July 10, 2023
David Zwirner is pleased to announce the representation of British-born, New York–based choreographer, dancer, and artist Sarah Michelson, who will develop a residency program for dance artists in partnership with the gallery.
Since the late 1990s, Michelson has come to be known for choreographic work that engages notions of process, physicality, immediacy, and impermanence. Drawing from personal and dance history, her formally rigorous, incisive, often humorous performances defy genre in their expansive interrogation of dance, situational context, and the roles of choreographer and dancer; artist and audience.
Michelson’s scrupulously prepared performances are experienced as fleeting, singular events, defying easy legibility or reproducibility. Her work moreover examines the possibilities afforded by questioning, problematizing, and challenging what dance is and can be, while evincing a devotional commitment to dance and the efforts of its performers and the broader dance community.
In October 2021, Michelson performed Oh No Game Over, a new, durational multimedia work at David Zwirner’s 519 West 19th Street location in New York. Presented to the public over the course of five days, the work incorporated painting, digital projections, sound, and radical interventions in the architecture. Oh No Game Over was developed over the course of several months, while Michelson used the gallery as a working studio space in preparation for the performance. She will present new work at the gallery’s Los Angeles location in early 2024.
In addition to elaborating her own dance practice, Michelson will oversee and develop a residency program at David Zwirner, inviting dancers to work in and perform at the gallery’s spaces.
Michelson stated, “I am happy and nervous to announce that I am joining the David Zwirner gallery. The gallery, David, Thor, and the whole team have been so damn kind and supportive about my dance making in this context, and I am on a huge learning curve, but honestly am deeply excited about this next step and honored. One thing that is very important to me as I make this move to work with the gallery—who are so open and responsive—is to help develop a platform in which other dance artists can have access to this structure in the way I have had. More on this soon—here goes y’all.”
Thor Shannon, a director at the gallery who will work with Michelson, has said, “I first saw Sarah Michelson’s work at the 2012 Whitney Biennial, where the beauty and toughness of her work Devotion Study #1—equal parts elegance and anarchy—astounded me. I've followed her legend ever since. Her dances have a mythic 'blink and you miss them' guerilla quality—when they happen, you show up, or else miss them forever. Sarah and her work have together taught me so much about what it means to live in a human body, in its concomitant strength and fragility. Her dances are simultaneously uncompromising and generous in ways that only the best art can be. I am beyond excited to support her work and the work of other dancers in this new paradigm.”
David Zwirner has stated, “Dance has played such a decisive role in the history of twentieth-century art, and continues to inform contemporary art practices. And yet, rarely have choreographers received real-time support from the commercial art world. That support has come from nonprofit spaces, performance venues, and institutions, which have brought the dance world’s radicality to a broader audience, and corrected historical omissions when it comes to the work of dancers and choreographers. The temporal and ephemeral quality of dance stands in stark contrast to our social-media-saturated world, and it has proven to be one of our most vital art forms. Without a doubt, Sarah is one of the most exciting choreographers of her generation, and I am so honored to be working with her and, through her, to be able to support and promote dance artists in this new partnership.”
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