Jayson Scott Musson: AKA Hennessy Youngman
Screening and Conversation
Tuesday 15 May, 2012
6:30pm, $7
Electronic Arts Intermix
535 West 22nd Street, Floor 5
Electronic Arts Intermix is pleased to present a screening and conversation with artist Jayson Scott Musson. Speaking about his work for the first time in New York, Musson will discuss ART THOUGHTZ, the episodic Internet series that he hosts as Hennessy Youngman. Musson will premiere two new ART THOUGHTZ videos at EAI—The Studio Visit (2012) and Grad School (2012)—in addition to screening earlier works from the series, including Bruce Nauman (2010), How To Be A Successful Artist (2010), On Beauty (2011), and Relational Aesthetics (2011), among others.
In ART THOUGHTZ—a series of short, talking-head addresses posted on YouTube—Hennessy Youngman offers his irreverent views on topics such as post-structuralism, institutional critique, race in the art world, and the commodification of art. Through Hennessy Youngman, Musson critiques the exclusionary language of art discourse using hip-hop culture's vernacular, hilariously pitting hip-hop and art world idioms against each other in a dual parody of cultural clichés. (The character's name plays on the comedian Henny Youngman, famous for his one-liners, and a cognac that is a status symbol in the hip-hop world.)
In writing, performance and visual art that incisively satirizes and blurs pop culture and the art world, Musson provokes the boundaries that define cultural and racial stereotypes. A major theme of Musson's work is African-American social identity, recognizing "blackness" as a role conferred by a history of discrimination. Musson inhabits certain racial stereotypes in order to displace them and conjure a more ambivalent identity, one that comes closer to reflecting his personal experience of being black. ART THOUGHTZ contrasts Hennessy Youngman's identity as an outsider with the insider game of the art world, further expressing his experience of a segregated culture. Musson's consideration of a public extends beyond the confines of art institutions, deliberately entering the open arenas of mass media. Through YouTube, Musson has circumvented the art world's normal route to exposure and reached a mass audience on his own terms.
Joining in a conversation with Josh Kline of EAI following the screening, Musson will speak about the origins of Hennessy Youngman—how he developed the character's comedic persona as a critical voice, how making rap music influenced his work as an artist, and about his use of the Internet as a platform for direct video performance.
Jayson Scott Musson's work is now available through EAI's distribution service. For more information, please click here.
Jayson Scott Musson was born in Bronx, NY in 1977. He received a BFA in photography from University of the Arts and an MFA in painting from the University of Pennsylvania, both in Philadelphia. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, ME in 2011. His solo exhibitions include The Grand Manner at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia (2011); Neoteny/The Hard Sell at Marginal Utility Gallery, Philadelphia (2011); and Too Black For BET, Dazed & Confused Magazine Gallery, London, England (2008). His work has been included in group exhibitions at Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Postmasters, New York; David Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL; West Galerie, Den Haag, The Netherlands; Somerset County Jail, Skowhegan; Grimmuseum, Berlin, Germany; and Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, among others. His video pieces have been screened at venues including Momenta Art, Brooklyn, and Cottage Home Gallery, Los Angeles.
In 2012 Musson curated the exhibition project It's a Small, Small World at Family Business in New York. He has performed and lectured at numerous venues, including Performa 11, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Pratt Institute, Brooklyn; Concordia University, Montreal, Canada; Museum of Modern Art, Ft. Worth, TX; University of Cincinnati, OH; and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. In 2001 Musson formed the hip-hop group Plastic Little with Kurt Hunte.
Musson lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
In ART THOUGHTZ—a series of short, talking-head addresses posted on YouTube—Hennessy Youngman offers his irreverent views on topics such as post-structuralism, institutional critique, race in the art world, and the commodification of art. Through Hennessy Youngman, Musson critiques the exclusionary language of art discourse using hip-hop culture's vernacular, hilariously pitting hip-hop and art world idioms against each other in a dual parody of cultural clichés. (The character's name plays on the comedian Henny Youngman, famous for his one-liners, and a cognac that is a status symbol in the hip-hop world.)
In writing, performance and visual art that incisively satirizes and blurs pop culture and the art world, Musson provokes the boundaries that define cultural and racial stereotypes. A major theme of Musson's work is African-American social identity, recognizing "blackness" as a role conferred by a history of discrimination. Musson inhabits certain racial stereotypes in order to displace them and conjure a more ambivalent identity, one that comes closer to reflecting his personal experience of being black. ART THOUGHTZ contrasts Hennessy Youngman's identity as an outsider with the insider game of the art world, further expressing his experience of a segregated culture. Musson's consideration of a public extends beyond the confines of art institutions, deliberately entering the open arenas of mass media. Through YouTube, Musson has circumvented the art world's normal route to exposure and reached a mass audience on his own terms.
Joining in a conversation with Josh Kline of EAI following the screening, Musson will speak about the origins of Hennessy Youngman—how he developed the character's comedic persona as a critical voice, how making rap music influenced his work as an artist, and about his use of the Internet as a platform for direct video performance.
Jayson Scott Musson's work is now available through EAI's distribution service. For more information, please click here.
Jayson Scott Musson was born in Bronx, NY in 1977. He received a BFA in photography from University of the Arts and an MFA in painting from the University of Pennsylvania, both in Philadelphia. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, ME in 2011. His solo exhibitions include The Grand Manner at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia (2011); Neoteny/The Hard Sell at Marginal Utility Gallery, Philadelphia (2011); and Too Black For BET, Dazed & Confused Magazine Gallery, London, England (2008). His work has been included in group exhibitions at Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Postmasters, New York; David Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL; West Galerie, Den Haag, The Netherlands; Somerset County Jail, Skowhegan; Grimmuseum, Berlin, Germany; and Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, among others. His video pieces have been screened at venues including Momenta Art, Brooklyn, and Cottage Home Gallery, Los Angeles.
In 2012 Musson curated the exhibition project It's a Small, Small World at Family Business in New York. He has performed and lectured at numerous venues, including Performa 11, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Pratt Institute, Brooklyn; Concordia University, Montreal, Canada; Museum of Modern Art, Ft. Worth, TX; University of Cincinnati, OH; and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. In 2001 Musson formed the hip-hop group Plastic Little with Kurt Hunte.
Musson lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.