Fisher Parrish Gallery is pleased to present our second exhibition From DADA to TA-DA!, a group exhibition curated by Max Wolf including works by Atelier Van Lieshout, Casey Jane Ellison, Daniel Klaas Beckwith, Eric Wesley, Jack Chiles, Justin Lowe & Jonah Freeman, Jes Fan, Joe Kay, Kenneth Goldsmith, Kyla Chevrier, Lloyd Corporation, Lucas Zallmann, Marie Vic, Nathaniel deLarge, Nick Van Woert, Sarah Meyohas, and Tschabalala Self.

100 years ago, Duchamp debuted his iconoclastic Readymade, Fountain, challenging the art world’s pious definition of high art, and effectively paving the way for conceptual art. Conversely, his idea of a “Reciprocal Readymade: Turn a Rembrandt into an ironing board”, was never realized and existed only as a theoretical concept. ​ But can art be recycled? Is contemporary art a first-world indulgence? Is anything really void of symbolism? In 2017, the urgency to draw a line in the sand between form and function seems less dire, but also more complicated. For this exhibition, a group of artists and thinkers have been challenged to determine if a Reciprocal Readymade or “Nevermade” can be realized, and explore what further complications this exercise could elicit. As we careen towards hyperreality, with artwork becoming more immaterial and artist’s embracing new technologies, will the difference between artwork and utility— like reality and simulation — become equally indistinguishable?

Nevermade: (neh’fer-maid) n. It: No Gracie fare! Fr. Jamais réalisé 1. To repurpose or recycle an existing artwork (object, concept, ornament, decoration) as a unique consumer product - one that performs a particular operative function or purpose, void of any symbolism, resisting interpretation, and abandoning any former inherent significance or greater meaning. 2. The act of extracting meaning and designating utility. 3. The result of revoking/ demoting/ upgrading/ cartwheeling the status of an existing artwork, and reincarnating in the form of an object/product/tool with use value. 4. A conceptual exercise in language and appropriation meant to explore the concept of art as commodity. 5. Converting Sign into Thing.