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2/3/2010

Skin Fruit

New Museum, New York

Curated by Jeff Koons

"Skin Fruit" will be the first exhibition in the United States of the Athens-based Dakis Joannou Collection, renowned as one of the leading collections of contemporary art in the world. This will also be the first exhibition curated by Koons, whose early work inspired the evolution of the Joannou collection.

"Skin Fruit" will include over 100 works by 50 international artists spanning several generations. Focusing on the body in contemporary art, the exhibition will spotlight the age-old preoccupation with the human form as a vessel of and vehicle for experience. Koons’s title "Skin Fruit" alludes to notions of genesis, evolution, original sin, and sexuality. Skin and fruit evoke the essential tensions between interior and exterior, between what we see and what we consume.

Starting with the first, now-legendary exhibitions, such as "Artificial Nature" and "Post Human," at his DESTE Foundation’s non-profit museum in Athens, Dakis Joannou has focused on works that present a new image of man. It is no coincidence that his collection developed in the cultural context of Greece, where Classical sculpture defined the Western canon of anatomical representation. Artists have arrived at a much more uncertain image of mankind in this new century, in which bodies are still idealized but also are assaulted by forces of our own making. Joannou’s collection is comprised of more than 1,500 works by 400 contemporary artists, from the most eminent to those just emerging. For "Skin Fruit," Koons has selected sculptures, works on paper, paintings, installations, and videos by a group of artists including David Altmejd, Janine Antoni, Matthew Barney, Nathalie Djurberg, Robert Gober, Mike Kelley, Terence Koh, Mark Manders, Paul McCarthy, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Kiki Smith, Christiana Soulou, Jannis Varelas, Kara Walker, and Andro Wekua, among others.

The show will also premiere new works such as Charles Ray’s re-envisioned Revolution Counter-Revolution (1990/2010); a new public installation of Jenny Holzer’s Selections from the Survival Series (1984); and a special 3-D book project by Italian artist Robert Cuoghi, and will include living sculptures by Pawel Althamer and Tino Sehgal. "Skin Fruit" will feature only one work by Koons—his One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (1985)—the first major artwork that Dakis Joannou acquired, initiating the collection that would grow to be one of the world’s finest. Within the context of the exhibition this influential object, with its both familiar and mysterious orb suspended in fluid, becomes a womb, a point of origin and of departure. The installation for "Skin Fruit" has been conceived by Koons as a kind of panorama, with frequent shifts in scale and unconventional juxtapositions. Role-playing games and dramas occur: a man will stage a religious ritual; a sculpture literally sings out; white chocolate monuments tower above visitor’s heads; voracious creatures eat themselves and each other while bodies are buried or frozen; icons and deities are adored or dethroned.

The Imaginary Museum
With the exhibition "Skin Fruit," the New Museum launches The Imaginary Museum, a new exhibition series that will periodically showcase leading private collections of contemporary art from around the world, providing the opportunity for rarely seen, great works of art to be accessible to a broader public.

Koons as Curator
The Museum invited Jeff Koons to curate the first in this series. Koons had his first museum exhibition at the New Museum in 1981. In addition to being one of the most accomplished artists of our time, Koons is a committed and highly informed art lover and collector whose interests span from Greek and Roman sculpture to contemporary art. Koons has said that he collects art "to have a world besides my world, to have another field of experience." It is the combined perspective of artist, collector, and connoisseur that he brings to the task as curator of the New Museum exhibition. Jeff Koons and Dakis Joannou have enjoyed a close friendship and artistic dialogue for nearly three decades. Joannou has been a great supporter of Koons’s work from the beginning of his career, and a large concentration of Koons’s work from all periods is at the core of the Joannou collection. Koons’s role as curator reflects the ideals at the forefront of Joannou’s collection: ongoing conversations and collaborations with artists. In addition, it also signals the New Museum’s continued experimentation with adventurous curatorial formats. With this exhibition, the Museum seeks to further dialogues about alternative collaborations and the history of artist-curated exhibitions.

Catalogue
A full-color catalogue titled "Skin Fruit: Selections from the Dakis Joannou Collection" will accompany the exhibition, and will feature Jeff Koons in conversation with the New Museum’s Lisa Phillips, Toby Devan Lewis Director, and an essay by Massimiliano Gioni, Director of Special Exhibitions. An edited anthology of previously commissioned essays for DESTE Foundation publications will be included in the catalogue, featuring texts by Nicolas Bourriaud, Jeffrey Deitch, Peter Halley, Nancy Spector, and Lynne Tillman. The catalogue will include more than 100 full-color illustrations of works in the exhibition, as well as images of other artworks in the Dakis Joannou Collection.

