March 2018 - May 2018
Times Square Arts, the public art division of the Times Square Alliance, presents the Spring Arts Program. As part of the Alliance’s commitment to showcasing the best of contemporary art, this season’s lineup includes works from Laurie Anderson + A.M. Homes, Tania Bruguera, and Peter Burr as well as partnerships with The Watermill Center, PEN World Voices, Moving Image Art Fair, Clocktower, and Vimeo, among others.
All events are free to the public.
March – August 2018
Word on the Street [Spring Edition]
Artists: Laurie Anderson + A.M. Homes, Tania Bruguera, House of Trees + Naomi Shihab Nye
In partnership with The Watermill Center and House of Trees
Artists and writers collaborate to address urgent political concerns using poetic banners and signage in the streets of Times Square. This follows our exhibition of works by Anne Carson + Amy Khoshbin, Carrie Mae Weems, and Wangechi Mutu, and is part of a larger Word on the Street project with recent iterations at Socrates Sculpture Park and The Watermill Center.
April 19th 6:30PM-7:30PM
Artists Take the Street!
Artists: Tania Bruguera, A.M. Homes, Amy Khoshbin
In partnership with the The Watermill Center, House of Trees, and Artists at Risk Connection as part of the PEN World Voices Festival
SubCulture, 45 Bleecker St. between Mulberry and Mott Sts.
Free with essential RSVP: bit.ly/artiststakethestreet
Word on the Street artists unite to discuss power and identity in their work, and the relationship amongst public art, activism, and social and political change. Moderated by Carmen Hermo, Assistant Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum.
May 1st 5pm - 9pm
Workshop on the Street: May Day
Artist: House of Trees
In partnership with The Watermill Center
Broadway Plaza between 43rd & 44th Streets
In conjunction with the Word on the Street exhibition, Arts collective House of Trees invites everyone to convene in Times Square for an artistic act of participatory democracy. Celebrate freedom of speech with colorful felt on banners, sashes, capes or badges.
MIDNIGHT MOMENT
March 1 – 31
Centipedes
Artist: Erdal İnci
In partnership with Moving Image Art Fair
Times Square's Electronic Billboards
Istanbul’s Taksim Square is known as the “Turkish Times Square” – a transportation hub, tourist destination, and site of New Year celebrations and political demonstrations. The aerial view shows it post-pedestrianization and pre-renovation, stretching temporality to illustrate the natural traffic patterns of pedestrians and birds.
April 1 – 30
Spring
Artist: Jamie Scott
In partnership with Vimeo Staff Picks
Times Square's Electronic Billboards
Shot in stunning 4K Ultra High Definition with a moving time-lapse camera, Spring is a romantic, evocative portrayal of New York’s flowers in active bloom and the accelerated rush of the city itself.
May 1 – 31
Pattern Language
Artist: Peter Burr
In partnership with Clocktower
Times Square's Electronic Billboards
Built in a video game engine by a master of computer animation, Pattern Language is a rhythmic, pointillist composition in richly patterned black and white. Employing cellular automata and crowd-simulation algorithms, Burr creates a fantastical vision of non-binary human life in a labyrinthine, underground “Dirtscraper.”
About Midnight Moment
Midnight Moment is the world’s largest, longest-running digital art exhibition, synchronized on electronic billboards throughout Times Square nightly from 11:57pm to Midnight. Presented by the Times Square Advertising Coalition and curated by Times Square Arts since 2012, it has an estimated annual viewership of 2.5 million. For more information, visit http://www.timessquarenyc.org/midnightmoment
Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world's most iconic urban places. Through the Square's electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance's own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators to help the public see Times Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the Arts Program ensures these qualities remain central to the district's unique identity. Generous support of Times Square Arts is provided by ArtPlace America and ArtWorks. Visit TSq.org/Arts for more information. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @TSqArts.
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Artists
Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson (b. 1947, lives and works in New York, NY) is one of America’s most renowned - and daring - creative pioneers. She is best known for her multimedia presentations and innovative use of technology. As writer, director, visual artist and vocalist she has created groundbreaking works that span the worlds of art, theater, and experimental music.
Tania Bruguera
Tania Bruguera (b. 1968, lives and works in Havana, Cuba and New York, NY) is an installation and performance artist. Bruguera has participated in numerous international exhibitions. Her work is also in the permanent collections of many institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Bronx Museum of the Arts a and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana.
