Kelley Walker

Gisela Capitain and Friedrich Petzel are delighted to announce the first solo exhibition by Kelley Walker at Capitain Petzel and the first solo exhibition by the artist in Germany.

The Loft, New York City

The Loft was the location for the first underground dance party (Love Saves the Day) that was created by David Mancuso on February 14, 1970 in New York. Mancusoʼs vision of a private party, similar to and inspired by rent parties and house parties, The Loft was non-commercial, with no licence and no alcohol, food, or beverages were sold, Unlike conventional nightclubs or discotheques, attendance was by invitation only.

When Mancuso threw his first informal house parties, the gay community was often harassed in the bars and dance clubs. At The Loft and many other early, private discotheques they could dance together without fear of police action, thanks to Mancuso‘s legal, yet underground business model. The initial Loft was Mancuso‘s own home at 647 Broadway. The collapse of a neighboring hotel forced a move to 99 Prince Street in Soho in 1975. Vociferous community opposition ensued, and the party lay dormant for a year during the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs‘ longest administrative trial to date, based on their insistence that Mancuso required a „cabaret license“. The department decreed in 1975 that he was free to host his parties as long as there were no sales of food or beverages. This decision set a new precedent that benefited the Paradise Garage and other private „clubs“ in the process.

The period also saw Mancuso‘s space serve as headquarters for the New York Record Pool, the very first Record Pool, which he founded with Vince Aletti and Steve D‘Acquisto. Many of the disco era‘s leading disc jockeys, including Larry Levan, Nicky Siano and Frankie Knuckles were early Loft attendees. Their venues (the Paradise Garage, The Gallery, Chicago‘s Warehouse, and the exclusively gay The Saint) were influenced by the Loft.

The CMYK Four-Colour Process

The CMYK color model, referred to as process color or four color, is a subtractive color model, used in color printing, also used to describe the printing process itself. CMYK refers to the four inks used in most color printing: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key black. Though it varies by print house, press operator, press manufacturer and press run, ink is typically applied in the order of the abbreviation. The “K” in CMYK stands for key since in four-color printing cyan, magenta, and yellow printing plates are carefully keyed or aligned with the key of the black key plate.

The CMYK model works by partially or entirely masking certain colors on the typically white background (that is, absorbing particular wavelengths of light). Such a model is called subtractive because inks “subtract” brightness from white.

In additive color models such as RGB, white is the “additive” combination of all primary colored lights, while black is the absence of light. In the CMYK model, it is just the opposite: white is the natural color of the paper or other background, while black results from a full combination of colored inks.