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September 29–December 17, 2022
New visual arts charity Canal Projects is located in the heart of Manhattan. Through newly commissioned works and site-specific adaptations of unheard-of ideas, the organization promotes cutting-edge international artists. The organization will also offer performances, readings, screenings, and a library that will be programmed by a changing roster of artists and collectives in addition to exhibitions.
Canal Projects will begin with an exhibition by Korakrit Arunanondchai and Alex Gvojic. The show, PRAY, which includes the two sizable video works Songs for living and Songs for dying (2021), will debut at Canal Projects on September 29 from 6 to 8 o’clock in the evening.
Songs for life, an expansive installation and multidisciplinary project by Arunanondchai and Gvojic, examines spirituality, animism, and forgotten history. The piece refers to the poetics of radical consciousness, collectivity, and political pain and is displayed in an immersive setting where a wishing pond reflects a submerged image onto a screen.
Arunanondchai tells stories in Songs for Dying that take the concept of self and loss into the realm of the unknown, starting with the death of his grandfather. The piece, which is structured around a series of songs, focuses on death rites and the process of decomposition, which more than just announcing a definitive end also open up the possibility of ongoing transformation.
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Korakrit Arunanondchai is a visual artist and filmmaker who recounts tales about the emergence of community and a higher force. His very experimental works provide the general audience rich ritualistic and political experiences. Arunanondchai is a multidisciplinary artist who collaborates with other artists, musicians, filmmakers, and authors to produce performances, videos, and sound pieces. Major solo and group exhibitions featuring Arunanondchai’s artwork have taken place at venues such the Singapore Art Museum (2022), Bangkok CityCity Gallery (2022), Art Sonje Center in Seoul (2022), Moderna Museet in Sweden (2022), and Kunsthall Trondheim in Norway (2021).
Alex Gvojic is a New York–based designer and cinematographer. His work focuses on creating “hyper-reality” environments that blend video, light, and cinematic tropes. His work has been presented at the Venice Biennale, Berlin Biennale, Palais de Tokyo, Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement, MoMA PS1, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in China, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, among others. He has collaborated with a variety of artists including Ryan Trecartin, DIS, Xavier Cha, Fatima Al Qadiri, and others.
Library residency
The imaginary Canal Street Research Association (CSRA), the workplace of the poetic research unit Shanzhai Lyric, is the home of our first library residency beneath the lit pavement. Shanzhai Lyric will investigate the economic undercurrents of Canal Street as locations that test the boundaries of authorial ownership during their residence.
Upcoming exhibitions
Seung-taek Lee, a Korean avant-garde artist whose radical experiments have influenced the course of modern art in East Asia since the 1960s, will have a wide range of works on display at Canal Projects in the spring of 2023. Amie Siegel‘s layered and exact moving visuals, which explore the systemic roots of value, ownership, labor, and class, will be on display at Canal Projects in the fall.
About Canal Projects
An independent, nonprofit organization called Canal Projects supports progressive, international artists at critical junctures in their careers. Canal Projects wants to encourage artistic practices that confront and reflect on the present through the creation, exhibition, study, and interpretation of the work. The YS Kim Foundation financially supports Canal Projects.
The first artistic director of Canal Projects is Summer Guthery. Guthery was the co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit Los Angeles gallery JOAN, which exhibits up-and-coming and underrepresented artists, before moving back to New York. She also served as an assistant curator for Performa Biennial in 2013 and 2011 as well as the curator of performance and public programming at LAXART in Los Angeles. A dedication to access, diversity, and community-focused programming comes with Guthery’s appointment.
Visit canalprojects.org for further details.
Canal Projects
351 Canal St
New York, NY 10013
United States
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 12–6pm
[email protected]