Contents for August 24th, 2026
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nancy Andrews, FF Alumn, In Memoriam
Weekly Spotlight: **FIRST FIFTY VOICES**
1. Hector Canonge, FF Alumn, August events
2. Marina Abramović, FF Alumn, now online at NYTimes.com
3. Pope.L, Franc Palaia, FF Alumns, at Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery, Chicago, IL, Sept. 15-Oct. 31
4. Peter Downsbrough, FF Alumn, at Good Books, Paris, opening Sept. 10
5. Paul Zelevansky, FF Alumn, now online at https://vimeo.com/1219229767 and more
6. John Giorno, FF Alumn, at kurimanzutto, Mexico City, opening Aug. 29
7. Christine DeFazio, FF Intern Alumn, at University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, Aug. 27
8. Allied Productions, FF Alumns, at Le Petit Versailles Garden, Manhattan, Aug. 29
9. Barbara T. Hoffman, FF Alumn, now online at Substack.com
10. Matt Romein, FF Alumn, at The Chocolate Factory, Long Island City, NY, Sept. 19
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nancy Andrews, FF Alumn, In Memoriam
Filmmaker, Animator, Visual and Performance artist Nancy Andrews passed away on July 11, 2026. Nancy will be remembered as a visionary filmmaker whose works have garnered critical acclaim for their experimental narratives, imaginative visual storytelling, and fearless exploration of unconventional themes. With early beginnings as a performance artist in Baltimore with bands such as Lambs Eat Ivy and Pinky, Nancy moved seamlessly between performance, film, music drawing, and object making. She recently came out with a new music album “A Passing Cloud” with artist Linda Smith and the two toured the UK and Italy performing in a host of venues over the past two years. Andrews’ films have been featured at prestigious festivals around the world and have won numerous awards including a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Gotham Award, and Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Fellowship in Visual Arts. The Museum of Modern Art, New York has collected six of her experimental films and her work is in the collections of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Nancy was busy working on a new film that will be continued by the animators, musicians, and filmmakers in Nancy’s large orbit. Nancy will also be remembered as a gifted educator at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor Maine and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she helped mentor generations of students.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Weekly Spotlight: **FIRST FIFTY VOICES**
This is the final week of our Franklin Furnace at Fifty Spotlight series. Since May, we’ve shared weekly the voices of artists, friends, and peers reflecting on what FF has meant to them across five decades. We’re closing the series with five short answers from the 50th Birthday Jubilee at BAM in April — each one a single definition of what Franklin Furnace is, which may resonate with you too:
Mel Chu: “Franklin Furnace is work. A lot of lot of work.”
Zachary Haas: “Franklin Furnace, in one word, is rebellion.”
Leslie Rosario-Olivo: “Franklin Furnace means protecting and supporting the memory and the development of all of the freaks and weirdos.”
Johannah Herr: “Franklin Furnace means experimentation.”
Poppy Delta Dawn: “Franklin Furnace is a radical space of possibility.”
Thank you for being part of our community and for reading these stories. We hope they have inspired you to think about what the Furnace means to you. You are the reason we are here and why the next fifty years are possible.
If you haven’t yet — or if you’d like to give again — the campaign is still open: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/franklin-furnace-archive-inc/first-fifty-campaign
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Hector Canonge, FF Alumn, August events
Hector Canonge, FF alumni, leads programs and presents projects in India, Malaysia, Singapore and Jakarta, August 2026.
After spending a couple of months back in Europe, Hector Canonge, traveled to India to lead projects at Delhi College of Art, and Sushant University in Delhi and to participate in programs invited by local art institutions where he conducts workshops and conferences in Performance Art as well as collaborations with local artists at local sites in Haryana, Gurugram and near districts in Delhi. In collaboration with the organization in Morni Hills, Canonge also prepared to launch INDIGA, a Performance Art Residency and Festival initiative, to take place annually in the northern state of Chandigarh where he gave presentations at Lalit Kala Akademy of India.
Following his work in India, Canonge will travel to South Asia where he will be conducting workshops in Butoh Practice and giving presentations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Singapore, and Jakarta, Indonesia, before heading to Melbourne, Australia, where he has been invited to present his work in Performance Art for the University of Melbourne.
