page_title: Michael Portnoy
section_title: Portnoy: 1999–present
hierarchical_section_title: Michael Portnoy / Portnoy: 1999–present
caption_attribution_description: image of Talus game table
context_page_description: Michael Portnoy is an American multimedia artist, choreographer, musician, actor and curator. He calls himself a "Director of Behavior". He has been described in Art in America as "one of the most interesting performance artists anywhere".
context_section_description: Portnoy expanded his practice to include choreography, video, installation, sculpture, painting, participatory works and curation. His projects have included Google Office 0.2, a project for the 2010 Taipei Biennial that involved the formation of a think tank called The Improvement League, which operated by improving existing artworks in the Biennial by pruning and hybridizing in a cross between futurology and conceptual horticulture. Portnoy's long-standing investigation of social exchange, and the rules of communication and play, has been conducted through a series of 'abstract gambling' tables for Casino Ilinx (2008) and Filzzungeungewiss (2009); and conversation or inventional games drawing on 17th century universal or taxonomic languages for Fran Spafa Feda (2010); and the game-show format of 27 Gnosis (2012).
caption: Michael Portnoy's TALUS abstract gambling table, 2007
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