Stuart Comer

Goodbye VALIE. Rest in Power. 💔💔💔#VALIEEXPORT @valieexportfoundation

Seeking out minor keys under the siren call of La Serenissima 1 - Ei Arakawa, Japan Pavilion 2 - Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Canicula. Score by James Hoff 3 - Lawrence Abu Hamdan 4 - Yto Barrada, French Pavilion 5 - Li Yi-Fan, Taiwan Pavilion 6 - Tiona Nekkia-McClodden 7 - Sung Tieu, German Pavilion 8 - arms ache avid aeon / fierce pussy, Giradini 9 - Marina Xenofontos, Cyprus Pavilion 10 - Anne Waldman reading Etel Adnan, Bidoun at German Pavilion 11 - Lydia Ourahmane, Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation 12 - Paulo Nazareth, Depois da Encruzilhada, performed at Palazzo Grassi 13 - Amar Kanwar, Palazzo Grassi 14 - Marina Xenofontos, Kyle Dancewicz, Brilant Milazimi, Manuela Moscoso, Justin Beal, Jane Hait, José Esparza Chong Cuy 15 - Alexandre Estrela, Portugal Pavilion 16 - Guadalupe Rosales, P Staff, Breanne Bradley, Drew Sawyer, Carrie Yamaoka, Young Chung, Joy Episalla, Joan Kee 17 - Kulapat Yantrasast 18 - Maxime Cavajani and Evan Moffitt with Lydia Ourahmane, Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation 19 - Issa Samb, Central Pavilion @ei.arakawa.nash @lawrenceabuhamdan @_james_hoff @fondazioneinbetweenartfilm @leonardobigazzi @alessandro.rabottini @ytobarrada @liyifanyifanli @___tnm_ @sungtieu @fp_1991 @carrie.yamaoka @jepisalla @thenotarypublic @afictionalastronaut @annewaldman @bidounprojects @emogirl4 @polly.staple @nicolettafioruccifoundation @paulonazareth_official @cyrusgoberville @amarkanwar2017 @kdancew @brilant.milazimi @manu_moscoso @thejustinbeal @jrh2020 @josesparza @lupewhat @p___staff @breanneclaudia @drewmsawyer @carrie.yamaoka @jepisalla @carrie.yamaoka @amarkanwar2017 @thekulaparty @maximecavajani @evanpmoffitt

Grateful to be on this grid of Art Basel Awards 2026 Medalists, colleagues who have not only shaped and reshaped how I think about art and its institutions, but offer important perspectives to change these models again, to answer a time of unfathomable urgency. The Art Basel Awards are the first global initiative to recognize the full breadth of the contemporary art ecosystem, spanning nine categories that honor both artistic excellence and the individuals and institutions that shape and sustain it. From artists to curators, patrons, media figures, and cultural platforms, the Awards reflect a field in which influence is increasingly distributed across disciplines and forms of practice. Honored by this recognition and by the opportunity to work with the many artists, colleagues and collaborators at MoMA and beyond, who are an endless inspiration. @artbasel @artbasel.awards

Now on view through May 25 in the Kravis Studio at MoMA: Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Lugar de Consuelo (Place of Solace). Addressing the political and personal histories of Guatemala’s long civil war (1960–96), and building on Ramírez-Figueroa’s research on Latin American theater, Lugar de Consuelo is inspired by the history of the revolutionary play El Corazón del espantapájaros (Heart of the Scarecrow), written by the playwright Hugo Carrillo in 1962. During the civil war, Guatemala’s government violently repressed a student production of the play. Years later, Ramírez-Figueroa learned about this from his uncle, who participated in that production as an actor. The artist’s research, drawn mostly from oral accounts, resulted in etchings, drawings, and costumes that reimagine the events surrounding its censorship. An installation of Ramírez-Figueroa’s costumes and props, as well as watercolor sketches and a film of a prior performance, staged at the Universidad Popular de Guatemala, where the censored production took place, will be on view in the Kravis Studio. The exhibition will culminate in the first New York performances of Lugar de Consuelo. Based on the five characters from Carillo’s work—an oligarch, a president, a soldier, a priest, and a scarecrow—the new script, written in collaboration with poet Wingston González, imagines a new, mythical narrative. Performances will take place June 16–28, 2026; tickets for individual performances will be available in mid-May. Performances will be presented in either English or Spanish, as indicated in the schedule below. Performance schedule
Tue,Jun 16, 8:00 p.m. (Spanish)
Wed, Jun 17, 8:00 p.m. (Spanish)
Thu, Jun 18, 8:00 p.m. (Spanish)
Thur, Jun 25, 8:00 p.m. (English)
Sat, Jun 27, 8:00 p.m. (English)
Sun, Jun 28, 8:00 p.m. (English) Organized by Inés Katzenstein, Julia Detchon, and Chloë Courtney. Produced by Lizzie Gorfaine with Aminah Ibrahim. Lugar de Consuelo was acquired through MoMA’s Latin American and Caribbean Fund and the Fund for the Twenty-First Century. @naufusramirezfigueroa #naufusramirezfigueroa @themuseumofmodernart

