NEW YORK, NY.- Five indie-rock concerts, two artists’ talks, a film screening, and a punk-rock family program are being presented as part of Dan Graham: Beyond, the retrospective of the pioneering artist opening June 25 at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Among the highlights is a rare acoustic performance by The Feelies on Friday, June 26, at 7pm, and four concerts on Friday evenings in July, each celebrating Graham's love of rebellious, underground rock music. These concerts will spill out of the Lower Gallery into the Sculpture Court and feature a cross-section of raucous young post-punk, psych-pop, no wave, and shoegaze bands, the heirs of New York's art-rock scene, including Vivian Girls, Titus Andronicus, and Abe Vigoda.

Although Graham has been a central figure in contemporary art since the 1960s, this is his first American retrospective. It traces the evolution of the artist’s work from early conceptual projects and performances to his films and videos, sculptures, architectural projects and pavilions, as well as his groundbreaking collaborations with musicians and bands such as Sonic Youth and Japanther.

For the exhibition’s programs, guest programmer/artist Howie Chen was invited to interpret Graham’s work in a series of events under the title “My Turn.” Chen approaches Graham’s art through musicians, filmmakers, and performers to provide a new and insightful look at the artist. In addition to The Feelies performance (June 26), events include a conversation between Dan Graham and Glenn Branca (Sept 12); a screening of Put Blood in the Music, a rock-doc on the downtown music scene of the 80s, introduced by filmmaker Charles Atlas (Sept 17); and a roundtable symposium (Oct 1). Chen is co-founder of the curatorial partnership Dispatch and a member of the collaborative New Humans.