The Moonlight Works
Organized by Ian L.C. Swordy
John Ashbery
Wallace Berman
Dan Catucci
CA Conrad
Noa Eshkol
Gabrielle Ferrer
Fryd Frydendahl
Loren Kramar
Chris Miller
Maren Miller
Maynard Monrow
Carter Spurrier
Ian L.C. Swordy
July 11 - August 17, 2019
press release
Moskowitz Bayse is pleased to present The Moonlight Works, an exhibition with works by John Ashbery, Wallace Berman, Dan Catucci, CA Conrad, Noa Eshkol, Gabrielle Ferrer, Fryd Frydendahl, Loren Kramar, Chris Miller, Maren Miller, Maynard Monrow, Carter Spurrier, and Ian L.C. Swordy. The Moonlight Works is organized by Ian L.C. Swordy.
The Moonlight Works takes as its point of departure the significance of daily practice in the integration of life and art. The exhibition considers the ways in which we place value on work in an age where labor is carefully categorized, measured, and monetized–most often, by one other than the self. In this context, it questions where the “work” in an artwork is located–whether in the performance of an object’s making, in the exchange between the object and the viewer, spread across them both, or held somewhere in between.
Artists included in the exhibition have found heightened symbiosis between work in and out of the studio. Roles in addition to artist–parent, teacher, writer, performer, bartender, organizer, peacekeeper, and others–are honored as platforms for engagement and function as a direct extension of daily practice. This kind of labor, often uncelebrated, unrecognized, or unseen, creates, maintains, and sustains communities–however personal, local, or public. Here, this kind of labor makes art and is art synchronously.
The moon, of course, does not generate its own light, but rather acts as a subdued mirror as it reflects and transforms sunlight back to us. Works created in the so-called moonlight are the result of steadfast commitment to a holistic dialogical approach, grounded in exchange and coexistence. In darkness, they guide as beacons of light.