Agosto Machado, a sweet shapeshifter with a lightning bolt wit, was the ultimate survivor, a golden thread that wove together multiple generations and numerous waves of epochal moments in queer history, from Stonewall to the AIDS crisis to the Pyramid Club, right up to the present day. After many years of obsessing over footage of Agosto performing in Jackie Curtis’s “Vain Victory” at La Mama in 1970—footage that was broadcast to 10 million people in 1971 on the first reality TV show, PBS’s “An American Family”—I finally had an opportunity to meet him in 2011 when we were on a panel together with Ela Troyano to discuss Jack Smith, Steven Arnold, and “drag glamour”. It was immediately clear that I had fundamentally underestimated the magnitude of his contribution. Agosto was thrillingly undefinable to a degree that defied the kind of legibility demanded by institutions. But as his time in this place has come to an end, thankfully he has left a body of work that brings his world—and his special role within it—into sharp focus. “White Shrine”, an “archival assemblage” by Agosto, is a testament to his remarkable life, and a celebration of his many friends and collaborators who lost theirs. It is a stage, a memorial, a reliquary, and a lodestar. The work remains on view at MoMA in a gallery that gathers together some of Agosto’s fellow travelers: Peter Hujar, Martin Wong, Tseng Kwong Chi, David Wojnarowicz, Lola Flash, Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, and Luis Frangella. Witnessing colleagues across MoMA come together to help realize the acquisition, preservation, and complex challenges for the long term display of this work was a remarkable demonstration of love and dedication. None of this could have happened without the vision and deep care of Gordon Robichaux, who were crucial to helping Agosto crystallize his dreams into physical facts for posterity. Agosto, whose work is also now on view in the Whitney Biennial, leaves a vivid legacy, one that sparkles with his unique intermingling of wisdom, spirituality, magic, and humility. You can learn more in the short film MoMA produced at the link in my bio. Rest in bliss, sweet street queen. #agostomachado

terima kasih Jakarta

New on view at MoMA—Galley 414: Wipe Cycle, featuring works by Frank Gillette & Ira Schneider, David Lamelas, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Radical Software, and Richard Serra & Carlota Fay Schoolman. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, artists responded to a world increasingly shaped by mass media and consumer culture. They repurposed tools of commerce and communication—from shop windows to television, radio, and print media—to explore alternative models of distribution free from corporate control. As video became available outside the television industry, it made possible new forms of art making, activism, critique, and connection. The works on view here harnessed the technology of this period to expose the feedback loop between spectatorship and surveillance. Anchoring the display is Frank Gillette and Ira Schneider’s landmark video installation Wipe Cycle (1969/2017), which disrupts the traditional flow of televisual information by incorporating a live feed of the viewer. This gallery also features archival materials related to early video projects, including the artist-run journal Radical Software. In its inaugural 1970 issue, the journal’s creators declared, “Power is no longer measured in land, labor, or capital, but by access to information and the means to disseminate it.” Organized by Michelle Elligott, Chief of Archives, Library, and Research Collections, and Erica Papernik-Shimizu, Associate Curator, Department of Media and Performance, with Rachel Rosin, departments of Drawings and Prints and Curatorial Affairs. @themuseumofmodernart @lynn.l.leeson @lamelasdavid @carlotaschoolman @lyrebtorok #wipecycle #radicalsoftware @michelleelligott @e.p.shimizu @rachelrosin__

Join us for the 2026 program in the Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Studio at MoMA: — Samora Pinderhughes: Call and Response January 24–February 15, 2026 Organized by Martha Joseph with Sibia Sarangan and Hannah Fagin. Produced by Kate Scherer with Kayva Yang. — Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa: Lugar de Consuelo (Place of Solace) April 4–July 5, 2026 Organized by Inés Katzenstein and Julia Detchon. Produced by Lizzie Gorfaine with Aminah Ibrahim. — Studio Residency: Pageant August 8-30, 2026 Organized by Martha Joseph with Luiza Repsold França. Thanks to May Makki. Produced by Lizzie Gorfaine with Monica Nyenkan. — Na Mira: No Smoking November 14, 2026-February 15, 2027 Organized by Sophie Cavoulacos. Complete details on moma.org/studio @samorapinderhughes @naufusramirezfigueroa @pageantpageantpageant #namira @themuseumofmodernart

