Maya Stovall, The Public Library, vol.1, no.4 (2018), HD video, color, stereo surround sound, 9 minutes 56 seconds, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CA
Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture (FMCAC) and San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) jointly present Maya Stovall: Under New Ownership, an exhibition of the artist’s innovative performance-based interventions in public life.
A self-described “radical ballerina,” Stovall explores questions of human existence, creating works that “vividly juxtapose art and life” (the New York Times) through unannounced performances in contemporary urban spaces. Stovall’s Liquor Store Theatre (2014–present) stages and films performance around businesses in Detroit’s McDougall-Hunt neighborhood. Stovall inserts dancers’ movement in an otherwise everyday rhythm, drawing out the people shopping, rushing, and hanging around. Juxtaposed with performance are Detroiters’ stories, drawing on the energy of the city landscape to picture this urban fabric in new ways.
Under New Ownership brings together selections from Liquor Store Theatre and The Public Library (2018–present), an ongoing project performed and filmed in Saskatoon, California. The exhibition also features two new conceptual sculpture series: Untitled (B-F), built from abandoned commercial signage; and the Theorem Sculptures (A-D), objects made with an eye to performance.
In conjunction with the close of the exhibition, Stovall will present a live performance of Theorem, no.1, commissioned by Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture. Distilling the theorizing behind earlier projects, Theorem is a meditation on the fervor, grit, and craving of the urban experience. Details for the May 3 performance will be released in full at fortmason.org.
Maya Stovall: Under New Ownership is on view from March 29 to May 5, 2019 at SFAI’s Fort Mason Campus in San Francisco, CA. Exhibition hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11am–7pm. Admission is free and open to the public.
For more information, visit fortmason.org/stovall.
