Stephen Prina borrows from pop, classical and modern music: now MoMA pays tribute to his performance work

Thirty-three years ago, an eon in contemporary art terms, artists Stephen Prina and Mike Kelley and choreographer Anita Pace collectively conceived a unique and gruelling performance. Beat of the Traps involved two drummers hammering their kits at excessive volume, while an actor shouted Kelley’s confrontational text and two dancers moved to the rhythms. Well received in Vienna and Los Angeles in 1992, it has never been seen again – until now. The piece is central to ‘Stephen Prina: A Lick and a Promise’, the Museum of Modern Art’s first-ever survey devoted to an artist’s performance work.

Prina and Pace, as well as the two original drummers, reconvened in Los Angeles last month to rehearse a fresh version of that now legendary event, to be presented in New York on 19 September 2025. Kelley had taken his own life in 2012, in part due to depression and alcohol, the vodka that is a part of this work's text. Since the recent rehearsal was in the Geffen building of the Museum of Contemporary Art, an early supporter of the artists, it was an emotional moment for the old friends who were reliving its original creation.

Prina, with his cropped beard and trim black suit, recalled his friend: ‘Mike was very self-critical. This has been a little difficult, actually. I'm getting emotional because it's brought my Mike to the fore. The actor in the play is basically a double for me in the performance but also for Mike. And so I hear Mike's voice.’

Pace agreed. ‘It is a little bittersweet because Mike’s not here so I’m performing a lot of what he would have been doing. It’s kind of like, “What would Mike do here?”’ I want to keep true to where that first bonding of the three of us came together to make this work. It’s been amazing.’

Though music, composition and staging have long been components of Prina’s visual art, they take on greater complexity when presented independently, and not as part of a sculpture, installation or film. MoMA curator Stuart Comer thinks that Prina’s way of borrowing from pop, classical and modern music is ‘a model of appropriation unique in a field more rooted in photography, moving images, and sculpture’.

The artist excels at connecting unlikely points of historic, cultural and social relevance. Evolving as a post-conceptualist during the 1980s, he extended the idea of appropriation to music to amplify those references.

The performances at MoMA will have an additional and important historical benefit. Comer points out, ‘Stephen, and often Kelley, refused recording of their performances at that time so there is little documentation. He still prefers not to do video, but now there will be audio documentation, so it will be on the record and that will be an important contribution for posterity.’ The performances combine classical and rock music with Prina’s own compositions and, at times, singing and guitar playing.

The original Beat of the Traps was the first time Prina had performed in a decade. He had played in rock bands in high school in the small town of Galesburg, Illinois – even performing at a supper club with a group called Jeannie and the Aladdins – but left it all behind after graduating from music school at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb in 1977. ‘I’ve grown out of that,’ he thought. ‘Now, I'm going to be a serious composer, and I'm going to write on paper.’

Prina went to graduate school at CalArts outside LA to study with sly pioneers of Conceptual Art like John Baldessari and Douglas Huebler, whose approach was both serious and droll. ‘I've always been drawn to the things that challenge me. I'm not interested so much in art that congratulates me on my received ideas,’ he quips.

‘I have a project-based practice. What is the best way to apply this? I really didn't think of visual art and music being separate. I thought that, well, visual art is multiple to begin with, so there are all these different genres. Photography, painting, and music is just another component of that.’

Prina later brought that perspective to teaching at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena – where he gained notoriety for teaching a class using the acting of Keanu Reeves and the writing of Nietzsche – and then at Harvard, before retiring last spring.

The experience of working with Kelley on Beat of the Traps led Prina two years later to the creation of Sonic Dan, a performance blending the seemingly incompatible tunes of Sonic Youth and Steely Dan. They had recorded the same number of albums by 1994, alongside a recording of Anton Webern’s complete string quartets.

That show at Luna Park in West Hollywood brought an impressive audience, including Mayo Thompson from the band Red Crayola, who then asked Prina to play on his first release on Drag City Records. ‘When the album came out, I was listed as a member of the band,’ he explains. He continued to perform with them for the next decade.

Yet, just as many of his performances are rooted in the classics, such as the Mozart-derived String Quartet for Six Players (1976), involving a roll of the dice to select which musician plays which section to expand the four-piece, an element of chance and mathematics that evokes the techniques of John Cage. Nonetheless, Prina remains better known for his visual art in galleries and museums. Several such works are being shown at MoMA, including an ideal choice being shown for the first time: The Top Thirteen Singles from Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Chart for the Week Ending September 11, 1993. At the top of each hour, a large clock chimes a musical hit of the past.

‘Whoomp, there it is,’ a rap dance tune by Tag Team, will be bouncing off the white walls of the galleries. Comer says, ‘It shows how things change over time, how the canon, once written by MoMA, can be played with. It “contaminates” the institution with popular cultures.’

Prina titled his prestigious show after a phrase used by his mother, who, like his father, was an Italian immigrant. ‘I grew up in a household that was bleached and boiled. If company was visiting, and my mother didn't have time to totally go over the house, she would give what she would describe as “a lick and a promise” to make it look presentable. So I've always loved that phrase and I do take delight in the double entendre.’ It is also the title of his newest composition, to be performed in November, while the show concludes on 13 December with the Push Comes to Love Fest. Prina will perform with others, ranging from classical pianist Ursula Oppens to Red Crayola’s guitarist David Grubbs.

Despite previous surveys and shows, his moment at MoMA carries a lot of weight. ‘I would like to think that I'm a critically engaged artist and I'm always, you know, self-critically being self-reflexive. But this places a different kind of pressure on that. That is where the emotional punch comes in. I think, “Well, what have I decided to do with my work, with my production, with my life?” You know?’

'Stephen Prina: A Lick and a Promise', from 12 September – 13 December 2025 at The Museum of Modern Art, moma.org