MoMA Announces Winter Open House, 1/20

Sunday, January 20, 12-6PM MoMA hosts its Winter Open House to celebrate the opening of the exhibitions Cyprien Gaillard: The Crystal World, Ed Atkins, Metahaven: Islands in the Cloud, Jeff Elrod: Nobody Sees Like Us, and CONFETTISYSTEM: 100 Arrangements. On the occasion of the exhibition openings, Ed Atkins presents Depression, a performance which explores death, bodies, and disintegrating matter at 3PM and Cyprien Gaillard presents a performance program featuring Egyptian Lover and special guests at 4PM.

Cyprien Gaillard: The Crystal World
January 20-March 18

Cyprien Gaillard's (b. 1980, Paris) work navigates geographical sites and psychological states, addressing the relationship between architecture and nature, and evolution and erosion. Using a variety of artistic mediums ranging from painting and sculpture to photography, film, and video, Gaillard juxtaposes pictorial beauty and the atmospherically lush with elements of sudden violence, destruction, and idiosyncrasy culled from popular culture, pointing to the precarious nature of public space, social ritual, and the very viability of the notion of civilization. The artist's first solo exhibition in New York includes painting, sculpture, works on paper, and photographic collages, as well as five major cinematic works and site-specific works made in New York on the occasion of his MoMA PS1 presentation.

Organized by Klaus Biesenbach, Director, MoMA PS1, and Chief Curator at Large, The Museum of Modern Art, with Jocelyn Miller, Curatorial Assistant. The exhibition is supported by The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art.

Ed Atkins
January 20-April 1

Known for his high-definition videos that defy narrative conventions, Ed Atkins (British, b. 1982) works with filmic and text-based forms that are in technological transition. The exhibition-his first solo show in the United States-features a two-channel video and surround-sound installation, Us Dead Talk Love (2012), which focuses on a dialogue between two cadavers who reflect upon representation, immanence, and narcissism. Atkins describes the work as "a tragedy of love, intimacy, incoherence and eyelashes." Also included is a new single-channel work, Warm, Warm, Warm Spring Mouths (2013). On the occasion of the show, MoMA PS1 has published in a single-volume the artist's screenplays for the two works, which will be available for free in the galleries.

Organized by Peter Eleey, Curator, MoMA PS1, with Matthew Evans, Curatorial Assistant. The exhibition is made possible by the MoMA PS1 Annual Exhibition Fund.

Metahaven: Islands in the Cloud
January 20-April 1

Founded by Vinca Kruk and Daniel van der Velden in 2007 as a design and research studio, Metahaven has come to define a new methodology in graphic design. The studio's speculative practice privileges the vocabulary of graphic design as a means of knowledge production, using it as a tool to analyze organizational models and power structures. Investigating political and economic design-including nation branding and logo production-in relation to statehood, currency and information networks, Metahaven places particular emphasis on transparency and visibility. Recent activities have included a range of research, identity and product design for WikiLeaks, as well as proposals for the identity of Sealand, a self-proclaimed sovereign nation-state located on a platform built by the British seven miles off the English coast as part of a naval defense strategy during World War II. Materials from both projects are included in this exhibition, alongside elements relating to a new cloud hosting enterprise based in Iceland. Islands in the Cloud is the first museum show to focus on Metahaven's unique practice.