Jonas Mekas, the Godfather of American Avant-Garde Cinema, in Exhibition at P.S.1

Jonas Mekas, the Godfather of American Avant-Garde Cinema, in Exhibition at P.S.1

In Association With The Brooklyn Rail and Maya Stendhal Gallery

Jonas Mekas: The Beauty of Friends Being Together Quartet, February 11th - April 16th, 2007

NEW YORK, Feb. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Jonas Mekas is a filmmaker, poet, editor, archivist, lecturer, and curator most notably adorned as the Godfather of American avant-garde cinema, or New American Cinema, as he dubbed it in the late 1950's. Emigrating from Lithuania in 1949 due to political upheavals during WWII, he founded a haven for himself and artistry in New York City. Still to this day do his residence and influence emerge from there with such credited establishments as Anthology Film Archives, The Film-Makers' Cooperative, Film Culture magazine, and film reviews for the Village Voice from 1958 to 1978.

Drawing on thousands of hours of film footage, Jonas Mekas has now created a solo exhibition of 40 short films on view at Maya Stendhal Gallery and http://www.jonasmekas.com/ traveling to the contemporary art center, P.S.1, from February 11th - April 16th, 2007 in Long Island City, New York. An affiliate of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), P.S.1 is the oldest and second largest non-profit art center in the United States solely devoted to contemporary art. It is a defining influence in the alternative space movement distinguished for its progressive approach to exhibitions and direct involvement of artists. Coinciding attributes include 40 portraits of friends selected from individual frames, 40 images of New York City, and featured for the first time the multi-channel installation "Four Quartets": The Destruction Quartet; The Education of Sebastian, or Egypt Regained; Farewell to SoHo; and Martin Scorsese: An American Filmmaker at Work. Also on view will be The Sixties Quartet including Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol, Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas, To John and Yoko with Love, and This Side of Paradise.

Arriving from the plethora of his personal archive are fleeting, fragile portraits from every walk of life. Collaborations always involve a remarkable transformation of the subject as celebrities descend pedestals of grandeur and family interactions become immortalized. Sequences are crafted through distinctive discourses of time, of montage accentuating the transcendence of reality and dream within the everyday. Relations with such prominent figures as Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Jackie Onassis, John Lennon, Allen Ginsberg, and Stan Brakhage was a daily occurrence for Jonas Mekas respected and glorified for monumental shifts within the progression of alternative cinema. Familial happenings weigh just as heavily upon the works offering an introspective and empathetic interaction with the ordinary, the captured unconscious, as he proclaims deeply intimate, diaristic documents of all presence and movement under the sun. Arising are highly sensitive interpretations of life experienced, of life remembered.

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, NY, 11101
Opening Reception
Sunday Feb 11th 12-6pm

For further information please contact:
Maya Stendhal Gallery
545 West 20th St
New York, NY 10011
T 212.366.1549
F 347.287.6775
http://www.mayastendhalgallery.com/http://www.jonasmekas.com/
EMAIL info@mayastendhalgallery.com

Jonas Mekas: The Beauty of Friends Being Together Quartet is organized by guest curator Phong Bui, an independent curator and the Publisher of the monthly journal The Brooklyn Rail.

This exhibition is generously supported by agnes b. Special thanks to Duggal Visual Solutions. LCD monitors provided by Westinghouse Digital.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Maya Stendhal Gallery

CONTACT: Maya Stendhal Gallery, +1-212-366-1549

Web site: http://www.mayastendhalgallery.com/
http://www.jonasmekas.com/

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