mana glass gallery exhibits costumes + sets from punk ballerina period

mana glass gallery exhibits costumes + sets from punk ballerina period
installation view, making art dance
photo by joe schildhorn / bfanyc.com

making art dance
mana glass gallery, new york
now through march 13 2015

american dancer and choreographer karole armitage’s thirty year career has seen collaborations with esteemed artists and designers, including jean paul gaultier, jeff koons, christian lacroix, david salle, peter speliopoulos, and philip taaffe. in the 1980s, the artist sent shockwaves across the dance world when she coupled classical ballet with rock, famously coining her ‘the punk ballerina’.

presented in the mana glass gallery, the exhibition ‘making art dance’ highlights the versatility and originality that fueled her radical approach to contemporary ballet, focusing on three distinct, chronological periods of her aesthetic life: punk, picture, and poetry.

detail of backdrop and costume for the elizabethan phrasing of the late albert ayler (1986)
photo by e. lee smith

more than a dozen backdrops infill the 50,000-square-foot exhibition space designed by architect richard meier. monumental painted backdrops are displayed alongside corresponding outfits from a graffiti-inspired set for 1989’s ‘contempt’, joined by an inflatable pig costume by jeff koons to jean paul gaultier’s irreverent outfits for a 1998 version of ‘pinocchio’. with a showcase of the remarkable sets and costumes created for armitage productions, the jeffrey deitch-curated exhibition calls attention to a significant art–dance partnership that has played a critical role in her work throughout the years.

david salle backdrop and costumes for the elizabethan phrasing of the late albert ayler (1986)
photo by joe schildhorn / bfanyc.com

david salle backdrop for the tarnished angels (1987) / costumes by christian lacroix
photo by joe schildhorn / bfanyc.com

david salle backdrop and costumes for contempt (1989)
photo by joe schildhorn / bfanyc.com

philip taaffe (backdrop) and peter speliopoulos (costumes), production design for itutu (2009)
photo by e. lee smith

detail of backdrop and costume for the elizabethan phrasing of the late albert ayler (1986)
photo by e. lee smith

david salle set and lanterns, costumes by peter speliopoulos
fluorescent lights by clifton taylor for ligeti essays (2007)
photo by joe schildhorn / bfanyc.com