi-year renovation it is currently sited at a satellite loft space in the West Village located at 163B Bank Street, where exhibitions and performances are regularly held. It was founded in Greenwich Village in 1971 by Steina and Woody Vasulka , who were frustrated at the lack of an outlet for video art. The space takes its name from the original location, the kitchen of the Mercer Arts Center which was the only available place for the artists to screen their video pieces. Although first intended as a location for the exhibition of video art, The Kitchen soon expanded its mission to include other forms of art and performance, and incorporated as a not-for-profit arts organization in 1973. In 1974, The Kitchen relocated to a building at the corner of Wooster and Broome Streets in SoHo . In 1987 it moved to its current location in Manhattan, New York City.
24-1034: The first music director of The Kitchen was composer Rhys Chatham . The venue became known as a place where many no wave artists like Glenn Branca , Lydia Lunch and James Chance performed. Notable Kitchen alumni also include Philip Glass , Laurie Anderson , Rocco Di Pietro , John Moran , Jay Scheib , Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, Peter Greenaway , Michael Nyman , Steve Reich , Pauline Oliveros , Gordon Mumma , Frederic Rzewski , Ridge Theater, The Future Sound of London , Leisure Class , Elliott Sharp , Brian Eno , Arthur Russell , Meredith Monk , Arleen Schloss , Vito Acconci , Keshavan Maslak , Elaine Summers , Lucinda Childs , Bill T. Jones , David Byrne / Talking Heads , chameckilerner , John Jasperse , Bryce Dessner , Nico Muhly , Dave Soldier , Soldier String Quartet , Komar and Melamid , ETHEL , Chris McIntyre, Sylvie Degiez, Wayne Lopes/CosmicLegends, Cindy Sherman , and Swans . Today, The Kitchen focuses on presenting emerging artists, most of whom are local, and
48-527: A Nicolas Ballet curated exhibition entitled Who You Staring At: Visual culture of the no wave scene in the 1970s and 1980s . A video documenting the Pompidou March 8 event XS: The Opera Opus: An Operatic Transvaluation of No Wave Aesthetics by Joseph Nechvatal and Rhys Chatham was held and published online at the Pompidou website. Artforum Too Many Requests If you report this error to
72-411: A collaboration with dancer Karole Armitage . Drastic Classicism was first released in 1982 on the compilation New Music from Antarctica , put together by Kit Fitzgerald, John Sanborn and Peter Laurence Gordon . It was also included on the 1987 album that also included his 1982 composition Die Donnergötter (German for " The Thundergods "). In 1978, Artists Space served as a site of inception for
96-478: A program of video distribution, when video was still considered an experimental form. The Kitchen moved uptown to 512 West 19th Street, a former ice house , to begin the spring 1986 season and subsequently purchased the space in 1987. The inaugural event series in The Kitchen's new home was entitled New Ice Nights . In 1991 The Kitchen held its twentieth anniversary celebration: The Kitchen Turns Twenty with
120-492: A retrospective mini-music festival entitled Five Generations of Composers , as well as a re-creation of Jean Dupuy ’s Soup and Tart , entitled: Burp: Soup and Tart Revisited . The Kitchen remains a space for interdisciplinary and experimental work by focusing its programming on emerging artists. In fall of 2011, after seven years as the Executive Director and Chief Curator of The Kitchen, Debra Singer handed over
144-566: Is best known for his "guitar orchestra" compositions. He has lived in France since 1987. Chatham began his musical career as a piano tuner for avant-garde Minimalist composer La Monte Young as well as harpsichord tuner for Gustav Leonhardt , Rosalyn Tureck and Glenn Gould . He studied flute under Sue Ann Kahn, with whom he first encountered contemporary classical music , and studied soon afterwards under electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick and minimalist icon La Monte Young . He
168-406: Is committed to advancing work that is experimental in nature. Its facilities include a 155-seat black box performance space and a gallery space for audio and visual exhibitions. The Kitchen presents interdisciplinary work in music, dance, performance, video, film, visual art, and literature. Looking for a way to present their work to a public audience, Steina and Woody Vasulka rented the kitchen of
192-707: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts ). In 2021, the Kitchen named Legacy Russell as the institution's next Executive Director and Chief Curator. In 2014, the Getty Research Institute announced its acquisition of The Kitchen’s archives , including 5,410 videotapes and more than 600 audiotapes, as well as photographs and ephemera documenting performances, exhibitions and events staged from 1971 to 1999. Also included in
216-501: The 90s to its present more dreamy and laid back approach to playing the instrument, influenced by players such as Don Cherry and Jon Hassell . Examples of this style can be heard on Chatham's releases, The Bern Project , released by Hinterzimmer Records in 2010, and Outdoor Spell , released in 2011 by Northern Spy. In 2023 Chatham and his No Wave XS: The Opera Opus was featured at the Paris Centre Pompidou in
240-593: The Flesh . (This parallels the way that members of fellow NYC noise rockers Sonic Youth began their careers in Branca's ensembles; Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth did play with Chatham as well.) Chatham began playing trumpet in 1983, studying under Carmine Curuso and Andrew Crocker, and his more recent works explore an early minimalist vocabulary employing loop and delay techniques for trumpet; these are performed by Chatham himself. Examples of this work can be heard on
264-678: The Mercer Arts Center, in the former Broadway Central Hotel in Greenwich Village, Manhattan . (The Mercer Arts Center was an important venue for music and theater performance in New York City from 1971 to 1973.) The Vasulkas, with help from Andy Mannik, opened The Kitchen as a presentation space for video artists on June 15, 1971. Later that year, the Vasulkas added music to their programming and named Rhys Chatham