More Information: INST: @hectorcanonge
Website: http://www.hectorcanonge.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. Marina Abramović, FF Alumn, now online at NYTimes.com
Please visit this link:
Thank you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3. Pope.L, Franc Palaia, FF Alumns, at Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery, Chicago, IL, Sept. 15-Oct. 31
Please visit this link for complete information: https://www.corbettvsdempsey.com/exhibitions/popel/
Franc Palaia, FF Alumn, will be part of this unique exhibition also celebrating the Afro-New wave band which Pope.L played in, Jon Waine, 1979-1983. Jon Waine performed at dozens of East Village music venues from 1980-83. They included Danceteria, Inroads, Club Negril, 8BC, No Se No, CBGB’s, Kenny Kastaways, Doctor B’s, the Dirt Club, RT Firefly, Club Mod, Maxwells in Hoboken as well as numerous N.J. college gigs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4. Peter Downsbrough, FF Alumn, at Good Books, Paris, opening Sept. 10
Good Books is now closed for the summer. We look forward to seeing you again in September with a presentation dedicated to Peter Downsbrough, opening on Thursday, September 10, from 6 to 9 pm.
Peter Downsbrough’s work addresses questions of position and displacement through the relationships between language, architecture, and space, for which he used a reduced vocabulary of words such as and, or, as, if, and now—fundamental elements of his practice.
Solo exhibitions include 112, Greene Street, New York City, N.Y. (1971); Paleis voor Schone Kunsten / Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (1975); Peter Downsbrough, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (1977); Musée Saint-Pierre d’Art Contemporain, Lyon (1989); Dům umění města Brna, Brno (1991); Books – Bücher, Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen (1993); 1965–1975: Modèles 1983–1998, MAMCO, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva (1999); Position, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels; Espace de l’Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux (2003); and Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź (2004); Films, vidéos et éditions, 1980–2004, MAMCO, Geneva (2004); S.M.A.K., Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent (2006); The Book(s) 1968–2010, deSingel International Arts Centre, Antwerp (2011); Musée régional d’art contemporain Languedoc-Roussillon, Sérignan (2014); Pavilion Intervention, Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, Barcelona (2016); FROM TO, S.M.A.K., Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, and MACS, Musée des Arts Contemporains, Grand-Hornu (2016); OVERLAP/S, Le Botanique, Brussels (2019).
Selected group exhibitions include Rooms, the inaugural exhibition at MoMA P.S.1, New York (1976); documenta 6, Kassel (1977); Mise en Pièces / Mise en Place / Mise au Point, Maison de la Culture, Chalon-sur-Saône, and Le Coin du Miroir, Dijon (1981); Une expérience muséographique: échange entre artistes 1931–82. Pologne – USA, ARC, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris (1982); 1965–1975: Reconsidering the Object of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California (1995); Passions privées, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris (1995); Le bel aujourd’hui, Le Nouveau Musée – Institut d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne (1997); Outside of a Dog: Paperbacks and Other Books by Artists, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2003); Sites of Reason: A Selection of Recent Acquisitions, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014); Un Coup de dés, in Un Nouveau Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015); Drawing Dialogues, The Drawing Center, New York (2016); Between the Ticks of the Watch, The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2016); Kathmandu International Art Festival, Kathmandu, Nepal (2017).
In concertation with Kaatje Cusse.
Special thanks to Catherine Kergomard and Zacharie Bodson.
On view September 11 – October 17, 2026.
For more information and to request a preview please contact the bookshop.
Good Books est désormais fermée pour la pause estivale.
Nous aurons le plaisir de vous retrouver en septembre pour une présentation consacrée à Peter Downsbrough, avec un vernissage le jeudi 10 septembre, de 18h à 21h.
Le travail de Peter Downsbrough interroge les notions de position et de déplacement à travers les relations entre le langage, l’architecture et l’espace. Un vocabulaire réduit — and, or, as, if et now — constituait l’un des éléments fondamentaux de sa pratique.
