Georgia Gardner Gray presents Cookie, a performance staged in the final meatpackers’ lot under the High Line

Georgia Gardner Gray, CHRYSALIS, 2025. A performance at Regen Projects. Photo by Evan Bedford

Gray’s Satire Follows Starving Grifters in a Changing City

The High Line announced that artist Georgia Gardner Gray will present Cookie, a performance commissioned by High Line Art, in the former Weichsel Beef parking lot at 826 Washington Street just below the High Line on September 30, October 1, and October 2 at 7:30pm. Staged outside of the Meatpacking District’s former final meat purveyor, Cookie unfolds around The Lair, a twisted aluminum sculpture resembling a street scaffold. The performance is a story of desperation disguised as elite ambition, highlighting anti-heroes who maneuver through the cracks of a glittering superpower purely to secure their next meal.

“Georgia Gardner Gray’s Cookie utilizes the gritty, evocative setting of Manhattan’s last meatpacking facility beneath the High Line—both relics of a bygone industrial era—as the backdrop for a fever-dreamlike tale of hunger, desperation, and survival,” said Taylor Zakarin, Associate Curator of High Line Art. “Gray’s playful, transhistorical sensibility brings a fresh, and at times absurd dimension to characters who navigate through the cracks of a rapidly changing urban environment. It’s a pleasure to support her voice and vision with the unique platform of the High Line.”

Gray’s play follows the traditional picaresque format, a literary style developed during the height of Spain’s Golden Age in which a clever but poor hero, a pícaro, uses their wits and tricks to survive in a corrupt and crumbling society. Drawing inspiration from 16th-century picaresque novellas like Lazarillo de Tormes and Francisco de Quevedo’s The Swindler, Cookie critiques societal decay through its exploration of striving characters. At its center is Gunnar Churchwell, a sleazy yet charismatic suit salesman who arrives in Madrid, only to be recruited by the egomaniacal ringleader of a grifting crew of makeshift “tailors.” Their baseline rule for survival is simple: “never let them know you are hungry.”

Georgia Gardner Gray works across painting, performance, and theater. Her vivid canvases depict exaggerated figures in social spaces—bars, apartments, rehearsal rooms, city streets—each imbued with the comedy, absurdity, instability, and contradiction inherent in our modern lives. As an accomplished playwright, Gray captures the tension between intimacy and display, self-awareness and satire.

The performance is free and open to the public; advance registration is encouraged. Free registration will be available on thehighline.org in the coming weeks. In the case of inclement weather, the event will be moved to a rain date to be announced. A note indicating the change will be added to thehighline.org by noon on the day of the original event and email all registered participants.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Georgia Gardner Gray (b. 1988, New York, New York) lives and works in Palma, Spain, and New York. She has had solo exhibitions at prominent institutions around the world including Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria (2026); Longlati Foundation, Shanghai, China (2025); Kunsthalle Lingen, Lingen, Germany (2018); and UKS/Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway (2017). She has participated in major international group exhibitions including Before Tomorrow, Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, Norway (2023); Lose Enden, Kunsthalle, Bern, Switzerland (2021); Mercury, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn, Estonia (2019); Disappearing Berlin, by Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin, Germany (2019); HERE HERE – DAS ICH UND ALLES ANDERE, Braunsfelder Family Collection, Cologne, Germany (2018); New Theater: Selected Plays, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York (2015); and The People’s Biennial, New York, New York (2015). Her work is featured in the collections of major institutions around the world, includingKunstsammlung der Stadt Lingen, Lingen, Germany; and Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway. She is the recipient of the 2018 Lingen Art Prize.

ABOUT HIGH LINE ART

Founded in 2009, High Line Art commissions and produces a wide array of artworks on the High Line, including site-specific commissions, exhibitions, performances, video programs, and a series of billboard interventions. Led by Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art, and presented by the High Line, the art program invites artists to think of creative ways to engage with the unique architecture, history, and design of the park, and to foster a productive dialogue with the surrounding neighborhood and urban landscape.

For more information on High Line Art, please visit thehighline.org/art.

ABOUT THE HIGH LINE

The High Line is a public park on the West Side of Manhattan operated, maintained, and funded by the nonprofit conservancy Friends of the High Line. Through our work with communities on and off the High Line, Friends of the High Line is devoted to reimagining public spaces to create connected, healthy neighborhoods and cities.

Built on a historic, elevated rail line, the High Line was always intended to be more than a park. You can walk through the gardens, view art, experience a performance, enjoy food or beverage, or connect with friends and neighbors—all while enjoying a unique perspective of New York City.

Nearly 100% of our annual operating budget comes through donations. The High Line is owned by the City of New York, and we operate the park under a license agreement with NYC Parks.

For more information, visit thehighline.org and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok.

SUPPORT

Lead support for High Line Art comes from Amanda and Don Mullen. Major support is provided by The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston and Charina Endowment Fund, and Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons. Major support of High Line Art’s digital infrastructure is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Program support for High Line Art is provided by Sarah Arison, Suzanne Deal Booth, Charlotte Ford, Joyce F. Menschel and Stardust Arts. Additional support is provided by Agnes Gund and Shane Akeroyd.High Line Art is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council, under the leadership of Speaker Julie Menin.

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