“The Cat Show” Exhibition
White Columns
This event has ended.
White Columns presents ‘The Cat Show’ curated by writer and artist Rhonda Lieberman, and developed in partnership with the Social Tees Animal Rescue, who will offer cats for adoption during ‘The Cats-in-Residence Program’ to be held in the gallery on June 14/15 and July 19/20.
CATS AND ART TOGETHER AT LAST
The Cat Show features adoptable purr-formers (a.k.a. cats).
“I Can Haz Art Show?”
Cats and their cartoonish antics rule today’s Internet. But in the real world, many are very unlucky, especially those that land in the city pound, which destroys a shocking number of healthy, frisky and ultra-adoptable cats simply because they have no more room. Rescue groups can only save a fraction of them. Better adoption outlets are needed - but they are a low priority for over-extended rescuers.
Art can help!
‘The Cat Show’ will celebrate cats of all shapes, sizes and subjectivities. The conceptual brainchild of writer, artist and curator Rhonda Lieberman, herself the custodian of (only!) two cats, this large, eclectic group show will include cat-alytic work by over 50 artists.
The centerpiece, ‘The Cats-in-Residence Program,’ will allow 10 cats from the Social Tees Animal Rescue in the East Village to lounge around and run amok in a pussy playground designed by Freecell with Gia Wolff, and hopefully even find purr-manent homes at the two adoption events that open and close the show. Every rescue cat adopted allows another one to be pulled from the city’s Department of Animal Control.
Recast as art objects/subjects as well as purr-formance artists, the rescue cats in the show have been all been anointed with art purr-sonas. “Meowrina Abramovic will be present,” says Lieberman. “as well as Bruce Meowman, Jeff Maine Coons, Claws Oldenburg, Alex Katz, Frida Kahlico and many others. ”
Lieberman’s felis-itous approach is meant to foster an unorthodox spirit of art-making and art-looking. “Art isn’t only for a meditative, aesthetic experience,” says Lieberman. “It can also be a conduit for the redemption of pussycats and people.” “The Cat Show” is not just about rescuing cats, it’s about re-skewing the notion of rescue with levity and gravity alike.
[Image: Sam Roeck “Contemporary Art Sculpture for Cats #2” (2013), Courtesy of the artist]
Media
Schedule
from June 14, 2013 to July 27, 2013
Opening Reception on 2013-06-13 from 18:00 to 20:00
Artist(s)
Michele Abeles, Rita Ackermann, Antonio Adams, Bill Adams, Laura Aldridge, Graham Anderson, Araki, Cory Arcangel et al.