beschweren/complain
Autumn Knight
GALLERY II & III
Autumn Knight, beschweren/complain, 2025, video still.
November 22–December 21, 2025
Opening reception: Saturday, November 22, from 6–8pm
A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to present beschweren/complain, an exhibition by Autumn Knight. Featuring a new, participatory installation and the U.S. debut of a recent video series, Knight’s exhibition builds on the artist’s ongoing interest in experimental performance, theatre, and collaboration. Knight is an inaugural recipient of the A.I.R. Commissioning Program for Mid-Career Women and Non-Binary Artists, a new initiative that aims to bolster A.I.R.’s longstanding commitment to supporting artists in building sustainable and enriching artistic practices.
This work is a study of rehearsal.
This work is a study of objects.
This work is a study of the art of complaint.
This work is a study of acting.
This work is a study of theatre.
This work is a study of physicality.
This work is a study of disappointment.
This work is a study of the ensemble.
The videos in this exhibition feature experimental text and movement sequences created from a simple prompt: to complain. Actors from the Schauspiel Dortmund ensemble in Germany were asked to provide a story of complaint or disappointment and given a series of objects to work with. This body of work is part of an ongoing investigation into the right to complain and/or be disappointed by the personal, the public, the trivial, and the political. It is part workshop, part rehearsal, part homage, and part proposal.
Populated with objects seen in the videos, the new installation at A.I.R. provides a tactile experience of the rehearsal room where the ensemble’s improvisational performances were filmed. Here audiences are offered a live mic through which to rehearse their own complaints and disappointments.
— Autumn Knight
Initiated in 2024, the A.I.R. Commissioning Program for Mid-Career Women and Non-Binary Artists biannually provides three local artists with financial and curatorial support toward the creation of new work. With an emphasis on women and non-binary artists of color who have been exhibiting for at least ten years but have not yet received widespread recognition, the program seeks to envision a more equitable ecosystem of support for artists underserved by the current arts ecosystem.
The A.I.R. Commissioning Program is made possible by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the generous support of The Rockefeller Brothers Fund Culpeper Arts & Culture Program and two anonymous donors.
Video Credits:
Camera: Mirella Drosten and Stefan Teubner
Color Grading: Mirella Drosten
Editing: Isabel Frye
Actors: Alexander Darkow
Linda Elsner
Adi Hrustemović
Sarah Quarshie
Valentina Schüler
Raphael Westermeier
Vinyl Typeface: anthony by Sun Young Oh
Autumn Knight is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist working with performance, video, sound, and text. Her work has been on view at various institutions including Human Resources Los Angeles, Shedhalle (Switzerland), The Whitney Museum of American Art, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, The Kitchen, MCA Chicago, Museum Ostwall (Germany), Brooklyn Academy of Music, Performance Space New York, and The Walker Art Center. Her performance work WALL is the first live performance work acquired for the permanent collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem. Knight is the recipient of various awards, grants, honors, and fellowships including Artadia Award, Art Matters Grant, Rema Hort Mann Grant, Anonymous Was a Woman Award, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Nancy B. Negley Rome Prize in Visual Art, a Guggenheim Fellowship, Harpo Foundation Grant, and the Trellis Art Fund.