Blank Forms

Blank Forms was inaugurated on March 4, 2016 with Labyrinth Gives Way To Skin, the first of a series of seminars and listening sessions presented in collaboration with The Maryanne Amacher Archive to investigate the work of the late sound artist Maryanne Amacher. Seminars, listening sessions, and concerts of Amacher's work by Blank Forms have taken place at Redcat, Artists Space, Bell Labs, The Kitchen, St. Peter's Episcopal Church, University of Pennsylvania, the Emily Harvey Foundation, and Holy Apostles and the Mediator.{{Cite web|last=rrodriguez|date=2018-12-17|title=Maryanne Amacher: Adjacencies (1965)|url=https://www.redcat.org/event/maryanne-amacher-adjacencies-1965|access-date=2020-06-24|website=redcat.org|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Maryanne Amacher|url=https://artistsspace.org/artists/maryanne-amacher|access-date=2020-06-24|website=artistsspace.org|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Mike|date=2018-02-04|title=Maryanne Amacher in New York and New Jersey, March 30 and 31|url=https://avantmusicnews.com/2018/02/04/maryanne-amacher-in-new-york-and-new-jersey-march-30-and-31/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=Avant Music News|language=en}}{{Cite magazine|title=Maryanne Amacher Adjacencies|url=https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/classical-music/maryanne-amacher-adjacencies|access-date=2020-06-24|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Walls|first=Seth Colter|date=2017-05-19|title=Reviving the Ghostly Sounds of Maryanne Amacher|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/arts/music/reviving-the-ghostly-sounds-of-maryanne-amacher.html|access-date=2020-06-24|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|title=Maryanne Amacher: Adjacencies, Petra, Supreme Connections ::: Friday, April 12, 2019 at Holy Apostles and the Mediator|url=https://www.bowerbird.org/event/adjacencies-petra-supreme-connections-night-one/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=Bowebird|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=Maryanne Amacher: An Introduction ::: Tuesday, April 7, 2019 at the Kislak Center|url=https://www.bowerbird.org/event/maryanne-amacher-an-introduction/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=Bowerbird|language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2025 |title=March 4, 2016: Labyrinth Gives Way to Skin: Maryanne Amacher (Organized by Blank Forms) |url=https://www.emilyharveyfoundation.org/newyork/Pages/EmilyHarveyFoundation/0044.html |access-date=2020-06-24 |website=The Emily Harvey Foundation}} In 2020, Blank Forms established the Maryanne Amacher Foundation and donated the composer's archives to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts for use by researchers and artists.{{Cite web|title=New York Public Library Acquires Archive of Sound Art Pioneer Maryanne Amacher|url=https://www.artforum.com/news/archive-of-sound-art-pioneer-maryanne-amacher-goes-to-the-new-york-public-library-82200|access-date=2020-06-24|website=artforum.com|date=19 February 2020 |language=en-US}}

In 2018, Blank Forms began the ongoing project of preserving and promoting the work of Swedish polymath and minimal music composer Catherine Christer Hennix. That year, Blank Forms co-curated two exhibitions of her artwork—Traversée du Fantasme at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Thresholds of Perception at Empty Gallery in Hong Kong—and released Selected Early Keyboard Works, the first volume in their series of archival releases of her unheard music.{{Cite web|title=Empty Gallery – Thresholds of Perception|url=https://emptygallery.com/exhibitions/eg11-thresholds-of-perception/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=emptygallery.com}} Subsequent volumes have included The Deontic Miracle: Selections from 100 Models of Hegikan Roku and Unbegrenzt.{{Cite journal|date=January 2020|title=Archive releases of the year|journal=The Wire|volume=431|pages=49}}{{Cite web|date=2020-06-13|title=FFFoxy Podcast #161: Blank Forms feature|url=https://www.freeformfreakout.com/fffoxy-podcast-161-blank-forms-feature/|access-date=2020-06-24|language=en-US}} In 2019, Blank Forms anthologized Hennix's writing in the two-volume set Poësy Matters & Other Matters.{{Cite web|last1=Battaglia|first1=Andy|date=2019-12-24|title=The Year in Sound: Writings, Recordings, and Performances of Artful Aurality in 2019|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/year-in-sound-art-2019-1202673394/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=ARTnews.com|language=en-US}}