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#1732790193961288-534: The No Wave movement, hosting a five night underground No Wave music festival, organized by artists Michael Zwack and Robert Longo , that featured ten local bands; including Chatham's The Gynecologists and Tone Death. Members of the New York City noise rock band Band of Susans began their careers in Chatham's ensembles; they later performed a cover of Chatham's "Guitar Trio" on their 1991 album, The Word and
312-609: The album Outdoor Spell , released by Northern Spy in 2011, and a recent duo album with Charlemagne Palestine , entitled Youuu + Mee = Weee , released on the Belgium SubRosa Label in 2014. In 2002, he enjoyed a resurgence following the release of a limited-edition 3 CD retrospective box set on the record label Table of the Elements , An Angel Moves Too Fast to See: Selected Works 1971-1989 , complete with 130-page booklet. The An Angel Moves Too Fast to See part of
336-451: The archive are 246 posters designed by artists like Robert Longo and Christian Marclay . 40°44′44″N 74°00′25″W / 40.745452°N 74.006846°W / 40.745452; -74.006846 Rhys Chatham Rhys Chatham (born September 19, 1952) is an American composer, guitarist, trumpet player, multi-instrumentalist (flutes in C, alto and bass, keyboard), primarily active in avant-garde and minimalist music. He
360-492: The first music director. The Kitchen continued their eclectic programming at the Mercer Arts Center until the summer of 1973 when they began planning to move to 59 Wooster Street. On August 3, 1973, the building that housed the Mercer Arts Center collapsed, making this decision final. By 1973, the Vasulkas and Rhys Chatham moved on to other projects and hired a talented arts administrator, Robert Stearns, to take over as executive director. The visual artist/composer Jim Burton became
384-431: The new music director. The 1973–1974 season started in The Kitchen's new location at the corner of Wooster and Broome streets in the former LoGiudice Gallery Building. During its time on 59 Wooster Street The Kitchen emerged as New York's premiere avant-garde and experimental arts center. In addition to a performance space, a gallery and video viewing room were established at this location. At new location, The Kitchen began
408-407: The original film by Robert Longo that was projected behind the performance, entitled Pictures for Music (1979). The sets consisted of local musicians from each city of the performances, including members of Sonic Youth, Tortoise , Godspeed You! Black Emperor , Hüsker Dü , Brokeback , 90 Day Men , Town & Country , Die Kreuzen , Bird Show and others. A three-CD box set of these performances
432-553: The reins to former Artforum Editor-in-Chief Tim Griffin . In 2012, Hurricane Sandy flooded The Kitchen with four feet of water from the Hudson River , causing damage of about $ 450,000. With insurance only covering less than half the loss from the storm, the Kitchen received grants from Time Warner and the Art Dealers Association of America, as well as from nonprofit organizations and foundations (like
456-610: The title comes from Chatham's 1989 composition for one hundred guitars. He has been since touring with his one-hundred guitar orchestra in Europe. In 2005, he was commissioned by the city of Paris, in his adopted homeland, to write a composition for 400 electric guitars entitled A Crimson Grail , as part of the Nuit Blanche Festival. Approximately 10,000 people were present at the performance, and 100,000 more watched it on live television. A CD of excerpts from this concert
480-527: Was a member of Young's avant-garde group, Theatre of Eternal Music during the early seventies. Chatham also played with Tony Conrad in an early version of Conrad's group, The Dream Syndicate . In 1971, while still in his teens, Chatham became the first music director at the experimental art space The Kitchen in lower Manhattan. His early musical work, such as Two Gongs (1971) owes a significant debt to La Monte Young and other minimalists such as Terry Riley and Philip Glass . By 1977, Chatham's music
504-615: Was heavily influenced by punk rock , having seen an early Ramones concert. He formed the No Wave groups Tone Death (that performed early versions of his Guitar Trio ) and The Gynecologists after being intrigued and influenced by the group of artists that music critics would label No Wave in 1978. That year, he began performing Guitar Trio around downtown Manhattan with an ensemble that included Glenn Branca , as well as Nina Canal of Ut . During this period, he wrote several works for large guitar ensembles, including Drastic Classicism ,
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#1732790193961528-694: Was on August 8, 2008. Two-hundred electric guitarists performed the piece at the Damrosch Park Bandshell in New York City. The performance was part of a free concert series, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, that was being commissioned by the Lincoln Center . But rain canceled the concert for safety reasons. For the 2009 premiere, precautions were taken so that the concert could go on even if it rained. Concurrent with his work for guitar orchestras and smaller ensembles, Chatham's trumpet style has evolved from its characteristic distorted sound of
552-553: Was released by Table of the Elements in March 2008. Rhys Chatham made his first American presentation of a composition for a one-hundred guitar orchestra in Williamsport, Pennsylvania , on May 23, 2008, with an orchestra composed of local students and teachers, as well as many professional guitarists. This performance was the premiere of a new composition entitled Les 100 Guitares: G100 . The American premiere of A Crimson Grail
576-576: Was released in January 2007 by Table of the Elements. Rhys Chatham was touring the original 30 minute version of Guitar Trio in the USA and Europe, renamed G3 because the instrumentation had been increased to between six and ten electric guitars, electric bass and drums. In February 2007 he completed a twelve-city tour called the Guitar Trio (G3) Is My Life North America Tour , which was accompanied by
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