Tehching Hsieh @diaartfoundation @hsieh_tehching @linda.m.montano @marthawilsonartist @hmbrtmoro #adrianheathfield #tehchingshsieh #lindamontano

The Artist Party series organized by MoMA’s amazing Learning and Engagement team has produced some of my favorite events at the Museum — a perfect fusion of art, people, ideas, and energy. 🪩 Don’t miss Artist Party: Destination Unknown on Thursday Sept 25, 7-10pm. This edition will be a celebration of contemporary art at MoMA, highlighting our second-floor collection galleries, including newly installed works by Carlos Almaraz, Lyle Ashton Harris, Lutz Bacher, Dana Claxton, Kenturah Davis, Lola Flash, Pierre Huyghe, Lotus Kang, Martin Kippenberger, Christopher Kulendran Thomas, Tala Madani, Mame-Diarra Niang, Reena Spaulings, Matthew Wong, and many more. Featured artist-led performances, talks and activations by artists Agosto Machado, Christopher Kulendran Thomas, Lyle Ashton Harris, Dana Claxton, DonChristian Jones, and Korina Emmerich and Liana Shewey of Relative Arts. Performance by duendita. DJ set by Las Flaquitas. moma.org/artistparty

It’s Prina O’Clock! ⏰ Stephen Prina’s 1993 installation “The Top Thirteen Singles from Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Chart for the Week Ending September 11, 1993” is now on view at MoMA. At the top of each hour, Prina’s clock chimes a musical motif derived from one of the top 13 Billboard hits from the week of the work’s debut on September 11, 1993, ranging from Mariah Carey’s “Dreamlover” to Tag Team’s “Whoomp! (There It Is)”. Described by the artist as a “monument to the ephemeral,” Prina’s clock celebrates music’s ability to mark the sensibilities of an era, while wryly calling attention to the ever-changing systems that measure popular taste. Prina’s “monument to the ephemeral” forms an anchor to “A Lick and a Promise”, a major survey at MoMA (Sept 12-Dec 13) that revisits Prina’s performances from across his 50-year career, one in which love songs and pop music are productively entangled with the artists’s shrewd Conceptualism. This installation is part of Hyundai Card First Look. For more details visit moma.org/prina. Read an interview with Prina about this work at moma.org/magazine. #stephenprina @themuseumofmodernart @hyundaicard

What new forms emerge when musical and museological systems collide? “Stephen Prina: A Lick and a Promise,” running Sept 12-Dec 13, 2025 at MoMA, asks this question and more, as part of the first in-depth survey to focus on the artist’s long engagement with music and performance.  Unfolding across multiple locations in the Museum, including the Kravis Studio, the exhibition will present new work by Prina alongside restagings of works that highlight his wide-ranging collaborations.  A trio of Prina’s works from the Museum’s collection also will be installed in the galleries. Tickets are now on sale for all September performances. Learn more and book now at link in bio. 🎶”Concerto for Modern, Movie, and Pop Music for 10 Instruments and Voice” (2010)  ⏰Fri, Sep 12, and Sat, Sep 13, 7:00 p.m. 🎶”Beat of the Traps” (1992)  Created by Mike Kelley, Anita Pace, and Stephen Prina ⏰Thu, Sep 18, Sat, Sep 20, and Sun, Sep 21, 8:00 p.m. Image 1: Mike Kelley, Anita Pace, Stephen Prina. “Beat of the Traps.” 1992. Performed in “Expanded Art,” Wiener Festwochen, The Remise, Vienna, Austria, 1992. Performers (from left): Jonathan “Butch” Norton, Carl Burkley, Alan Abelew, Stephen Prina, Anita Pace, M.B. Gordy. Photo: Karl Krauss. © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All Rights Reserved/VAGA at ARS, NY.⁠, Anita Pace, Stephen Prina Image 2: Stephen Prina. The Top Thirteen Singles from Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Chart for the Week Ending September 11, 1993. 1993. Enamel on aluminum, acrylic, electronic hardware, and carillon. Courtesy of the artist and Petzel, New York. © Stephen Prina Image 3: Stephen Prina. Still from Vinyl II. 2000. Commissioned by the Getty Museum, Los Angeles. © 2025 Stephen Prina. Courtesy of the artist and Petzel, New York #StephenPrina @mike_kelley_foundation @pace_anita @themuseumofmodernart @sibiasarangan @lizziegorfaine @katejscherer @livxorouse @cjm_bklyn