Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam

Wilfried Lentz Gallery is very proud to host Michael Portnoy’s (1971, based in New York) first solo exhibition in The Netherlands,

Script Opposition in Late-Model Carrot Jokes

The opening will take place on Thursday, September 8th from 5 pm – 7 pm and the show is running through October 8th.
During the opening there will be a presentation starting at 5:30 pm sharp with Michael Portnoy and humor theorists Olivier Brems and Tim De Mey.

Accompanying the show is an artist publication in an edition of 100. The show and the publication is coproduced with Objectif Exhibitions, Antwerp and IBID PROJECTS London.

Reservations for the presentation are recommended since there is limited space to attend. Please send an email to office@wilfriedlentz.com before September 7th to make a reservation.

The gallery is open Thursday – Saturdays from 1-6 pm and by appointment. For further information and visuals, please contact the gallery: office@wilfriedlentz.com or +31 (0)10 4126459.
Continuing his interest in “experimental comedy”, Michael Portnoy introduces the public to a specialized form of jokes through a series of interactive wall-based works, a new publication, and a presentation during the opening with humor theorists Olivier Brems and Tim De Mey.

Carrot Jokes are a genre of dense, joke-like texts first proposed by cognitive linguists Chlopicki and Petray (1981) to undermine emerging computational models of humor analysis. These jokes, further developed by others in the field, depend on a preponderance of background incongruities, blunt omissions, faulty script switch-triggers, “gray” implicature, and missing links in inferencing.

Michael Portnoy’s practice spans dance-theater, vocal power-tools, Relational Stalinism, reptangles, abstract gambling, the improvement of biennials, and Icelandic cockroach porn. His art circles the rules of play and communication – language itself playing a crucial role in the works. Recent shows by Portnoy include: 2011 at Objectif Exhibitions (Antwerp). 2010 at the Taipei Biennial (Taipei), Centre Pompidou (Paris), De Appel (Amsterdam), CAC (Vilnius). In 2009 at Kadist Foundation (Paris), Kunstverein (Amsterdam) and 2008 The SculptureCenter (New York), Kunsthalle Basel. 2007 at the 2nd Moscow Biennial. In 2009 and 2007 Portnoy participated in Performa (New York) where he will be present again in autumn this year.

The opening will take place on Thursday, September 8th from 5 pm – 7 pm and the show is running through October 8th. During the opening there will be a presentation starting at 5:30 pm sharp with Michael Portnoy, Olivier Brems and Tim De Mey. Accompanying the show is an artist publication in an edition of 100. Reservations for the presentation are recommended since there is limited space to attend. Please send an email to office@wilfriedlentz.com before September 6th to make a reservation.

The gallery is open Thursday – Saturdays from 1-6 pm and by appointment. For further information and visuals, please contact the gallery: office@wilfriedlentz.com or +31 (0)10 4126459.