About the Dakis Joannou Collection and the DESTE Foundation
Dakis Joannou, a noted philanthropist, arts patron, and New Museum Trustee based in Athens, Greece, has worked closely with artists and curators since 1985 to assemble an unparalleled collection of iconic contemporary works that reflect his distinctive passion and fervor. Focusing on contemporary art from the 80’s to the present, the collection is constantly enriched with works by emerging artists. The collection contains major concentrations of works by some of the most distinguished and influential artists of the late 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, such as Maurizio Cattelan, Urs Fischer, Robert Gober, Jeff Koons, Chris Ofili, Charles Ray, Kiki Smith, and Kara Walker, among many others. Curated shows from the collection have been presented at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna; the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki; and the Nicosia Municipal Arts Center, Cyprus, among other international venues.

"Collecting is, for me, an adventure, a set of different ‘lived’ experiences, a constant flow of meeting, talking, listening, looking. It is an act of understanding and participating. And within this never ending involvement with ‘what is happening,’ the moments when I see exciting works for the first time constitute some of the highlights of my life," said Joannou.

In 1983, Joannou established the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art—a non-profit institution based in Athens, Greece—at the suggestion of Pierre Restany. Ever since, DESTE has been organizing exhibitions and supporting projects and publications internationally. Through an exhibition program that promotes emerging as well as established artists, the DESTE Foundation aims to broaden the audience for contemporary art, to enhance opportunities for young artists, and to explore the connections between contemporary art and culture. From its inception until 1998, the DESTE Foundation has organized and supported exhibitions in Greece, Cyprus, and Switzerland, including "Cultural Geometry" (1988); "Psychological Abstraction" (1989); "Artificial Nature" (1990); "Post Human" (1992-93); and "Everything That’s Interesting Is New" (1996). In 1998, the DESTE Foundation moved to its first permanent space in Neo Psychico, Athens, where the exhibitions "Global Vision" (1999); Jeff Koons’s "A Millennium Celebration" (1999-2000); and Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s "Masters of the Universe" (2000) took place. As part of the 2004 Athens Cultural Program, DESTE organized the notable exhibition "Monument to Now" which featured more than 60 artists. Since January 2006, DESTE has been housed in a renovated former sock factory in Nea Ionia, Athens. Recent exhibitions include "Panic Room" (2006-07); "Fractured Figure" (2007 08); and "A GUEST + A HOST = A GHOST" (2009). Apart from the shows that draw on works from the collection, the DESTE Foundation has also initiated several ongoing projects including the DESTE Prize, awarded biannually to an emerging Greek artist; and the annual Hydra Slaughterhouse Project, which was inaugurated in 2009 with a collaboration by Matthew Barney and Elizabeth Peyton. DESTE has also established the Contemporary Greek Artists Archive, a resource for curators and researchers, as well as a specialized art library which is open to the public.

Selected Artists:

Paweł Althamer
Born 1967 in Warsaw, Poland
Lives and works in Warsaw, Poland

David Altmejd
Born 1974 in Montreal, Canada
Lives and works in London, United Kingdom, and in Montreal, Canada

Janine Antoni
Born 1964 in Freeport, Bahamas
Lives and works in New York City, NY, USA

Assume Vivid Astro Focus
(Eli Sudbrack)
Born 1968 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Lives and works in New York City, NY, USA

Tauba Auerbach
Born 1981 in San Francisco, CA, USA
Lives and works in New York City, NY and in San Francisco, CA, USA

Matthew Barney
Born 1967 in San Francisco, CA, USA
Lives and works in New York City, NY, USA

Vanessa Beecroft
Born 1969 in Genoa, Italy
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Ashley Bickerton
Born 1959 in Barbados, West Indies
Lives in Kuta Bali, Indonesia

John Bock
Born 1965 in Gribbohm, Germany
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Mark Bradford
Born 1961 in Los Angeles, CA, USA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Maurizio Cattelan
Born 1960 in Padua, Italy
Lives and works in New York City, NY, USA, and in Milan, Italy

Paul Chan
Born 1973 in Hong Kong, China
Lives and works in New York City, NY, USA

Dan Colen
Born 1979 in NJ, USA
Lives and works in NY, USA

Nigel Cooke
Born 1973 in Manchester, United Kingdom
Lives and works in London, United Kingdom