In 2019, Blank Forms announced Intermediate States, a series of listening sessions, installations, and performances of the work of the French composer Éliane Radigue. The ongoing program has included diffusions of Radigue's tape works Trilogie de la mort, Adnos I-III, Chry-ptus, and Vice-Versa, etc... in addition to touring performances of her instrumental composition Occam Ocean.{{Cite magazine|title=Eliane Radigue|url=https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/classical-music/eliane-radigue|access-date=2020-06-24|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en}}{{Cite web|date=2019-10-10|title=Blank Forms to host performances of four Éliane Radigue works in NYC|url=https://www.factmag.com/2019/10/10/blank-forms-to-host-performances-of-four-eliane-radigue-works-in-nyc-this-november/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=Fact Magazine|language=en-US}}

In 2018, Blank Forms co-curated Traversée du Fantasme, Catherine Christer Hennix's first solo museum exhibition since 1976, at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Later that year, Blank Forms occupied Artists Space's former space at 55 Walker St. in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood for two art exhibitions with accompanying performance programs. Wildweeds, Loren Connors' first solo art show, was supplemented with performances by the guitarist as well as by Charalambides. Freedom Is Around the Corner was the first retrospective of Danish Fluxus artist Henning Christiansen's work in America, with sculpture, painting, video, sound works, objects, works on paper, self-published magazines, and other work shown. The exhibition also included the presentation of performances by Werner Durand, Mark Harwood, Ute Wassermann, Thorbjørn Reuter Christiansen, Lucy Railton, James Rushford, Stíne Janvin, Graham Lambkin, Áine O’Dwyer, Lau Nau, and Apartment House, in addition to a screening of films by Ursula Reuter Christiansen at Anthology Film Archives.{{Cite web|title=Blank Forms opens first institutional survey of Henning Christiansen's work in America|url=https://artdaily.cc/news/108545/Blank-Forms-opens-first-institutional-survey-of-Henning-Christiansen-s-work-in-America|access-date=2020-06-24|website=artdaily.cc}} Although Blank Forms continues to work using a roving curatorial model to present performances and exhibitions without a fixed space, in 2020 the organization opened their first dedicated exhibition space in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill neighborhood.{{Cite journal|last=McGovern|first=Fiona|date=December 2018|title=Curating Sound|journal=Texte zur Kunst|volume=112|pages=76}} That winter, they presented Time Runs Through the Darkest Hour, an exhibition of drawings, mixed-media works on paper, and a sound piece by Graham Lambkin.

In 2017, Blank Forms began publishing an anthology in book form, consisting of interviews, essays, poetry, newly-translated texts, and artwork and envisioned as "a platform for critical reflection and extended dialogue between scholars, artists, and other figures working within the world of experimental music and art."{{Cite web|last=Dalachinsky|first=Steve|date=2017-07-14|title=Outtakes|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2017/07/music/Outtakes-July2017|access-date=2020-06-24|website=The Brooklyn Rail|language=en-US}} That same year, they released a cassette by Charlemagne Palestine, inaugurating the record label branch of Blank Forms Editions. The label has also released music by Catherine Christer Hennix, Hairbone, Loren Connors, Maryanne Amacher, Graham Lambkin & Joe McPhee, Masayuki Takayanagi New Direction Unit, Patty Waters, and Afuma.{{Cite web|title=Blank Forms Editions|url=https://www.discogs.com/label/1374568-Blank-Forms-Editions|access-date=2020-06-24|website=Discogs|language=en}} In 2019, they expanded their publishing wing by publishing three single-author books, by Loren Connors, Catherine Christer Hennix, and Joseph Jarman. In 2020, they announced the publication of a book of selected writings and interviews by Maryanne Amacher and a collection of poetry about music by Thulani Davis.{{Cite book|url=https://www.artbook.com/9781733723572.html|title=Maryanne Amacher Selected Writings and Interviews Artbook {{!}} D.A.P. 2020 Catalog Blank Forms Editions 9781733723572}}{{Cite book|url=https://www.artbook.com/9781733723565.html|title=Nothing but the Music Artbook {{!}} D.A.P. 2020 Catalog Blank Forms Editions Books Exhibition Catalogues 9781733723565}} In 2021, Blank Forms Editions published Alan Licht's book Common Tones: Selected Interviews with Artists and Musicians 1995-2020.

