PIEROGI will participate in the Armory Show Focus Section
David Scher and Ward Shelley: Who Invented the Avant-Garde
Booth F14 at the Javits Center NYC
September 6–8, 2024
Fri Sept 6 and Sat Sept 7: 11am–7pm
Sun Sept 8: 11am–6pm
Press Release
“Who Invented the Avant-Garde?”
Pierogi will mount a two-person exhibition of works by David Scher and Ward Shelley, each carrying the experimental spirit of the 1913 and 1994 Armory Shows to present day.
David Scher is a multidisciplinary artist whose works resist simple categorization. His approach consists of establishing fields where multiple things occur: musical scores, bookcases, tabletops, stages, walls. Their surfaces are studded with collaged, cannibalized sections torn from other drawings, and both figurative and abstract elements. His works are simultaneously recordings and scores. A selection from his 1,000+ sketchbooks, depicting his wildly creative thought process, will be presented in a vitrine. Scher’s work has been exhibited widely in the US and internationally, including “Codex,” Wattis Institute, and is included in the collections of the MoMA, Whitney Museum, and others. Scher is an accomplished experimental musician and we will host a schedule of him “performing” his drawings on clarinet.
Ward Shelley’s timelines are graphic depictions of complex relationships between events and people over time. “Who Invented the Avant-Garde” explores the history of the movement, from its nascent murmurings, to its radical heyday. His “Fluxus Diagram” charts the most radical and experimental art movement of the sixties. Shelley’s interactive performance, installation, and timeline works have been shown widely domestically and internationally, including “Endless House: Intersections of Art and Architecture,” MoMA, NYC. His kinetic, interactive sculptural collaborations with Alex Schweder, including: “ReActor,” Art OMI; “In Orbit,” The Boiler; and “Your Turn,” The Aldrich Museum, received strong critical praise.