Parmi ses expositions personnelles figurent 112, Greene Street, New York (1971); Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles (1975); Peter Downsbrough, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (1977); Musée Saint-Pierre d’Art Contemporain, Lyon (1989); Dům umění města Brna, Brno (1991); Books – Bücher, Neues Museum Weserburg, Brême (1993); 1965–1975 : Modèles 1983–1998, MAMCO, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Genève (1999); Position, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles, Espace de l’Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux (2003), puis Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź (2004) ; Films, vidéos et éditions, 1980–2004, MAMCO, Genève (2004) ; S.M.A.K., Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gand (2006); The Book(s) 1968–2010, deSingel International Arts Centre, Anvers (2011); Musée régional d’art contemporain Languedoc-Roussillon, Sérignan (2014); Pavillion Intervention, Pavillon Mies van der Rohe, Barcelone (2016); FROM TO, S.M.A.K., Gand, et MACS, Musée des Arts Contemporains, Grand-Hornu (2016) ; OVERLAP/S, Le Botanique, Bruxelles (2019).
Son travail a également été présenté dans de nombreuses expositions collectives, notamment pour Rooms, exposition inaugurale du MoMA P.S.1, New York (1976); documenta 6, Kassel (1977); Mise en Pièces / Mise en Place / Mise au Point, Maison de la Culture, Chalon-sur-Saône, et Le Coin du Miroir, Dijon (1981); Une expérience muséographique : échange entre artistes 1931–82. Pologne – USA, ARC, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris (1982) ; 1965–1975: Reconsidering the Object of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1995); Passions privées, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris (1995); Le bel aujourd’hui, Le Nouveau Musée – Institut d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne (1997) ; Outside of a Dog: Paperbacks and Other Books by Artists, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2003) ; Sites of Reason: A Selection of Recent Acquisitions, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014); Un Coup de dés, dans Un Nouveau Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015); Drawing Dialogues, The Drawing Center, New York (2016); Between the Ticks of the Watch, The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2016); ainsi que le Kathmandu International Art Festival, Katmandou (Népal, 2017).
En concertation avec Kaatje Cusse.
Remerciements à Catherine Kergomard et Zacharie Bodson.
Exposition visible du 11 septembre au 17 octobre 2026.
Pour toute information complémentaire ou pour recevoir un dossier de présentation, merci de contacter la librairie.
Good Books
21 Quai Malaquais
75006 Paris
Contact goodbooks@goodbooks.fr
Insta goodbooksparis
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5. Paul Zelevansky, FF Alumn, now online at https://vimeo.com/1219229767 and more
TO THE GREAT BLANKNESS
MAILING LIST:
From the vault: August 18, 2010
“You have what I
lack myself”
PZ, August 18, 2026
and
TO THE GREAT BLANKNESS
MAILING LIST:
“Somewhere, beyond
the sea…”
PZ, August 21, 2026
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
6. John Giorno, FF Alumn, at kurimanzutto, Mexico City, opening Aug. 29
John Giorno: LIFE IS A KILLER
August 29 – October 10, 2026
Opening: August 29, 6–8pm
kurimanzutto
Gob. Rafael Rebollar 94
Mexico City, Mexico
LIFE IS A KILLER is John Giorno’s first solo exhibition in Mexico City.
The show takes its title from one of Giorno’s most iconic recurring poetic statements, LIFE IS A KILLER, a phrase that reappears across paintings, recordings, performances, and publications, reflecting his conviction that a poem does not end on the printed page but instead takes on new life and new meaning each time it moved into another medium.
Bringing together works on canvas, paper, wall paintings, audio recordings, film, as well as live performance, the exhibition examines Giorno’s prolific creative practice through language. At the center of the gallery, a suspended microphone hangs above a raised platform that serves as a stage for live performances. Surrounding it are four turntables, developed with artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, which play vinyl records released by Giorno Poetry Systems Records. Visitors are invited to select and play the LPs, and as voices overlap, poems become an ever-changing soundscape shaped by each visitor’s choices.
In honor of Giorno’s legacy, the exhibition is accompanied by a program of readings, performances, workshops, and public events developed with La Americana, an independent bookstore specializing in books from the continent. A poetry translation workshop with poets, editors, and writers will use works by Giorno and his contemporaries as a creative and interpretive act.
Giorno Poetry Systems
222 Bowery
New York, NY 10012
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7. Christine DeFazio, FF Intern Alumn, at University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, Aug. 27
Christine DeFazio will present The Intersection of (Graffiti) “Writing” and Text Based Art at Fashion Moda for the panel, Word, Image and the City I, on August 27 at the University of Utrecht for the triennial International Association of Word and Image Studies / Association Internationale pour l’Étude des Rapports entre Texte et Image: ‘Word, Image and Social Dynamics’, Amsterdam and Utrecht, 24–28 August 2026.
