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Ari Benjamin Meyers: Kunsthalle for Music
September 21–November 3, 2019
Opening: Saturday, September 21, 2019
Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB) is pleased to announce the United States institutional debut of Berlin-based artist and composer, Ari Benjamin Meyers. Being exhibited for the first time in the United States, Kunsthalle for Music is dedicated to presenting music within the histories and environments of the visual arts. Co-founded with the Witte de With Center of Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, and Spring Workshop, Hong Kong, Kunsthalle for Music is comprised of a specially selected, local ensemble performing an on-site exhibition of musical works drawn from a “collection” that includes existing and newly commissioned solos, duets, and group pieces composed by Meyers and other artists.
Orchestrated by Meyers, the exhibition’s score is open to variations, which are determined by audience participation, by ensemble members, and by interaction in between audience and ensemble. This approach will translate into unique interpretations—an unrepeatable experience—every day. As such, visitors are encouraged to attend the exhibition more than once. Whenever the ensemble is not actively performing, Ari Benjamin Meyers: Kunsthalle for Music will still activate the museum space for visitors in various ways, including ensemble members using the space to rehearse or leaving recorded musical traces in their absence. More
Ari Benjamin Meyers: Kunsthalle for Music is curated by Abaseh Mirvali, Executive Director and Chief Curator, with curatorial support by Constanza Medina, Curatorial Research Associate.
Kunsthalle for Music was originally commissioned by Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, and developed in partnership with Spring Workshop, Hong Kong. Ari Benjamin Meyers is its Founder and Artistic Director.
Special thanks to Esther Schipper, Berlin, Germany.
N. Dash
November 22, 2019–February 2020
Opening: Friday, November 22, 2019
Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB) is pleased to announce the solo exhibition of New York–based artist N. Dash. The exhibition will present some of Dash’s most recent works, including multi-panel paintings and a selection from the artist’s ongoing “Commuter” drawing series.
The paintings, photographs, and drawings of N. Dash convey a profound tactile sensitivity through the artist’s manipulation of materials such as fabric, adobe, jute, polystyrene, paper, and string. Utilizing this wide variety of media with minute attention to detail, Dash constructs works that engage with visible and invisible forms of energy and movement: of bodily meridians, architectural circulation, and environmental flux. Transmuting rough materials such as jute, mud, and fabric scraps into meticulously finished surfaces, Dash’s work evokes the materially embodied yet intangible presence of attentive touch. More
N. Dash was organized by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and curated by Amy Smith-Stewart, Senior Curator. The expanded presentation at Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB) is curated by Abaseh Mirvali, Executive Director and Chief Curator.
Special thanks to Casey Kaplan, New York, USA; Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin, Germany; and Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium.
About the Museum
Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB) is a non-profit, non-collecting museum dedicated to the exhibition, education, and cultivation of the art of our time. Formerly Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum (CAF), MCASB is the premier venue for contemporary art between Los Angeles and San Francisco. MCASB is located at the Paseo Nuevo Upper Arts Terrace in downtown Santa Barbara, California. As the only contemporary art museum between Los Angeles and the Bay Area, MCASB believes that creative expression is a vital part of everyday life and an essential way to interact with the world, enabling a greater degree of empathy, insight, and imagination.
Media contact:
MCASB Communications Office
T +1 805 966 5373 x105 / communications [at] mcasantabarbara.org
