Anton van Dalen "The Avenue A Cut-Out Theatre"

P.P.O.W is pleased to present a performance of Anton van Dalen’s Avenue A Cut-Out Theatre in conjunction with his current one person exhibition of new work.

Van Dalen uses a portable model of his house as a staging ground for telling the story of the East Village. Employing a rotating selection of miniature cut-outs, stencils and props, Van Dalen narrates the history of the neighborhood from the 1970s (when he moved to Avenue A) until the present. The performance centers on Van Dalen’s Avenue A rooftop pigeon coop he has nourished for more than 25 years (http://www.antonvandalen.com/live-stream.html); a source of pride for Van Dalen who began raising pigeons as a child in the Netherlands. There he flies a flock of white pigeons that circle around the storied tenements that housed generations of immigrants, like himself, witnessing the neighborhood’s gradual gentrification.

Avenue A Cut-Out Theatre was first performed in 1995 at the University Settlement House on the Lower East Side and toured throughout the United States and Europe. The performance has been shown at numerous institutions including The Drawing Center, the Museum of Modern Art, and The New York Historical Society.

The performance and exhibition will be complimented by a solo booth, at ADAA’s The Art Show, of Anton van Dalen’s 1970’s and early 80’s graphite drawings and stencils. The corresponding installations and performance act as a retrospective for the East Village and, on a larger level, serve as a reflection of the changing nature of inner-city life.

Doors will open at 6:30pm and the performance will begin at 7:00pm. Space is limited.

Anton van Dalen was born in 1938 in Amstelveen, Holland and lives in New York City. He has been included in group exhibitions at notable institutions including the: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; New Museum, New York; Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, and the New York Historical Society. He has also been the subject of solo exhibitions at: Temple Gallery, Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia; University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and Exit Art, New York.