December 11, 2025 – February 21, 2026
Artists Space presents the first exhibition dedicated to the elusive conceptual and performance artist Ralston Farina (1946–1985). A figure at the radical edges of downtown New York’s 1970s performance scene, Farina intersected with figures like John Cage, Jack Smith, and Laurie Anderson, yet remained virtually undocumented. He was an early performer at Artists Space and other downtown venues, where he developed his concept of “Time Time” through performances that sought to program memory itself, using time as both medium and material. Often unannounced and ephemeral—part magic act, part philosophical inquiry—his events lingered in the audience’s consciousness rather than the historical record. Drawing from a previously unseen archive preserved by close friends, this exhibition reconstructs Farina’s legacy through video documentation, drawings, props, notebooks, correspondence, and oral histories.
Time // Time emphasizes Farina as a mystifier, time theorist, and proto-media artist whose work prefigures contemporary discourse around documentation, authorship, and performance. At once poetic, prankish, and profound, Farina’s work challenges our assumptions about what art is, how it endures, and the shape of memory itself.