Deep Dive Podcast Guest - Ann Magnuson
Biography
Ann Magnuson is an immersive and shapeshifting performer, simultaneously an actress, writer, musician and artist. An incisive creative force known for her bold comedic wit, sly commentary, and beguiling sexy style, Magnuson has maintained a unique and important presence in both mainstream and underground culture for decades. Her work is defined by an intensely personal exploration of the human psyche through storytelling, often utilizing a Jungian recasting of her dreams through song, improvisation, theater, and spoken word. She frequently explores her lively and offbeat experiences growing up in West Virginia as well as her deep grief at the loss of family and friends. A vital and instrumental player in the iconic 1980s East Village art scene, she managed the infamous multi-media interdisciplinary art space Club 57 and performed at CBGB, Danceteria, Mudd Club, Pyramid Club, AREA, The Kitchen and Joe’s Pub. In 2017, Ann co-curated the Club 57 retrospective show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York which had a wildly successful run from 2017-2018. She was also the first performance curator at PS1, directing the “Performance Rites” series in 1981. As a singer and songwriter, Ann has released three solo albums and multiple EPs. Her bands include the all-girl percussive “orchestra” Pulsallama, sardonic folk trio Bleaker Street Incident, heavy metal outfit Vulcan Death Grip, and the psycho-psychedelic Bongwater, which released five albums and garnered an international cult following. In 1990, she toured Europe, England, Canada and the US with Bongwater. She currently performs and records with Alejandro Cohen from the LA-based music collective ‘dublab.’ Since her major motion picture debut as David Bowie’s victim in Tony Scott’s The Hunger, Ann appeared in numerous films over the decades including Panic Room, Clear and Present Danger, Cabin Boy, One More Time (with Christopher Walken); and starred opposite John Malkovich in Susan Seidelman’s Making Mr. Right (which will be re-released in early 2023 by Kino Lorber in a new Blu-Ray edition featuring commentary by Magnuson and Seidelman.) Magnuson co-wrote and starred in Vandemonium (1987), a surreal comic special for Cinemax in which she played multiple characters ranging from a biker chick to a televangelist. Her highly acclaimed video “Made for TV” created with Tom Rubnitz (which debuted on PBS in 1984) is now part of the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection along with Magnuson’s student films from Denison University (including “One God, One Singer” a short documentary about Elvis Presley visiting her hometown of Charleston, West Virginia in 1976). She created the YouTube series “WTF 2020” with artist Adam Dugas which utilized her West Virginia grandmother’s otherworldly handmade crochet and pipe cleaner dolls to chronicle the fears and anxieties of the Covid-19 pandemic. A regular cast member of the 1990s ABC-TV comedy Anything But Love, starring opposite Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis, Ann also appeared in numerous television shows including Modern Family, Frasier, Superior Donuts (opposite Judd Hirsch) and Tom Hanks’ HBO series From the Earth to the Moon. Most recently, her TV credits have included roles on Star Trek: Picard, Gossip Girl, The Flight Attendant and The Man in the High Castle. Off-Broadway credits include The Vagina Monologues, John Patrick Shanley’s Four Dogs and a Bone, and Magnuson’s one-woman show You Could Be Home Now. Other original theatrical shows include Rave Mom, The Luv Show, Dream Girl Live, and Seriously - WTF! She starred as the title character in the Los Angeles premiere of David and Amy Sedaris’ play The Book of Liz. Ann has presented her performance pieces at Lincoln Center, BAM, LACMA, REDCAT, the Hammer Museum, Walker Art Center and the Andy Warhol Museum as well as internationally in Canada, Italy, Japan, and Sweden.
She has performed at MOMA several times including with her band Bongwater and presented “Dream Sequencing” (a live musical event with film) at the museum coinciding with her 2016 album release “Dream Girl.” Other performances and curated events include a “Tribute to Muzak” in the main elevator at the Whitney Museum; “One Hour Bacchanal” as part of Mike Kelley’s MOCA retrospective; “Bowie/Jobriath: The Rock Star as Witch Doctor” at SFMOMA; and a special “Mudd Club Cabaret” for Cindy Sherman’s opening, also at SFMOMA. She created site-specific performances for Creative Time’s ART ON THE BEACH series in NYC as well for two of Andrea Zittel’s first High Desert Test Sites in Joshua Tree and has originated and performed many pieces at numerous Kenny Scharf art openings. Magnuson returns frequently to West Virginia where she has been commissioned to create original theater pieces for FestivALL and other events, many on the theme of “SurRURALism,” a term she coined to describe her singular brand of Appalachian-inspired surrealism. In 2018 she was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame and in 2021 received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from West Virginia University. Keith Haring invited Magnuson to show her visual art at the first shows he curated in the early 1980s at Club 57 and Mudd Club; since then her visual art has been exhibited at numerous galleries and museums including the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Gavlak Gallery (LA,) the Hi-Desert Museum (Yucca Valley, CA), and ART QUEEN and JTAG (both in Joshua Tree). As a writer/journalist she has contributed articles to Art Forum, Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Bust, Time Out New York, and Conde Nast Traveler; written forewords and essays for a variety of books, in addition to writing a monthly column for Paper from 2000-2008. Ann Magnuson is married to architect John Bertram and they reside in Los Angeles, California with their feline daughter Lucy.
