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RITES OF PASSAGE EXHIBITION

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 21, 2010, 6-9 pm

Exhibition on view: January 21 - February 11, 2010

Rites of Passage is a group exhibition, organized by guest curator Thomas Micchelli, that considers the multiple paths taken by new forms of expression at the turn of the 21st Century, specifically those found in the work of alumni of The Cooper Union who graduated between the years 1995 and 2009 from The School of Art, The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, and The Albert Nerken School of Engineering. Their explorations range from the intangibility of light and sound to the poetry of infrastructure, autobiographical reflection to political outrage, naked terror to absurdist humor. Rites of Passage takes its title from a poem by Audre Lorde that speaks of the transition between generations, of young people as agents of change as well as witnesses to the passing of obsolete ideas.

The works in this exhibition, most of which were made especially for the show, denote some kind of journey that signaled a turning point in the participants' lives or worldviews.. Whether the passages are interior or external, they are accomplished through an openness and honesty of expression, a blurring of the lines between disciplines, and a willingness to try anything that might break apart an old paradigm and engender something new.

In connection with the exhibition there will be a panel discussion entitled Rock the Boat: Art as Intervention on Friday, February 5, 2010, from 6 to 9 pm in the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium, 41 Cooper Square, New York City.

Participants:

Courtney J Angermeier	Charles H. Krekelberg
Dorit Aviv and Dionisio Cortes	Georgia Küng
Rush Baker + Sam Vernon	Laura Lee-Georgescu
Salman Bakht	Fiyel Levent
Vivek Gopal Baliga	Edmundo Majchrzyk
Sofia Berinstein	Gaurav Namit
Mitsuko Brooks	Laura Napier
Adrien Casey	Ryan and Trevor Oakes
Krystal Chang	Miroslav Ovcharik & Maximiliano Ferro
Jaeho Chong	Kate Parnell
Nicky Enright	Anik Pearson
Adriana Farmiga	Noëlle Raffaele
Grigori Fateyev	Jenevieve Reid
Josephine Halvorson	David A. Ross
Sue Havens	Taylor Shields
Kim Holleman	Natalie Shook in collaboration with Mike Circosta
Jane V. Hsu	Veronica Tyson-Strait
Kenny Komer & Boris Rasin	Spring Ulmer
	Peonia Vázquez-D'Amico