MoMA PS1 PRESENTS ROCKWAY! Featuring a Special Outdoor Exhibition by Katharina Grosse

MoMA PS1 PRESENTS ROCKWAY! Featuring a Special Outdoor Exhibition by Katharina Grosse

July 4th Weekend - Thanksgiving, 2016
Ft. Tilden Beach, New York

May 27, 2016, NEW YORK—MoMA PS1 presents Rockaway!, a special outdoor exhibit by artist Katharina Grosse, acclaimed for exploring the medium of painting in regards to its locations, conditions and possibilities. Through this temporary public art installation, Grosse turns Ft. Tilden's decaying aquatics building into a sublimely exhilarating exterior painting with her unique spray painting technique.

In her practice, Grosse seeks to extend the scope of her paintings beyond the traditional borders of a canvas. She uses a technique in which brightly colored paint is sprayed directly onto site-specific structures. In doing so, she incorporates both the architectural features of the space, and materials located in its immediate vicinity, such as sand, trees, sea grass and pavement. These sprawling and sculptural landscapes evoke the physicality of action painting and earthworks through their gestures and monumentality.

Grosse’s work seamlessly combines the subtle nuances of light and shadow, characteristic of traditional landscape painting, with the weight and spectacle of large scale sculpture. In this exhibition, Grosse’s singular approach highlights the possibilities of painting as a medium, and encapsulates the stark beauty of the natural and manmade structures in which this installation is contextualized.

Rockaway! is organized in collaboration with the Rockaway Artists Alliance, Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy, National Park Service, Central Park Conservancy, NYC Parks & Recreation and Rockaway Beach Surf Club. Rockaway! 2016 is a continuation MoMA PS1’s ongoing collaborative programming alongside the Rockaway Artists Alliance in the Rockaways that began with the VW Dome 2, erected in 2013 in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and that continued with Rockaway! in summer of 2014 which featured solo projects by Patti Smith, Adrián Villar Rojas, and Janet Cardiff as well as a group show at the Rockaway Beach Surf Club.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Katharina Grosse (Freiburg, b. 1961) lives and works in Berlin. She studied at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany, and Kunstakademie Münster, Germany. Grosse’s work has been exhibited in several solo and group exhibitions. She participated in the 56th Venice Biennale, 2015. Recent solo museum exhibitions include Katharina Grosse, Museum Frieder Burda, Germany, (2016); Museum Wiesbaden, Germany (2015); Yes No Why Later, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2015); Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (2014); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2013); De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art, The Netherlands (2013); MOCA, Cleveland (2012); Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany (2011); and Mass MoCA, Massachusetts (2010).

Rockaway! is made possible through the generous support of Bloomberg Philanthropies and The Secunda Family Foundation. Special thanks to Arverne By The Sea, LLC, and Rockaway Beach Boulevard Construction, LLC.

ROCKAWAY ARTISTS ALLIANCE
Since 1995 Rockaway Artists Alliance (RAA) has brought innovative art exhibitions, cultural events, and high-quality art education programs to the Rockaway peninsula. RAA’s facilities—sTudio 6, sTudio 7, and Building T-149—are nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and Jamaica Bay in Gateway National Recreation Area’s historic Fort Tilden. RAA brings children, adults, and seniors to the Fort for interactive programs—like Rockaway!—lectures, demonstrations, and musical performances.

Rockaway Artists Alliance presents Forbidden Fruit: Street Art in a National Park, telling the story of the people, flora and fauna of Jamaica Bay. Supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

JAMAICA BAY-ROCKAWAY PARKS CONSERVANCY
The Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy (JBRPC) is a public-private partnership established in 2013 that is dedicated to improving the 10,000 acres of public parkland throughout Jamaica Bay and the Rockaway Peninsula for local residents and visitors alike. With its partners at the National Park Service and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, JBRPC works to expand public access; increase recreational and educational opportunities; foster citizen stewardship and volunteerism; preserve and restore natural areas, including wetland and wildlife habitat; enhance cultural resources; and ensure the long-term sustainability of the parklands, including the development of the Science and Resilience Institute.

THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
The National Park Service (NPS) operates more than 400 parks and historic sites nationwide, including Gateway National Recreation Area—which contains Fort Tilden—established in 1972 as America’s first urban national park. In 2012, NPS and the City of New York forged an unprecedented partnership to restore and revitalize 10,000 acres of unique parklands surrounding Jamaica Bay. Rockaway!, a direct outgrowth of that collaboration, seeks to attract and engage new visitors to these amazing waterfront parks.

CENTRAL PARK CONSERVANCY
The Central Park Conservancy is proud to support the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy, a public-private partnership dedicated to improving the 10,000 acres of public parkland throughout Jamaica Bay and the Rockaway peninsula for local residents and visitors alike, with a series of summer volunteer opportunities and free activities, including a film festival presented by the Rockaway Artists Alliance.

NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF PARKS & RECREATION
NYC Parks is the steward of nearly 30,000 acres of land─14 percent of New York City. These holdings include some 3,000 acres within the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks, including Rockaway Beach, the iconic urban getaway recently rediscovered by a new generation of surfers and beach lovers. NYC Parks launched its Art in the Parks program in 1967 and now oversees more than 800 permanent monuments and dozens of temporary artworks each year and, through its collaboration with the National Park Service on the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks, provided additional support for Rockaway!

ROCKAWAY BEACH SURF CLUB
Rockaway Beach Surf Club is a cultural event space, restaurant and bar devoted to promoting the love of surfing, conserving the environment and supporting its local neighborhood. Unique to Rockaway Beach is the convergence of surf and urban culture. Our mission is to inspire the community and its residents through surfing and be a fun and positive destination for visitors to the peninsula. We believe in supporting everything the community has to offer…including the work of artists, writers, musicians and all lovers of surf and beach. In 2012, Rockaway Beach Surf Club led the on-ground recovery efforts following Hurricane Sandy and will continue to be a leader in the community for years to come.