Mel Chin
b. 1951, Houston, TX
Helen Nagge
Primetime Contemporary Art: Art by the GALA Committee as Seen on Melrose Place, 1999/2023
Printed matter
Courtesy Primary Information

Primetime Contemporary Art is a mock auction catalog qua artists’ book documenting a two-year project titled In the Name of the Place by a group of artists known as the GALA Committee, led by Mel Chin. This project comprises an intervention in the prime-time TV series Melrose Place in which the artists collaborated with the producers to incorporate a political repertoire of props and plot devices over the two seasons. In the Name of the Place provides covert commentary on social and environmental issues, including reproductive rights, HIV/AIDS, the Gulf War, domestic terrorism, corporate malfeasance, and substance abuse. The artworks were exhibited at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art in 1997 and later auctioned at Sotheby’s to support various charities.