Roberto Cuoghi
Born 1973 in Modena, Italy
Lives and works in Milan, Italy

Nathalie Djurberg
Born 1978 in Lysekil, Sweden
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Haris Epaminonda
Born 1980 in Nicosia, Cyprus
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Urs Fischer
Born 1973, Zurich, Switzerland
Lives and works in New York City, NY, USA

Robert Gober
Born 1954 in Wallingford, Connecticut, USA
Lives and works in New York City, NY, USA

Matt Greene
Born 1972, Atlanta, GA, USA
Lives and works in NY, USA

Mark Grotjahn
Born 1968 in Pasadena, CA, USA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Adam Helms
Born 1974 in Tucson, AZ, USA
Lives and works in NY, USA

Jenny Holzer
Born 1950 in Gallipolis, OH, USA
Lives and works in Hoosick, NY, USA

Mike Kelley
Born 1954 in Detroit, MI, USA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Terence Koh
Born 1977 in Beijing, China
Lives and works in New York City, NY, USA

Jeff Koons
Born 1955 in York, Pennsylvania, USA
Lives and works in New York City, NY, USA

Liza Lou
Born 1969 in New York City, NY, USA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Nate Lowman
Born 1979 in Las Vegas, NV, USA
Lives and works in New York City, USA

Mark Manders
Born 1968 in Volkel, The Netherlands
Lives and works in Arnhem, The Netherlands

Paul McCarthy
Born 1945 in Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Dave Muller
Born 1965 in San Francisco, CA, USA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Takashi Murakami
Born 1963 in Tokyo, Japan
Lives and works in Tokyo, Japan and in Long Island City, NY, USA

Tim Noble and Sue Webster
Tim Noble: Born 1966 in Stroud, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
Sue Webster: Born 1967 in Leicester, United Kingdom
Live and work together in Shoreditch, East London, United Kingdom

Cady Noland
Born 1956 in Washington, D.C., USA
Lives and works in New York City, NY, USA

Chris Ofili
Born 1968 Manchester, United Kingdom
Lives and works in London, United Kingdom

Seth Price
Born 1973 in East Jerusalem, Palestine
Lives and Works in New York City, NY, U.S.A.

Richard Prince
Born 1949 in Panama Canal Zone, Panama
Lives and works in NY, USA

Charles Ray
Born 1953 in Chicago, IL, USA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Tino Sehgal
Born 1976 London, United Kingdom
Lives and Works in Berlin, Germany

Jim Shaw
Born 1952 in Midland, MI, USA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Cindy Sherman
Born 1954 in Glen Ridge, NJ, USA
Lives and works in New York City, NY, USA

Kiki Smith
Born 1954, Nuremberg, Germany
Lives and works in New York City, NY, USA

Christiana Soulou
Born 1961 in Athens, Greece
Lives and works in Athens, Greece

Jannis Varelas
Born 1977, Athens, Greece
Lives and works in Athens, Greece, and Vienna, Austria

Kara Walker
Born November 1969, Stockton CA, USA
Lives and works in NY, USA

Gillian Wearing
Born 1963 in Birmingham, United Kingdom
Lives and works in London, United Kingdom

Andro Wekua
Born 1977 in Sochumi, Georgia
Lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland

Franz West
Born 1947 in Vienna, Austria
Lives and works in Vienna, Austria

Christopher Wool
Born 1955 in Chicago, IL, USA
Lives and works in New York City, NY, USA

Images from left to right:
Robert Gober, Untitled, 2009. Beeswax, cotton, leather, aluminum, pull tabs, human hair, and oil paint, 28 x 22 19 3/4 in. The Dakis Joannou Collection, Athens
Andro Wekua, Sneakers 1, 2008. Wax figure, aluminum casted table and palett, Akrystal board, and ceramic shoes, 59 x 72 7/8 x 39 3/8 in. The Dakis Joannou Collection, Athens
Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Masters of the Universe, 1998-2000. Translucent resin, fiberglass, plastic and human hair, 54 x 27 x 31 in. The Dakis Joannou Collection, Athens
Jeff Koons, One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank, 1985. Glass, iron, water, and basketball, 64 1/2 x 30 1/2 x 13 1/4 in. The Dakis Joannou Collection, Athens

Media Contacts:
Gabriel Einsohn, Communications Director press@newmuseum.org
Andrea Schwan, Andrea Schwan Inc. info@andreaschwan.com

New Museum
235 Bowery New York, NY 10002
Museum Hours
Wednesday 12-6 PM
Thursday and Friday 12-9 PM
Saturday and Sunday 12-6 PM
Monday and Tuesday closed
Admission
General Admission: $12
Seniors: $10
Students: $8
18 and under: Free

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