Her presentation highlights the notable collaborations fostered by Fashion Moda, in particular between Jenny Holzer, LADY PINK, and A-ONE, and CRASH and John Fekner, as well as Jane Dickson, and the scholarship of Lucy Lippard, all of whom are FF Alumns.
Fashion Moda was established in 1978 by artists Stefan Eins and Joe Lewis, FF Alumns, and a local teenager named William Scott, and functioned as a prominent voice in the 1980s New-York art world and major communication center between Manhattan- and Bronx-based artists, particularly graffiti ‘writers’ in the 1980s. The Fall 1978 inaugural exhibition sported the sub-name of the gallery: Museum of Science, Art, Invention, Technology, and Fantasy testing the boundaries of what was considered art at the time, and who defined it. Eins first gallery was a storefront in the emerging Soho district within proximity to other alternative art spaces. Fashion Moda’s address was in a former thrift shop building on Third Avenue in the South Bronx, deliberately removed from the emerging Soho gallery district and in a space that encouraged experimentation and innovation without the constraints of major market forces (i.e. the contemporary art market and academic art training). It was a perfect setting in which ‘writers’ could flourish, could mingle with major, but like-minded mainstream artists, and learn how to navigate the systems of the art world. The gallery exhibited artwork focused on media that was unusual, attention grabbing, and exploited the visual clues of popular culture, such as advertising billboards, video games, and television, and promoted the use of alternative media now central to street art, such as wheat paste, street signs, stickers, and T-shirts. Notable collaborations occurred between Jenny Holzer (b. 1950) and Anthony A-ONE Clark (1964-2001), Sandra LADY PINK Fabara (b. 1964), and LEE Quiñones (b. 1960), as well as John Fekner (b. 1950) and John CRASH Matos (b. 1961). Long Standing relationships ensued: nearly all have collaborated on recent text-based projects.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
8. Allied Productions, FF Alumns, at Le Petit Versailles Garden, Manhattan, Aug. 29
Allied Productions presents
MELT ICE MELT
@Le Petit Versailles Garden
Saturday, August 29 • 12 PM – 10 PM.
247 East 2nd Street Rain or Shine
Interactive ice sculpture, transcendental film w/ live musical accompaniment, & a Know Your Rights Training: Defense Against ICE all at LPV!
On the last Saturday of August, Le Petite Versailles will present MELT ICE MELT, a day of exploration prompting participants to expand their awareness of change through bodily, sonic, and political intervention.
The day’s events will kick off with the installation of Robert Landislas Derr’s interactive sculpture All That Is Solid Melts Into Air, a 40” x 9” x 20” ice bench inviting audiences to sit and consciously experience their body’s shifting sensation while simultaneously shifting the state of matter below.
We will then have the honor of hosting a “Know Your Rights Training” focusing on personal protections against I.C.E. and the NYPD. FREE zines, radical ephemera, and spanish translation will be available.
Closing out the evening with a screening by Katherine Liberovskaya of Ice-Out SP (2017), part 3 of a series of filmic meditations. This screening will be accompanied by David Watson live on electric guitar with a composition by the late Phill Niblock. Come cool off the end of summer with this all day program as we MELT ICE MELT ICE MELT ICE MELT ICE MELT ICE MELT!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
9. Barbara T. Hoffman, FF Alumn, now online at Substack.com
Please visit this link:
Thank you
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
10. Matt Romein, FF Alumn, at The Chocolate Factory, Long Island City, NY, Sept. 19
The Chocolate Factory Theater, 38-33 24th Street, Long Island City NY 11101. Details and tickets at chocolatefactorytheater.org.
CATCH!
Saturday September 19, 2026
Doors at 6pm. Performance at 7pm
CATCH is “everyone’s favorite” Obie Award–winning, itinerant, rough-and-ready series of performance parties. Satisfying the promise of New York City since 2003, CATCH gives stage to an ever-expanding universe of emerging artists and downtown luminaries — pouring equal portions of community, love, and beer.
CATCH is organized by Andrew Dinwiddie, Caleb Hammons, Jeff Larson, Matt Romein and Leah Plante-Wiener.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For subscriptions, un-subscriptions, queries and comments, please email mail@franklinfurnace.org
Join Franklin Furnace today:
https://franklinfurnace.org/membership/
Goings On is compiled weekly by Rohan Subramaniam, Archivist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~end~~
