Anya Liftig

Anya Liftig (born 1977) is an American performance artist and memoirist.[1]

Anya Liftig
Anya Liftig performing in "Box Batteries" video
Born1977
EducationGeorgia State University (MFA), Yale University (BA)
MovementPerformance art, Contemporary art
WebsiteAnya Liftig official website

Early life and education

Liftig was born in 1977 in Norwalk, Connecticut. Her parents were both public school teachers. Anya cites her annual tradition of spending her school years in Westport and her summers with her extended family in East Kentucky as influences on her artwork.[2]

After graduating from Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut, Liftig enrolled at Yale University. A member of Morse College, she graduated with a degree in English.[3] Additionally, Liftig received a Masters of Fine Arts degree from Georgia State University in 2004.[4]

Work

Visual and Performance Art

While a full fellowship student at Georgia State University, Liftig’s work shifted from photography to performance pieces. self-evidence, Liftig’s Master of Fine Arts thesis was the first live performance art thesis exhibited at GSU. Since returning to the New York area in 2005, Liftig has curated and performed at the TATE Modern, MoMA, Center for Performance Research, Panoply Performance Lab, Highways Performance Space, Lapsody4 Finland, Fado Toronto, Performance Art Institute San Francisco, Queens Museum, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Rose Art Museum at the University of Kentucky, Grace Exhibition Space, Movement Research at Judson Church, The Kitchen at the Independent Art Fair, Performer Stammtisch Berlin, Performance Space London, Month of Performance Art Berlin, OVADA-Oxford, Joyce Soho, and other venues around the world.[5]

After obtaining her MFA from Georgia State University, Liftig exhibited work responding to the history of the South and Atlanta specifically. “I’m a Groucho Marxist,” exhibited in July 2012, featured Liftig attempting to climb a 25 ft high barricade of reclaimed material covered in peanut butter for three hours, blindfolded and with one hand tied behind her back. She stated, “I want my audience to experience the barricade by seeing me go through it,” referring to both internal struggle and political tensions.[6]

In 2010, Liftig responded to artist Marina Abramovic’s performance “The Artist is Present'' at the Museum of Modern Art with her own work titled “The Anxiety of Influence.” This was intended as an intervention on Abramovic’s work, which had the artist sitting silently at a table in the MoMA’s lobby across from audience members. Here, Liftig dressed as a doppelgänger of Abramovic and remained silently seated across from the artist all day, preventing other audience members from engaging with Abramovic.[7]

Writing

Active since 2001, Liftig’s written work includes both long and short pieces. Her written pieces have been extensively published in chapbooks and literary journals such as Now and Then, The Other Journal, Hippocampus, Kindred, and The Chatahochee Review.[8]

Exhibitions and performances

Liftig’s participation in contemporary art is primarily in the form of avant-garde performances and dance exhibited live and as recorded video media.

Solo exhibitions

2018

2015

2014

  • Twin High Maintenance Machines, Panoply Performance Lab, Brooklyn, NY

2013

  • All the Animals in the British Museum, AliKati Projects, London, England

2012

  • I’m a Groucho Marxist, Public Art Performance Intervention, Flux Projects Commission, Atlanta, GA
  • Crisp As a Twenty, [performance space], London, England
  • The Human Factor, OVADA and Roves and Roams, Oxford, England
  • Deliverance (with Clifford Owens, Laura Ginn, Jayson Munsson) Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center, Atlanta, GA

Performances

2021

  • Performancy Forum, Praxis Practice with Performaistanbul, St. Louis, MO, Istanbul, TK and Zoom
  • Imagined Performance Art Storytime (Collaboration w/IV Castellanos) Parallel Performance Space Online

2019

  • Carborium Performance Art Festival, Kiev, Ukraine

2018

  • Movement Research at Judson Memorial Church, New York, NY
  • Rear Window, Glasshouse, Brooklyn, NY
  • Without God or Governance, Marinaro Gallery, New York, NY
  • Metamorphosis, Panoply Performance Lab, Brooklyn, NY
  • Neo Domestic Performance Festival, Glasshouse, Brooklyn, NY
  • Performance is Alive, Satellite Art Fair, Miami, FL

2017

  • Are Friends Electric? Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA
  • Experiments and Disorders, Dixon Place, New York, NY
  • Performance Mix Festival, NewDance Alliance, University Settlement, New York, NY
  • My Dinner with Andrea (Directed by Andrea Kleine), New York Live Arts, New York, NY
  • Neo Domestic Festival, Glasshouse, Brooklyn, NY

2016

  • Centepide Series, JACK, Brooklyn, NY
  • Current Mill, Homage to the Futurists, Glasshouse, Brooklyn, NY
  • Performancy Forum, Panoply Performance Lab, Brooklyn, NY
  • Anya Liftig, Gracie Devito, Samuel White, Human Resources, LA, CA
  • Present Archeology, Undercurrent Projects, New York, New York
  • INVERSE Performance Festival, Bentonville, AK
  • Steakhouse Live, Tender Loin, ArtsAdmin, London
  • SALTA w/AUNTS, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
  • Screening Room or the Return of Andrea Kleine, New York Live Arts, NY, NY[9]

Recognition

Liftig’s visual work has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times Magazine, BOMB, The Wall Street Journal, and Vogue Italia.

She has been a grant recipient of a Mertz Gilmore Award and the Adrian Van Sinderan and Franklin Furnace Awards. She has had fellowships and residencies at Atlantic Center for the Arts, Casa Tres Patios, Kimmel Harding Nelson, Virginia Center for the Arts, MacDowell and Yaddo.[10]

Books

Liftig’s first book, a life memoir entitled Holler Rat, will be published by Abrams in August 2023. The book focuses on how Liftig’s upbringing in Appalachian Kentucky and upper-middle class Connecticut influenced her lifelong path to self-discovery and development as a performing artist.[11]

References
  1. "CV". Anya Liftig. Archived from the original on 2016-03-07. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  2. "Interview: Anya Liftig (Roots in Kentucky USA) NSFW". Contemporary Performance. 2013-02-06. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  3. "Anya Liftig". Carnegie Prep. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  4. "GSU MFA". GSU PHOTO. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  5. "Selected CV for Anya Liftig". Anya Liftig/Love and Trouble. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  6. Lee, Minji (July 6, 2012). "Anya Liftig Presents: "I'm a Groucho Marxist"". art in odd places.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. "BOMB Magazine | The Anxiety of Influence". BOMB Magazine. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  8. "Recent writing by Anya Liftig author of the memoir Holler Rat". Anya Liftig/Love and Trouble. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  9. "Selected CV for Anya Liftig". Anya Liftig/Love and Trouble. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  10. "Anya Liftig". KHN Center for the Arts.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. "Holler Rat". Abrams Books. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
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