Initial funds for the residency will come from art sales with a lead gift from renowned London-based sculptor Anish Kapoor. Kapoor has donated a painted aluminum sculpture in the family of objects he refers to as concave voids. Titled Strange Attraction (Violet), the 2015 sculpture refers to Stephen Petronio’s 2000 work Strange Attractors, made in collaboration with Kapoor. It will be sold in a private sale through Paddle8 with an estimated value of $1 million. The company will also hold an online auction through Paddle8 featuring works by other important contemporary artists including Cecily Brown, Teresita Fernandez, Jasper Johns, Judy Pfaff, and Matt Saunders, to name a few. The auction will be held from January 11 to 25, 2016.
One of the foremost choreographers of his generation, Stephen Petronio’s groundbreaking work includes multidisciplinary collaborations with some of today’s most innovative visual artists, designers, and composers. This collaborative spirit is in the DNA of the residency program. Petronio has also recently made a commitment to steward works of his American postmodern predecessors in a project called Bloodlines. Founding a space to support his ongoing creative investigations as well as those of other dance makers, both established and emerging artists, has been one of Petronio’s longtime dreams. The impetus for building a residency also stems from the desire to relax dependence on the weakening producer/presenter-driven system that has more commonly funded creative activity in past decades. “The residency program is designed to encourage choreographic research and development alongside the collaborative arts in dialogue with it, apart from everyday pressures and the economic constraints of viable touring,” says Petronio. “My hope is that by giving artists space and resources to create work, the residency will address some of the critical needs of choreographers today. Having the support of Anish Kapoor and so many amazing visual artists in this effort is particularly meaningful – art making art.”
Link to auction preview: http://paddle8.com/auction/petronio/
Acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, Stephen Petronio is widely regarded as one of the leading dance makers of his generation. His unique movement language speaks to the intuitive possibilities of the body within the shifting cultural moment. For more than 30 years, he has created a haven for dancers with a keen interest in history and an appetite for the unknown. His most recent project Bloodlines, which embraces works by postmodern masters who have inspired him, is a natural extension of this impulse.
Stephen Petronio was born in Newark, NJ, and received a B.A. from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, where he began dancing in 1974. He was the first male dancer of the Trisha Brown Company (1979–1986). He formed Stephen Petronio Company in 1984, and has created over 40 works for his Company. Petronio has received numerous honors, including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts Award, New York Foundation for the Arts Award, an American Choreographer Award, a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award, and a 2015 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. Petronio published his first memoir, Confessions of a Motion Addict, in 2014.
Petronio has built an extraordinary body of work with some of the most exciting and inventive contemporary artists, including composers Atticus Ross, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Nico Muhly, Fischerspooner, Rufus Wainwright, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Son Lux, James Lavelle, Michael Nyman, Sheila Chandra, Diamanda Galás, Wire, Lenny Pickett, and David Linton; visual artists Janine Antoni, Cindy Sherman, Anish Kapoor, Donald Baechler, Matthew Brandt, and Stephen Hannock; and fashion designers John Bartlett, Jillian Lewis, Adam Kimmel, Benjamin Cho, Michael Angel, Tony Cohen, Rachel Roy, Tara Subkoff, Tanya Sarne/Ghost, Leigh Bowery, and Manolo.
Stephen Petronio Company has performed in 26 countries throughout the world, including over 35 New York City engagements with 20 seasons at The Joyce Theater. The Company has been commissioned by Dance Umbrella Festival/London, Hebbel Theater/Berlin, Theater Scène National de Sceaux/France, Festival d’Automne/Paris, CNDC Angers/France, The Holland Festival, Festival International Montpellier-Danse/France, Danceworks UK Ltd, Cannes International Danse Festival, and in the U.S. by San Francisco Performances, The Joyce Theater, UCSB Arts & Lectures, Wexner Center for the Arts, Walker Art Center, and White Bird, among others. Recent/upcoming engagements include the Dance Center at Columbia College (Chicago), Princeton University (NJ), Fall for Dance (New York City), Pittsburgh Dance Council, SITE Santa Fe (with Janine Antoni), and a site-specific work in Madison Square Park underneath the installation of Teresita Fernandez. For more information about the company, visit www.petron.io.