Press Release

A Benefit Exhibition for D.E.A.F inc.

D.E.A.F., Inc. works to ensure that all entities—political, professional, social and cultural—can include the 26 million Americans who do not have acute hearing. Its unique purpose is to link existing programs, businesses and services designed to serve the deaf and hard-of-hearing, and to insure that advances in communications technology are introduced into the community as they happen. D.E.A.F., Inc.’s goal is to assure that global communication links are designed for, and available to, every human being as we enter the new millennium.

Artist Jeff Koons became interested in D.E.A.F., Inc. after meeting the organisation’s Executive Director, Pierre Montalette. Wanting to contribute to what he felt was an exciting and important endeavour he decided to organize a benefit exhibition from which a considerable portion of the profits would go to help fund D.E.A.F., Inc.’s programs. The exhibition includes the works of artists Jeff Koons himself admires and collects. There are pieces by Koon’s contemporaries such as Barbara Kruger, David Salle, and Julian Schanbel from New York and Albert Oehlen and Martin Kippenberger from Germany. There is also a group of works by a younger generation of artists whose work interests Koons. This group includes Vahakan Arslanian, Joseph Grigely, Mariko Mori, Sarah Morris and Wolfgang Tillmans, all of whom are currently working in the New York area. Jeff Koons says that the exhibition “celebrates the act of communication.” Koons is very interested in how art can play a role in helping deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing people to better communicate.