The Happening

In our every day, small gestures of life occur in time invoking the future while repeating moments of the past. Inspired by the “happenings” first coined and performed by Allan Kaprow and artists in the US and abroad during the late 1950s and 1960s, “The Happening” at FLXST Contemporary creates both space and time that enables viewers to visualize synchrony of actions, intentions, and movements among artists exhibited together working across a variety of mediums however disparate their backgrounds, ideas, or social leanings might be. Collectively, the artists presented in “The Happening” explore forward-thinking practices and techniques often taken for granted, underappreciated, or misunderstood in their presentations and performances. We created “The Happening” as a combination of a site-specific exhibition, an experiment in curation, and a reclamation project. “The Happening” centers on the importance of world-making as each of the artists and characters that make its existence possible allow us to experience ethereal art-making that evinces laughter, tugs at emotions, entreats us to act, and facilitates moments of wonderment. “The Happening” is a collective act of visibility by viewers and artists alike.

Fernando Palafox, Tia Liche, Archival Pigment Print, 20 x 20 inches, 2012.