LIFE AFTER… WITH AMANDA PALMER

Songwriter and author Amanda Palmer curates and hosts three exchanges around what happens when significant, and sometimes unexpected, life events lead to opportunities for personal transformation. Life after… COVID, after… wellness, after… telling the truth on yourself will constitute some of the topics explored on Friday evenings in November with her guests: artist Gonkar Gyatso (November 3), eco-writer Sophie Strand (November 10) , and activist Noor Tagouri (November 17).

Who are we after we experience a catastrophic life event? Who are we after we fall in and out of love? Who are we after we change jobs? Who are we after we almost die, but make it out alive? Amanda and each of her guests are not afraid of these big questions. In Amanda’s words, “Perhaps we’ll find some answers, but more likely, we’ll all feel less alone and make one another laugh.”

In this first conversation, Amanda speaks with artist Gonkar Gyatso about Life After… COVID and more.

Join us before the event at 6:15 PM for a docent-led exhibition tour of Death Is Not the End.

About the Speakers:

Gonkar Gyatso was born in Lhasa, Tibet, in 1961. He studied fine art in Beijing at the Central Institute for Nationalities from 1980–84, and received his MA in 2000 from the Chelsea College of Art & Design in London. In 2003, he founded the Sweet Tea House in London, the first gallery in Europe devoted to showcasing contemporary Tibetan art. Also in 2003, Gyatso received a Leverhulme Trust fellowship to be an artist-in-residence at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, United Kingdom. The artist’s mixed-media works were featured in the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009 and the 17th Biennale of Sydney in 2010. Gyatso’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY), the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA), Tel Aviv Museum of Art (Israel), The City Gallery (New Zealand), The Institute of Modern Art (Australia), the Rubin Museum of Art (New York). the Chinese National Art Gallery (Beijing), the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art (Scotland), the Courtauld Institute of Art (London), Burger Collection (Switzerland), the Wereldmuseum Rotterdam (Netherlands), and the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (Australia). Additionally, he has participated in the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane (Australia) and the 17th Sydney Biennale (Australia). His work is held internationally, in public and private collections. His previous appearance at the Rubin was in 2010 when his works were featured in the group exhibition Tradition Transformed.

Amanda Palmer is a best-selling author, feminist, songwriter, community leader, pianist, and ukulele-enthusiast who simultaneously embraces and explodes traditional frameworks of music, theater, and art. She first came to prominence as part of the punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls, earning global applause for their inventive songcraft and wide-ranging theatricality. Her solo career featured such groundbreaking works as the crowd-funded Theatre Is Evil, which made a top 10 debut on the Billboard 200 in 2012 and remains the top-funded original music project on Kickstarter. In 2013, she presented “The Art of Asking” at the annual TED conference, which has been viewed over 20 million times worldwide. Palmer expanded her philosophy into the New York Times best-selling memoir, The Art of Asking: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Let People Help. Since 2015, Palmer has used the patronage platform Patreon to fund her artwork with an average of 15,000 patrons micro-supporting her creations each month. In 2019, Palmer released her solo album, There Will Be No Intermission. Her first appearance at the Rubin was with neuroscientist David Eagleman on the subject of Finding Time. She can also be heard on Season 1 of the Rubin’s AWAKEN podcast.

Death Is Not the End is supported by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Ellen Bayard Weedon Foundation, Robert Lehman Foundation, and The Prospect Hill Foundation.

The Rubin Museum’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

Death Is Not the End is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.