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Maintenance Artist

Play trailer Poster for Maintenance Artist Apr 2026 1h 30m Biography Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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"After the Revolution, who's going to pick up the garbage on Monday morning?" challenged Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Crashing the boundary between art and action, in 1977 she became the first artist-in-residence at NYC's Department of Sanitation, collaborating with municipal workers to inject art directly into the city's bloodstream. MAINTENANCE ARTIST is the first feature documentary about this revolutionary public artist. Ukeles, inspired by Marcel Duchamp, pioneered the notion that routine maintenance -- from changing diapers to picking up city trash to caring for the earth -- could be acts of performance art. With never-before-seen archival footage, MAINTENANCE ARTIST tells a story of essential workers and radical contemporary art set during the social and artistic upheavals of the last half century. Penetrating, provocative, funny, and deeply moving, MAINTENANCE ARTIST fills a glaring cultural gap and heralds Ukeles' call for a Maintenance Revolution.

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Maintenance Artist

Critics Reviews

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Amanda Manitach The Stranger (Seattle, WA) May 11
Is it maintenance work or maintenance art? You’ll leave the theater inspired to spring clean—but make it art. Go to Full Review Pat Mullen POV Magazine May 5
Maintenance Artist lets audiences explore an oeuvre that’s inherently ephemeral as Ukeles’ art defies the traditional archive. Go to Full Review Read all reviews
Maintenance Artist

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Cast & Crew

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Toby Perl Freilich

Director

Mierle Laderman Ukeles

Self

Toby Perl Freilich

Writer

Anne Alvergue

Writer

Judith Mizrachy

Producer

Toby Perl Freilich

Producer

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Maintenance Artist

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Movie Info

Synopsis "After the Revolution, who's going to pick up the garbage on Monday morning?" challenged Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Crashing the boundary between art and action, in 1977 she became the first artist-in-residence at NYC's Department of Sanitation, collaborating with municipal workers to inject art directly into the city's bloodstream. MAINTENANCE ARTIST is the first feature documentary about this revolutionary public artist. Ukeles, inspired by Marcel Duchamp, pioneered the notion that routine maintenance -- from changing diapers to picking up city trash to caring for the earth -- could be acts of performance art. With never-before-seen archival footage, MAINTENANCE ARTIST tells a story of essential workers and radical contemporary art set during the social and artistic upheavals of the last half century. Penetrating, provocative, funny, and deeply moving, MAINTENANCE ARTIST fills a glaring cultural gap and heralds Ukeles' call for a Maintenance Revolution.
Director
Toby Perl Freilich
Producer
Judith Mizrachy, Toby Perl Freilich
Screenwriter
Toby Perl Freilich, Anne Alvergue
Distributor
Framework Films
Production Co
Postworks New York
Genre
Biography, Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Apr 22, 2026, Limited
Runtime
1h 30m