STEPHEN PRINA

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Stephen Prina: A Lick and a Promise will be the first in-depth survey to focus on the artist’s long engagement with music and performance, bringing new perspectives to a central factor in Prina’s wider oeuvre: how cultural artifacts find new lives in different contexts. Unfolding across multiple locations in the Museum, including the Kravis Studio, the exhibition presents the world premiere of A Lick and a Promise (2025), an orchestral commission for 16 instruments, alongside restagings of works such as Sonic Dan (1994–2001). The survey highlights Prina’s wide-ranging collaborations, including a performance of Beat of the Traps (1992), created with Mike Kelley and Anita Pace. The series culminates with A Push Comes to Love Fest, an all-day concert on December 13, 2025, featuring a range of artists including David Grubbs, Ken Okiishi and Emily Sundblad, Ursula Oppens, Marina Rosenfeld, TILT Brass, and White People Killed Them (Raven Chacon, John Dieterich, and Marshall Trammell). This exhibition offers an opportunity to celebrate Prina’s innovative approach to appropriation—one uniquely focused on sound and music—and the rare warmth and intellectualism that mark him as a prescient and still-evolving artist.

^{Organized by Stuart Comer, The Lonti Ebers Chief Curator of Media and Performance, with May Makki, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Media and Performance. Produced by Lizzie Gorfaine, Associate Director of Performances and Live Programs, and Kate Scherer, Senior Manager and Producer, with Nora Chellew, Assistant Performance Coordinator, and Olivia Rousey, Assistant Performance Coordinators, Performance and Live Programs.}