What is Stroker?
March 7-April 22, 2014
From the 1970s through the 1990s, artist and writer Iriving Stettner (1922-2004) produced the literary and visual arts review known as Stroker out of his home in New York's East Village, and later in Nagano, Japan. With little money, he cultivated a devoted following of readers who were also Stroker contributors -- including Henry Miller in the last two years of his life, as well as Paul Bowles, Mohammed Mrabet and Charles Bukowski, among others. One lesser-known writer from Detroit named Ron Papandrea became one of Stettner's closest allies, his "Western scout," acting as a collector, archivist, distributor and publisher of Stettner's works. The retrospective exhibition includes a complete set of 77 original copies of Stroker featuring fiction, essays and poetry, as well as personal letters between the authors, photos, home video footage, and Stettner's own lively watercolor paintings.
What is Stroker? has been organized by Trinosophes with Gretchen Gruenburg, from the private collections of Mihoko Stettner and Dawnn Gruenburg. Exhibitions support by Ron Papandrea, Dylan Spaysky and Natalee Goto.
