In this exhibition curated by Kal Spelletich, 19 friends, colleagues and fans honor and reflect on the manner of Paul Kos.
In 1942, Marcel Duchamp created the collage In the Manner of Delvaux which announced his return, after a long absence, to New York City. It was a humorous double forgery that seemed to copy a detail of Paul Delvaux's Aurore (1937) while being different in every way. It was also the first crucial work in forging a bridge, via the “infra-thin” and the related concept of the “renvoi miroirique” (“mirrorical return”), between The large glass and Étant donnés, the two major works of his career. Paul Kos’s piece Symmetry functions as a similar gesture, invoking Duchamp’s double entendre and providing the context for this group exhibition.
Paul Kos, born in 1942 in Rock Springs, Wyoming, has inspired and taught countless artists in their work and life. Together with some of his contemporaries like Bonnie Ora Sherk, Denis Oppenheim, Bruce Nauman and Rebecca Horn, he was of the first artists to incorporate video, sound and interactivity into his sculptural installations. Paul has been drawn to the integrity of materials and in finding a place where material, play, chance and meaning can magically come together.
In the Manner of Paul Kos bridges the gap between generations, thought processes, and media, including video, performance, drawing, installation and writing. It offers both an homage to Paul and, referentially, Duchamp’s conceptual legacy.
Featured artists: Rhonda Holberton, Maggie Preston, Jennifer Locke, Chris Sollars, Terry Allen, Cliff Hengst, Chris Cobb, Gay Outlaw, Will Rogan, Justin Hoover, Léonie Guyer, Julien Berthier, Stefan Maier, Ian Treasure, Clive McCarthy, Michael Zheng, William T. Vollman, Kal Spelletich, and essay by Steven Wolf.