82 Nights Only*

Believe it or not, art has a humor problem. Which is why Gertie is pleased to announce 82 Nights Only*, an episodic presentation exacerbating the tensions between art and entertainment, finding the shared elements in each that succeed in delivering comic divedends to an audience.

There are significant differences between art and “mainstream” comedy, but at their root, each promises to deliver a sort of particular perspective on reality to the audience. The former, slowly; the latter quickly. This, of course, is not always the case; sometimes the comic moment feels attenuated and operates on several levels, whereas some artworks (many of which take a stab at humor) end up being tediously obvious and fairly one note. All things considered, jokes have specific points where their semantics are expected to definitively lead and halt, whereas with an artwork, one would hope that meaning is present yet irreducible to any one thing.

Like any good joke or work of art, 82 Nights Only* constitutes an attempt at augmenting our audience’s relationships with comic and aesthetic experience. Rather than present the exhibition as a totalizing thesis that would, as it were, “explain the joke”—only to then repeat the same line on each subsequent visit—82 Nights Only* unfurls episodically with the rotation of a single artist’s work per-week in Gertie’s main exhibition space.

The opening will include a performance by Aristotelis Nikolas Mochloulis, starting at 6pm, and conclude with a performance by Sophie Becker, starting at 7pm.

6 PM Aristotelis Nikolas Mochloulis Tells a Joke

“Aristotelis Nikolas Mochloulis tells a joke of an old man who lives deep in the woods with his devoted wife. He spends his days chopping and transporting wood, while she tends their garden and cares for the roses, fish, and trees surrounding their cabin. After her sudden death, he continues their routines, particularly caring for her beloved rosebush, until a series of extraordinary events tests him. Fires, earthquakes, and floods threaten the rosebud, but each time a mysterious voice—first disembodied, later revealed to belong to a frog—offers help if he consents. Miraculously, the disasters are reversed, and the rosebush is preserved. Ultimately, the frog makes an unexpected and absurdly sexual request.” - Maya Tounta

Aristotelis Nikolas Mochloulis is the editor of Holdings, a former member of Incest School, and organizes exhibitions in his apartment. He is currently in residence at Wiels Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, BE.

7 PM Sophie Becker and Ronnie Woods present: Ronnie’s World

Sophie Becker performs together with her ventriloquist dummy Ronnie Woods and presents excerpts from her stage show Ronnie's World .

Ronnie is impulsive, ambitious, and the perfect foil to Sophie's controlled stage presence. As a beauty influencer, aspiring interior designer, and self-proclaimed "dummy activist," she works tirelessly on her career, navigating the pitfalls of relationships, dependencies, and forms of self-presentation alongside Sophie. But when Ronnie begins to question her role as a doll and develop her own ambitions, the balance between the two is disrupted.

With Ronnie's World , Becker plays with motifs and conventions of ventriloquism: the showmanship of the 1950s, comedy traditions, and the puppet as a projection screen for impulses, desires, and fears. At the same time, she draws on older forms of so-called "voice casting" as well as spiritualist practices, exploring the deep bonds that people can develop with inanimate objects. A game unfolds between theater, performance art, and experimental comedy, revolving around desire, recognition, and the question of who is actually speaking for whom.

Sophie Becker is a performer and actress living in New York. Her work has been shown at venues including New Theater Hollywood, SculptureCenter, De Studio, C-mine, Art Omi, and NADA Miami. She is currently featured in the exhibition Greater New York 2026 at MoMA PS1.

Photo by John Berens; Courtesy of the Estate of Ceal Floyer and 303 Gallery