Ann Magnuson's Career
Ann Magnuson is a writer/ actress/ singer/ musician/ performer whose eclectic resume traverses the entertainment landscape like few others. She has acted in Hollywood blockbusters, Off-Broadway plays, TV sitcoms and indie films, fronted various bands, written for numerous publications and has presented her original performance art pieces at the Whitney Museum (performing a 5-hour “Tribute to Muzak” in the museum elevator), The Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, BAM, LACMA, The Hammer Museum, REDCAT, The Walker Art Center, The Andy Warhol Museum and in places as far flung as Tokyo’s Sogetsu Hall and Sweden’s Ice Hotel in the Arctic Circle. See her website below for information about all the aspects of her career.
http://annmagnuson.com/career/
Articles
https://westvirginiaville.com/2022/10/the-interview-ann-magnuson-on-the-art-of-sururalism-and-coming-to-ground-in-west-virginia/
https://brooklynrail.org/2017/12/art/IN-CONVERSATION-ANN-MAGNUSON-with-Katherine-Dieckman
http://www.ecumenicajournal.org/interview-with-ann-magnuson-2/
https://magnetmagazine.com/2016/09/23/from-the-desk-of-ann-magnuson-the-far-out-world-of-unarius-with-jodi-wille/
https://dangerousminds.net/comments/celebrate_the_end_of_the_world_with_ann_magnuson
(These are the articles used to research Ann's work for the podcast and best represent her work).
Press
http://annmagnuson.com/press/
Video Playlist
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh4zYKaPKme4fAT2KtJrIeZeuNaFlBQHL
Audio Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Gt8M6ifvXAeN9hOuOubUH?si=knMDuZzLQWCN6sI1rvihMg
Website
http://annmagnuson.com/
Store
http://annmagnuson.com/store/
Ann Magnuson is an immersive and shapeshifting performer, simultaneously an actress, writer, musician and artist. An incisive creative force known for her bold comedic wit, sly commentary, and beguiling sexy style, Magnuson has maintained a unique and important presence in both mainstream and underground culture for decades. Her work is defined by an intensely personal exploration of the human psyche through storytelling, often utilizing a Jungian recasting of her dreams through song, improvisation, theater, and spoken word. She frequently explores her lively and offbeat experiences growing up in West Virginia as well as her deep grief at the loss of family and friends. A vital and instrumental player in the iconic 1980s East Village art scene, she managed the infamous multi-media interdisciplinary art space Club 57 and performed at CBGB, Danceteria, Mudd Club, Pyramid Club, AREA, The Kitchen and Joe’s Pub. In 2017, Ann co-curated the Club 57 retrospective show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York which had a wildly successful run from 2017-2018. She was also the first performance curator at PS1, directing the “Performance Rites” series in 1981. As a singer and songwriter, Ann has released three solo albums and multiple EPs. Her bands include the all-girl percussive “orchestra” Pulsallama, sardonic folk trio Bleaker Street Incident, heavy metal outfit Vulcan Death Grip, and the psycho-psychedelic Bongwater, which released five albums and garnered an international cult following. In 1990, she toured Europe, England, Canada and the US with Bongwater. She currently performs and records with Alejandro Cohen from the LA-based music collective ‘dublab.’ Since her major motion picture debut as David Bowie’s victim in Tony Scott’s The Hunger, Ann appeared in numerous films over the decades including Panic Room, Clear and Present Danger, Cabin Boy, One More Time (with Christopher Walken); and starred opposite John Malkovich in Susan Seidelman’s Making Mr. Right (which will be re-released in early 2023 by Kino Lorber in a new Blu-Ray edition featuring commentary by Magnuson and Seidelman.) Magnuson co-wrote and starred in Vandemonium (1987), a surreal comic special for Cinemax in which she played multiple characters ranging from a biker chick to a televangelist. Her highly acclaimed video “Made for TV” created with Tom Rubnitz (which debuted on PBS in 1984) is now part of the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection along with Magnuson’s student films from Denison University (including “One God, One Singer” a short documentary about Elvis Presley visiting her hometown of Charleston, West Virginia in 1976). She created the YouTube series “WTF 2020” with artist Adam Dugas which utilized her West Virginia grandmother’s otherworldly handmade crochet and pipe cleaner dolls to chronicle the fears and anxieties of the Covid-19 pandemic. A regular cast member of the 1990s ABC-TV comedy Anything But Love, starring opposite Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis, Ann also appeared in numerous television shows including Modern Family, Frasier, Superior Donuts (opposite Judd Hirsch) and Tom Hanks’ HBO series From the Earth to the Moon. Most recently, her TV credits have included roles on Star Trek: Picard, Gossip Girl, The Flight Attendant and The Man in the High Castle. Off-Broadway credits include The Vagina Monologues, John Patrick Shanley’s Four Dogs and a Bone, and Magnuson’s one-woman show You Could Be Home Now. Other original theatrical shows include Rave Mom, The Luv Show, Dream Girl Live, and Seriously - WTF! She starred as the title character in the Los Angeles premiere of David and Amy Sedaris’ play The Book of Liz. Ann has presented her performance pieces at Lincoln Center, BAM, LACMA, REDCAT, the Hammer Museum, Walker Art Center and the Andy Warhol Museum as well as internationally in Canada, Italy, Japan, and Sweden.
