On Modern Living

Modern Living is an ongoing series of performances and videos by Gerard & Kelly sited in iconic modernist homes around the world. Mining these “ruins” of modernism for their hidden choreographies and radical social experiments, the artists posit questions around memory, the architecture of intimacy, and queer space. In this lecture, Gerard & Kelly will address performance art in historic sites as a form of experimental preservation.

Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kelly have collaborated since 2003. Their installations and performances use choreography, writing, video, and sculpture to address questions of sexuality, memory, and the formation of queer consciousness. Exhibitions and performances of their work have been presented by the Festival d’Automne (Paris), Chicago Architecture Biennial, Guggenheim Museum (New York), New Museum (New York), Made in LA Biennial at the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), and The Kitchen (New York). Gerard & Kelly completed the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in 2010, and received their MFAs from the UCLA Department of Art in 2013.

Gerard & Kelly have received numerous recognitions for their work, including grants from the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, Art Matters, Graham Foundation, and the Juried Award from the New York Dance and Performance Awards, also known as the Bessies. Their work is in the collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and the Guggenheim Museum, New York.