LA ART SHOW: MODERN & CONTEMPORARY FEATURES EXCITING RE-CREATION OF THE MYTHS OF RAPE PERFORMANCE PIECE BY ARTISTS SUZANNE LACY AND LESLIE LABOWITZ-STARUS, PART OF THE PACIFIC STANDARD TIME PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL

The LA Art Show: Modern & Contemporary Opening Night Premiere Party, benefitting the Art of Elysium and the J.Paul Getty Museum Education Department’s Bringing Art to Kids & Kids to Art Program, will feature an exclusive performance of The Myths of Rape (1977/2012). This special opening night performance by Elana Mann and Audrey Chan, working with Leslie Labowitz-Starus and Lacy, re-creates a 1977 performance by Labowitz-Starus, originally performed as part of Three Weeks in May. Performers re-enact compelling tableaux, typical of 1970s activist street demonstrations, reinforce how activism and interventions are as relevant today as in the past.

The components of Three Weeks in January at the LA Art Show: Modern & Contemporary will include: An installation of documentation and ephemera from the original performance is curated by Emi Fontana in collaboration with John Tain. On Sunday, January 22 at noon, Suzanne Lacy along with a panel of leading curators and scholars will lead a discussion about Early Experiments: Performance and Feminism in Social Practice Art.  This lecture will investigate how early works, including the original Three Weeks in January piece, set the stage for the new wave of social art practices of today. Panelists:  artist Suzanne Lacy; Catherine Wood, Tate Modern Curator of Contemporary Art/Performance;  scholar Meiling Cheng, University of Southern California. Moderator: Carol Stakenas, Executive Director of LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions).

A hallmark of Three Weeks in January is the Los Angeles Rape Map, installed at Deaton Auditorium, in front of the LAPD in downtown Los Angeles. Each day for three weeks, young women and men mark the map with the prior day’s police reports. Surrounding this activity there will also be a press conference at the site of the map and Critical Conversations, multi-vocal events with partnering organizations, that take place in January throughout the L.A. region. As in the original work, art is the platform to organize a series of presentations that collectively bring renewed focus to the effort to end rape.

As part of the form and structure of Three Weeks in January, the work includes activism, education, media, city politics and art, and participants from all of these areas. A schedule of 30+ events, organized across the Los Angeles metropolitan region, will begin on January 12 and continue through February 1, 2012.

Three Weeks in January is presented by LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) as part of the Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival, organized by the Getty Research Institute and LA><ART. To learn more, visit http://www.threeweeksinjanuary.org.

The LA Art Show: Modern & Contemporary takes place on January 19-22, 2012 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, West Hall A, 1201 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015.  Los Angeles Art Show programming is included with show admission. For additional information about the LA Art Show: Modern & Contemporary, to register for a lecture or purchase online tickets, please visit www.laartshow.com.

The 2012 Opening Night Premiere Party will take place on Wednesday, January 18, 2012. Tickets are $125 and $500.  To purchase tickets, please visit www. laartshow2012.eventbrite.com. General admission for the LA Art Show: Modern  & Contemporary is $20.  Ticket price will also allow admittance into the Los Angeles Fine Art Show: Historic & Traditional and LA IFPDA Fine Print Fair.  Opening Night Premiere Party: Wednesday, January 18, 2012. General Show Dates: Thursday-Sunday, January 19-22, 2012. 

About Pacific Standard Time Performance Festival

Los Angeles was a key international birthplace of performance art. Engaging the innovative spirit of that period and LA's vibrant contemporary art scene, the Performance and Public Art Festival will transform Southern California over eleven days (January 19-29, 2012) during Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980. Featuring more than 30 major performances and large-scale outdoor projects, the festival will include new commissions, reinventions, and restagings inspired by the radical and trailblazing public and performance works that were created by artists during the Pacific Standard Time era. Performances and projects will be located at institutions and sites throughout Southern California, in close proximity to more than two dozen Pacific Standard Time exhibitions. The festival is organized by the Getty Research Institute and LA><ART; support is provided by the Getty Foundation.

www.pacificstandardtimefestival.org