She has performed at MOMA several times including with her band Bongwater and presented “Dream Sequencing” (a live musical event with film) at the museum coinciding with her 2016 album release “Dream Girl.” Other performances and curated events include a “Tribute to Muzak” in the main elevator at the Whitney Museum; “One Hour Bacchanal” as part of Mike Kelley’s MOCA retrospective; “Bowie/Jobriath: The Rock Star as Witch Doctor” at SFMOMA; and a special “Mudd Club Cabaret” for Cindy Sherman’s opening, also at SFMOMA. She created site-specific performances for Creative Time’s ART ON THE BEACH series in NYC as well for two of Andrea Zittel’s first High Desert Test Sites in Joshua Tree and has originated and performed many pieces at numerous Kenny Scharf art openings. Magnuson returns frequently to West Virginia where she has been commissioned to create original theater pieces for FestivALL and other events, many on the theme of “SurRURALism,” a term she coined to describe her singular brand of Appalachian-inspired surrealism. In 2018 she was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame and in 2021 received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from West Virginia University. Keith Haring invited Magnuson to show her visual art at the first shows he curated in the early 1980s at Club 57 and Mudd Club; since then her visual art has been exhibited at numerous galleries and museums including the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Gavlak Gallery (LA,) the Hi-Desert Museum (Yucca Valley, CA), and ART QUEEN and JTAG (both in Joshua Tree). As a writer/journalist she has contributed articles to Art Forum, Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Bust, Time Out New York, and Conde Nast Traveler; written forewords and essays for a variety of books, in addition to writing a monthly column for Paper from 2000-2008. Ann Magnuson is married to architect John Bertram and they reside in Los Angeles, California with their feline daughter Lucy.
Ann Magnuson's Career
Ann Magnuson is a writer/ actress/ singer/ musician/ performer whose eclectic resume traverses the entertainment landscape like few others. She has acted in Hollywood blockbusters, Off-Broadway plays, TV sitcoms and indie films, fronted various bands, written for numerous publications and has presented her original performance art pieces at the Whitney Museum (performing a 5-hour “Tribute to Muzak” in the museum elevator), The Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, BAM, LACMA, The Hammer Museum, REDCAT, The Walker Art Center, The Andy Warhol Museum and in places as far flung as Tokyo’s Sogetsu Hall and Sweden’s Ice Hotel in the Arctic Circle. See her website below for information about all the aspects of her career.
http://annmagnuson.com/career/
Articles
https://westvirginiaville.com/2022/10/the-interview-ann-magnuson-on-the-art-of-sururalism-and-coming-to-ground-in-west-virginia/
https://brooklynrail.org/2017/12/art/IN-CONVERSATION-ANN-MAGNUSON-with-Katherine-Dieckman
http://www.ecumenicajournal.org/interview-with-ann-magnuson-2/
https://magnetmagazine.com/2016/09/23/from-the-desk-of-ann-magnuson-the-far-out-world-of-unarius-with-jodi-wille/
https://dangerousminds.net/comments/celebrate_the_end_of_the_world_with_ann_magnuson
(These are the articles used to research Ann's work for the podcast and best represent her work).
Press
http://annmagnuson.com/press/
Video Playlist
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh4zYKaPKme4fAT2KtJrIeZeuNaFlBQHL
Audio Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Gt8M6ifvXAeN9hOuOubUH?si=knMDuZzLQWCN6sI1rvihMg
Website
http://annmagnuson.com/
Store
http://annmagnuson.com/store/