Some of the artists with which Blank Forms has sustained extended relationships include:

• Afuma{{Cite web|date=2019-11-14|title=Album of the Day: Afuma, "Songs From the Shore"|url=https://daily.bandcamp.com/album-of-the-day/afuma-songs-from-the-shore-review|access-date=2020-06-24|website=Bandcamp Daily}}{{Cite web|title=Printed Matter's NY Art Book Fair 2019 Opening Night {{!}} MoMA|url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/5812|access-date=2020-06-24|website=The Museum of Modern Art|language=en}}
• Onyx Ashanti{{Cite web|date=2019-07-15|title=9 Art Events in New York: Leonardo da Vinci, Pierre Cardin, Onyx Ashanti, and More|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/9-art-events-nyc-leonardo-da-vinci-pierre-cardin-12968/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=ARTnews.com|language=en-US}}
• Maryanne Amacher{{Cite web|last=Eppley|first=Charles|date=2017-11-02|title=The Experimental Music of Maryanne Amacher and Philip Corner|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2017/11/artseen/Maryanne-Amacher-Philip-Corner|access-date=2020-06-24|website=The Brooklyn Rail|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|date=2020-02-20|title=Strong Sales at Frieze Los Angeles; Billionaire Donates $3M to James Turell's Roden Crater|url=https://hyperallergic.com/543876/strong-sales-at-frieze-los-angeles-billionaire-donates-3m-to-james-turells-roden-crater/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=Hyperallergic|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=Strange Structures: How Maryanne Amacher Made Shapes with Sound|url=https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2019/09/maryanne-amacher-feature|access-date=2020-06-24|website=daily.redbullmusicacademy.com|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Dayal|first=Geeta|title=Maryanne Amacher|url=http://4columns.org/dayal-geeta/maryanne-amacher|access-date=2020-06-24|website=4columns.org}}
• Henning Christiansen{{Cite magazine|title=Henning Christiansen|url=https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/classical-music/henning-christiansen|access-date=2020-06-24|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en}}
• Loren Connors{{Cite web|title=Three Ordinary Seasons in New Haven « Artedolia|url=http://www.arteidolia.com/three-ordinary-seasons-in-new-haven-loren-connors-autumns-sun/|access-date=2020-06-24}}
• Thulani Davis{{Cite web|date=2019-09-20|title=Printed Matter NY Art Book Fair 2019 to host talks on Joseph Jarman, David Grubbs and Tony Conrad|url=https://www.factmag.com/2019/09/20/printed-matter-ny-art-book-fair-2019-to-host-talks-on-joseph-jarman-david-grubbs-and-tony-conrad/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=FACT Magazine|language=en-US}}
• Mark Ernestus' Ndagga Rhythm Force{{Cite magazine|title=Ndagga Rhythm Force|url=https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/night-life/mark-ernestus-ndagga-rhythm-force|access-date=2020-06-24|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Mark Ernestus' Ndagga Rhythm Force postpone New York show, announce DJ set instead|url=https://www.residentadvisor.net/news/47411|access-date=2020-06-24|website=Resident Advisor}}
• Catherine Christer Hennix{{Cite web|title=Catherine Christer Hennix: Selected Early Keyboard Works|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/catherine-christer-hennix-selected-early-keyboard-works/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=Pitchfork|language=en}}{{Cite journal|last=Choate|first=Canada|date=February 2018|title=Alternative Math|journal=Artforum|volume=56, 6|pages=57}}
• Graham Lambkin{{Cite magazine|title=What to Do in N.Y.C. This Weekend: "The Women Behind Hitchcock," Lekka Burger, Dry Cleaning, and "Dana H."|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/likes/what-to-do-in-new-york-city-this-weekend|access-date=2020-06-24|magazine=The New Yorker|date=25 January 2018|language=en-us}}
• Okkyung Lee{{Cite web|last=Reising|first=Sam|date=2018-04-30|title=This week: concerts in New York (April 30, 2018 – May 6, 2018)|url=https://www.icareifyoulisten.com/2018/04/week-concerts-new-york-april-30-2018-may-6-2018/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=I Care If You Listen|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=Special Event: Observations At Night x Blank Forms - The Wire|url=https://www.thewire.co.uk/events/observations-at-night-x-blank-forms-2019|access-date=2020-06-24|website=The Wire Magazine - Adventures In Modern Music|language=en}}
• Alan Licht{{Cite web|title=News » Return to Hoffman Estates This week! {{!}} Drag City|url=https://www.dragcity.com/news/2019-05-20-return-to-hoffman-estates-this-week|access-date=2020-06-24|website=dragcity.com}}{{Cite web|title=Lawrence Kumpf, editor - Blank Forms Magazine|url=https://www.printedmatter.org/catalog/50971/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=Printed Matter|language=en}}
