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This fall, MoMA PS1 will present a major exhibition of artist Ralph Lemon (b. 1952, Cincinnati), featuring more than sixty artworks made over the last decade across disciplines and a program of six collaborative performances. Opening on November 14, 2024, Ceremonies Out of the Air comprises dance, drawings, photographs, sculpture, paintings, and video throughout the Museum’s expansive third-floor galleries, alongside a synchronous program of live works staged in a dedicated performance space. One of the most significant figures to emerge from New York’s downtown scene in the 1990s, Lemon engages deeply with the legacies of postmodern dance in the US and the capacity for storytelling through movement—reflecting on the state of performance in the museum, on stage, in celebration, and in daily life. Together, Lemon’s works position the body as an archive of raw emotion, physical labor, and received histories to challenge the ways we have been taught to see the world.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is Rant redux (2020–24), a major four-channel video and sound installation realized with Kevin Beasley and based on the live performance Rant (2019–ongoing). Composed of layered movement, sound, and video, this energetic tour de force is enacted by some of the most influential artists working in performance today—including Beasley, Okwui Okpokwasili, Samita Sinha, Darrell Jones, and Lemon himself. The opening weekend will feature an ensemble presentation of Tell it anyway (2024), commissioned and premiered by the Walker Art Center, and made in collaboration with Beasley, Okpokwasili, Sinha, Jones, April Matthis, Paul Hamilton, Mariama Nougera-Devers, Dwayne Brown, Angie Pittman, Roderick Murray, Mike Taylor, and Lysis (Ley). In spring 2025, a special presentation of Rant #6 will transpose the cinematic suspension of the Rant redux (2020-24) installation back into real time.
Ceremonies Out of the Air: Ralph Lemon is organized by Connie Butler, Director, MoMA PS1, and Thomas Lax, Curator, Department of Media and Performance, MoMA, with Kari Rittenbach, Assistant Curator, MoMA PS1.
Major support for Ceremonies Out of the Air: Ralph Lemon is provided by Sarah Arison and the Ford Foundation.
Generous support is provided by the Doris Duke Foundation, the Lise M. Stolt-Nielsen Family, and the Wallis Annenberg Director’s Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art.
Significant support is provided by A4 Arts Foundation and the Black Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art.
Additional support is provided by anonymous, James Keith (JK) Brown and Eric Diefenbach, and Zenas Hutcheson. Funding is also provided by the Harkness Foundation for Dance, Katherine Sachs, and Catharine and Jeffrey Soros.
The exhibition is made possible through Mellon Foundation’s generous institutional support.
Learn more about the exhibition on our website.
Press Kit
Images
Ralph Lemon and Kevin Beasley. Rant (redux). 2020–24. 4-channel HD video color, 8-channel sound, 14 min. Installation view of Ceremonies Out the the Air: Ralph Lemon, on view at MoMA PS1 from November 14, 2024 through March 24, 2025. Photo: Steven Paneccasio
Installation view of Ceremonies Out the the Air: Ralph Lemon, on view at MoMA PS1 from November 14, 2024 through March 24, 2025. Photo: Steven Paneccasio
Ralph Lemon and Kevin Beasley. Rant (redux). 2020–24. 4-channel HD video color, 8-channel sound, 14 min. Installation view of Ceremonies Out the the Air: Ralph Lemon, on view at MoMA PS1 from November 14, 2024 through March 24, 2025. Photo: Steven Paneccasio
Ralph Lemon. Rant Residuum. 2020–24. Video: color, silent, 9 min., 47 sec. 18-inch subwoofer with single-channel infrasonic sound composition; plastic rooster mask, wig, polyurethane foam, duct tape, butterfly hair clip, polyurethane resin, and microphone stand; Killer Spacedog archival pigment print, wood frame, altered T-shirt, cotton and rubber slipper, gauze wrap, raw Virginia cotton, and polyurethane resin; latex hippo mask, thread, guineafowl pelt and feathers, turkey feathers, and polyurethane resin; acrylic paint and masking tape; graphite on Rives BFK paper, untitled archival pigment print, epoxy resin, and fishing line; tambourine, glass beads, polyurethane foam, sheer stocking, and polyurethane resin; “marked” laminated plywood, latex paint, and permanent marker. Installation view of Ceremonies Out the the Air: Ralph Lemon, on view at MoMA PS1 from November 14, 2024 through March 24, 2025. Photo: Steven Paneccasio
Installation view of Ceremonies Out the the Air: Ralph Lemon, on view at MoMA PS1 from November 14, 2024 through March 24, 2025. Photo: Steven Paneccasio
Installation view of Ceremonies Out the the Air: Ralph Lemon, on view at MoMA PS1 from November 14, 2024 through March 24, 2025. Photo: Steven Paneccasio
Ralph Lemon. From left: Untitled. 2009. Archival pigment print. Garden [Chapter 2]. 2013. Video: color, sound 13 min., 15 sec. With (in order of appearance): Warren (Red) Carter, Lloyd Williams, Lorraine Carter, Emma Williams, Jayden Williams. Installation view of Ceremonies Out the the Air: Ralph Lemon, on view at MoMA PS1 from November 14 through March 24, 2024. Photo: Steven Paneccasio
Ralph Lemon. From top: It could be a forest [Chapter 3]. 2013. Video (color, sound). 11 min., 30 sec. The (Killer Space)Doghouse. 2015. Maplewood and video (black and white, silent). Installation view of Ceremonies Out the the Air: Ralph Lemon, on view at MoMA PS1 from November 14 through March 24, 2024. Photo: Steven Paneccasio
Installation view of Ceremonies Out the the Air: Ralph Lemon, on view at MoMA PS1 from November 14 through March 24, 2024. Photo: Steven Paneccasio
Ralph Lemon. James Baldwin Dharma Talk. 2004. Video animation; color, sound 15 min., 6 sec. Installation view of Ceremonies Out the the Air: Ralph Lemon, on view at MoMA PS1 from November 14 through March 24, 2024. Photo: Steven Paneccasio
Ralph Lemon. The efflorescence of) Walter. 2005. Video (color, sound) 19 min., 30 sec. Installation view of Ceremonies Out the the Air: Ralph Lemon, on view at MoMA PS1 from November 14 through March 24, 2024. Photo: Steven Paneccasio
Ralph Lemon. Tell it anyway. 2024. Performance view, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. 2024. Courtesy Walker Art Center. Photo: Yasmin Yassin
Ralph Lemon. Tell it anyway. 2024. Performance view, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. 2024. Courtesy Walker Art Center. Photo: Yasmin Yassin
Ralph Lemon. Rant #2. 2019. Performance view, Forum do Futuro, Porto, Portugal, 2019. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Jose Caldeira
Ralph Lemon. The Animal Band, In Proximity. 2022-25. Performance view, Dancing Studies, COSMO, Campo San Cosmo, Venice. 2022. Courtesy the artist and Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection. Photo: Matteo De Fina
Ralph Lemon. Untitled. 2018. Courtesy the artist.
Ralph Lemon. Untitled 1. 2016. From the series Untitled (The greatest [Black] art history story ever told. Unfinished). Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo: Martin Parsekian
Portrait of Ralph Lemon. 2020. Courtesy the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.