The collaboration between Ezawa and Rogers brings together dance and visual arts disciplines by fusing human movements with the imaginative faculties enabled by digital animation. Included in the exhibition are videos and films by Nam June Paik, Yvonne Rainer, Kate Bush and Bruce Nauman to trace a history of dance recorded between the 1960s and 1980s. The videos and films also function as an ancestry to the artist’s own backstory as a Kate Bush fan as a teenager and a student of Nam June Paik at the Kuntstakademie Dusseldorf.

Tonya is on view through Feb. 23. An opening reception will take place from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Jan. 9 at Eskenazi Hall, 735 W. New York St.

About Kota Ezawa

Born in Cologne, Germany, in 1969, Kota Ezawa is known for animating film and video footage of iconic moments from history and popular culture using a process involving freehand and vector-based digital techniques. Recent solo exhibitions include the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia; SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico; the Mead Art Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts; and the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco. His work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York City; the Art Institute of Chicago; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Ezawa is based in Oakland, California.

Image: Kota Ezawa, Tonya, 2016. Still from digital animation based on dance performance, 3 video channels, approx. 4 min.