• Joe McPhee{{Cite web|last=Dalachinsky|first=Steve|date=2017-09-07|title=Outtakes|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2017/09/music/Outtakes-September2017|access-date=2020-06-24|website=The Brooklyn Rail|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=Prismatic Park exhibition coming to NYC's Madison Square Park: Matana Roberts, Joe McPhee, Graham Lambkin, and more to perform with a blue tint|url=https://www.tinymixtapes.com/news/prismatic-park-exhibition-coming-nycs-madison-square-park-feat-matana-roberts-joe-mcphee-graham|access-date=2020-06-24|website=Tiny Mix Tapes|language=en}}
• Áine O'Dwyer{{Cite web|date=2016-12-01|title=The Month in Weird: December's Best Avant-Garde Concerts|url=https://observer.com/2016/12/the-month-in-weird-decembers-best-avant-garde-concerts/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=Observer|language=en-US}}
• Charlemagne Palestine{{Cite web|last1=Battaglia|first1=Andy|date=2017-07-27|title=Bells and Bears and Beings, Oh My!: Charlemagne Palestine Takes New York|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/bells-and-bears-and-beings-oh-my-charlemagne-palestine-takes-new-york-8755/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=ARTnews.com|language=en-US}}{{Cite journal|last=Coley|first=Byron|date=February 2018|title=Size Matters|journal=The Wire|volume=408|pages=62}}
• The Sun Ra Arkestra{{Cite web|title=Artist support network Blank Forms launches its first annual benefit concert - The Wire|url=https://www.thewire.co.uk/news/47801/artist-support-network-blank-forms-hold-annual-benefit-concert|access-date=2020-06-24|website=The Wire Magazine - Adventures In Modern Music|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Heinrich|first=Will|date=2019-09-18|title=TriBeCa, the New Art Stroll|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/arts/design/art-galleries-tribeca.html|access-date=2020-06-24|issn=0362-4331}}
• Éliane Radigue{{Cite web|last1=Downey|first1=Walker|date=2019-12-11|title=Reappraising Luc Ferrari and Éliane Radigue, Two Renegades of French Music|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/eliane-radigue-blank-forms-luc-ferrari-anthology-film-archives-1202672015/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=ARTnews.com|language=en-US}}
• Marianne Schroeder{{Cite web|title=New York Classical Review|url=https://newyorkclassicalreview.com/2019/04/critics-choice-79/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=newyorkclassicalreview.com|language=en-US}}
• Akio Suzuki{{Cite web|last=Petrossiants|first=Andreas|date=2017-11-14|title=Annea Lockwood, Aki Onda, and Akio Suzuki: Presented by Blank Forms|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2017/11/music/Annea-Lockwood-Aki-Onda-and-Akio-Suzuki-Presented-by-Blank-Forms|access-date=2020-06-24|website=The Brooklyn Rail|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=Blank Forms Announces Volume 2 of Journal: Music From the World Tomorrow|url=https://www.tinymixtapes.com/news/blank-forms-announces-volume-2-journal-music-world-tomorrow|access-date=2020-06-24|website=Tiny Mix Tapes|language=en}}
• Masayuki Takayanagi New Direction Unit{{Cite web|last=Mike|date=2020-05-03|title=Blank Forms Upcoming Releases|url=https://avantmusicnews.com/2020/05/03/blank-forms-upcoming-releases/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=Avant Music News|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Viking's Choice: Japanese Free Jazz, Psychedelic Hardcore, Doomy Drone|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2019/06/18/732776372/vikings-choice-japanese-free-jazz-psychedelic-hardcore-doomy-drone|access-date=2020-06-24|website=NPR.org|date=18 June 2019 |language=en|last1=Gotrich |first1=Lars }}
• Patty Waters{{Cite news|last=Russonello|first=Giovanni|date=2018-05-02|title=Live Jazz: 5 April Standouts, From Andrew Cyrille to Linda May Han Oh|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/02/arts/music/best-live-jazz-andrew-cyrille-linda-may-han-oh.html|access-date=2020-06-24|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|title=Sasha Frere-Jones on Patty Waters|url=https://www.artforum.com/music/sasha-frere-jones-on-patty-waters-80791|access-date=2020-06-24|website=artforum.com|date=23 September 2019 |language=en-US}}
• Yarn/Wire{{Cite web|title=On the Record: February 15, 2019 – Page 13|url=https://nationalsawdust.org/thelog/2019/02/15/on-the-record-february-15-2019/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=National Sawdust Log|language=en-US}}

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Category:Arts organizations based in New York City

Category:Art museums and galleries in Brooklyn