Rirkrit Tiravanija

September 11 – November 18, 2017

Contemporary artist, Rirkrit Tiravanija, is perhaps best known for creating installations and events that emphasize social engagement, though he creates traditional material-based art as well.  He made a name for himself in the early ’90s by eschewing typical visual arts practices and engaging audiences by cooking for them. In untitled 1990 (pad thai), at the Paula Allen Gallery, and in untitled 1992 (Free) at Gallery 303, both in New York, Tiravanija cooked and served food to visitors. He continued this practice in relational aesthetics with subsequent installations, such as untitled 1997 (playtime) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Tomorrow is the Question (2016) in Amsterdam. For untitled 1997 (playtime), Tiravanija installed a child-size replica of Philip Johnson’s Glass House (1949) in MoMA’s sculpture garden for children to play in. For Tomorrow is the Question (2016) he placed ping pong tables with mirrored surfaces in Amsterdam’s Museumplein and invited visitors to play table tennis on them.

Tiravanija was born in Buenos Aries in 1961, and grew up in Thailand, Ethiopia, and Canada. He studied at Ontario College of Art in Toronto, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Whitney Independent Studies Program in New York. He has received many international awards including the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Competition Award (1993), the Lucelia Artist Award from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (2005), and the Slipathorn Award (2007). Tiravanija is a founding member of Utopia Station, President of The Land Foundation, and an arts faculty member at Columbia University. He lives and works in New York, Berlin, and Chiang Mai.

Tiravanija is planning to use his time at GHP to expand his work on the potter’s wheel and experiment with forms based on the ring bottle.

Our residencies foster an artist’s development by providing time, space and material in the center of the art world. The resident has access to a shared private studio space (20” x 17’) during the Pottery’s regular business hours, free stocked clay, and access to gas and electric firings. Rirkrit Tiravanija’s residency will run from September 11 – November 18, 2017.

Greenwich House Pottery, a non-profit (501c3) organization, is New York City’s premier ceramic facility. Originally founded in 1909 to teach immigrants a marketable skill in the spirit of the Arts & Crafts Movement, the Pottery is now an arts center for the local and international community that strives to support the history and future of the ceramic arts through its educational facilities, artist residency, and gallery.