Meeting Anya Liftig

The artist you are is the person you are.  -- Anya Liftig.

Today, I had the pleasure to meet artist Anya Liftig.  She is friends with UK's director of foundations Rae Goodwin and has roots in rural Kentucky.  The art graduate student organization (AGSA) wanted to bring her to campus for a lecture and studio visits.  I had heard of Anya's work before but never really looked into it.  The day before I was scheduled to meet with her I visited her website to get a sense of who she was as an artist.  Her was interesting was my first thought and I wasn't sure if I thought interesting was a good thing or a bad thing at the time.  One thing was certain, she has balls--some of the performances she does!  Her lecture was great.  I gained an deeper appreciation of her work and really enjoyed the way she spoke.  She was a real person as opposed to a faculty member who might have an agenda (of pushing me in a direction) when I meet with them.  She was encouraging during my studio visit.  Anya told me to make what I like and what I'm interested in, not what I think the faculty want of me.  She gave practical advice about what to do after grad school.  It was very refreshing.  I love studio visits like this.  

Anya Liftig’s work has been featured at TATE Modern, Highways Performance Space, Exit Art, [performance space] london, Performmer Stammtisch Berlin, Dimanche Rouge Paris, Roves and Roams and OVADA Oxford UK, Chashama, Month of Performance Art Berlin, Eyedrum, Grace Exhibition Space, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Galapagos, The Flea, Performance Art Institute–San Francisco, Chez Bushwick, Socrates Sculpture Park, Yale University, Center for Performance Research, Lock Up Performance Art London, Debrillator Gallery, INCUBATEChicago, University of Wisconsin, University of Chicago, Vaudeville Park, Mess Hall, Joyce Soho and many other venues.

Her work, “The Anxiety of Influence,” was an intervention into Marina Abramovic’s “The Artist is Present” retrospective at MOMA. Liftig dressed as the elder artist and sat across from her all day.Her work has been published and written about in The New York Times Magazine, Bomb, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue Italia, Marie Claire Italia, Heeb, Public Culture, Art Papers, X-tra, ArtNews, The L Magazine, The Other Journal, Jewcy, Mix Magazine, Katalog, Next Magazine, Now and Then, Stay Thirsty, New York Magazine, Gothamist, Jezebel, Animal New York, I Love You, Art Animal, Hyperallergic, Burnaway and many others.

She is a graduate of Yale University and Georgia State University and has received grant and residency support from the MacDowell Colony, The Field, Vermont Studio Center, University of Antioquia, Casa Tres Patios-Medellin, Colombia, and Flux Projects, Atlanta. (www.anyaliftig.com/about/bio)