Peter Burr
Peter Burr (b. 1980, lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) is an artist specializing in animation and installation. His work has been presented across the world by institutions including Documenta 14, Athens; Le Centre Pompidou, Paris; and MoMA PS1, New York. A master of computer animation, with a gift for creating images and environments that hover on the boundary between abstraction and figuration, Burr has in recent years devoted himself to exploring the concept of an endlessly mutating labyrinth. Existing as stand-alone pieces, much of his work is also in the process of expanding into a video game through the support of Creative Capital and Sundance. Previously, he worked under the alias Hooliganship. Between 2002-2004 he helped catalyze the community arts initiative Bookmobile Project / Projet Mobilivre with a diverse group of emerging North American artists and community activists. In 2006 he founded the video label Cartune Xprez, through which he produces video compilations, live multimedia exhibitions, and touring programs showcasing a multi-generational group of artists at the forefront of experimental animation. His most recent large-scale project, a commission from the The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, is a room-sized video game entitled “Dirtscraper” that premiered at the ICA’s inaugural exhibition in April, 2018.
A.M. Homes
A.M. Homes (b. 1961, lives and works in New York City) is the author 12 books, among them the novels This Book Will Save Your Life, Music For Torching, and The End of Alice, as well as the short-story collections Things You Should Know and The Safety of Objects and the best selling memoir The Mistress's Daughter. DAYS OF AWE, a new book of stories, is forthcoming in June 2018. Her work appears frequently in Art Forum, Harpers, Granta, McSweeney’s, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Zoetrope. She is a Contributing Editor to Vanity Fair, Bomb, and Blind Spot. Homes often collaborates on book projects with artists—among them Eric Fischl, Rachel Whiteread, Cecily Brown, Bill Owens, Julie Speed, Michal Chelbin, Petah Coyne, Carroll Dunham, Catherine Opie and Todd Hido. She has also created original television pilots for HBO, FX and CBS, was a writer/producer of the Showtime series The L Word, and most recently was Co-Executive Producer and Writer of the USA series Falling Water and the Stephen King/David Kelly TV Series Mr. Mercedes. A.M. Homes has been the recipient of numerous awards including Fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, NYFA, and The Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at The New York Public Library, Poets and Writers For Writers, Guild Hall Lifetime Achievement. In addition, she is Co–Chair of the Board of Directors of Yaddo, and serves on the boards of Poets And Writers and previously on The Boards of New York Foundation for The Arts, Pen American Center, and The Fine Arts Work Center In Provincetown. A.M. Homes teaches writing at in the Lewis Center For The Arts at Princeton University and lives in New York City.
House of Trees
House of Trees (founded 2014). Each HOT project enlists a variety of talent from collaborating artists and institutional partners to create and produce dynamic, site-specific, public art projects. House of Trees Projects include: Luminaria Arts Festival, San Antonio, TX; Word Around Town, San Antonio, TX; Basco Vazko Mural at Hotel Tropicano, San Antonio, TX; Word On the Street in collaboration with Times Square Arts, NYC; and I PLEDGE at NYU Kimmel Gallery. Members of HOT arts collective have exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the United States, including Leila Heller Gallery and Socrates Sculpture Park; and published widely including Newsweek, Readymade, House Beautiful, Glamour, HGTV, Spaces and six different art books. HOT members have shown at festivals including River to River and South by Southwest; received residencies including The Watermill Center, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Anderson Ranch, and Banff Centre for the Arts; and have collaborated with Karen Finley, Tina Barney and John Phillip Santos, among others.
Erdal İnci
Erdal İnci (b.1983, lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey) studied Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Hacettepe University, graduating in 2005. In 2012 he began turning his video works into GIFs posted to his blog erdalinci.tumblr.com. His GIF works have been featured in Zeit Online, CNN, Wired, The Creators Project, The Huffington Post, Canal + and Deutsche Welle. In 2016 he co-founded with Çağrı Taşkın and Serkan Kaptan the artist collective Oddviz, which focuses on the use of photogrammetry to create interactive 3D models and videos.
Naomi Shihab Nye
Naomi Shihab Nye (b. 1952, lives and works in San Antonio, Texas) was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father was a Palestinian refugee and her mother an American of German and Swiss descent, and Nye spent her adolescence in both Jerusalem and San Antonio. Nye is the author of numerous books of poems, including Transfer; You and Yours, which received the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award; 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East; and Fuel. Her honors include awards from the International Poetry Forum and the Texas Institute of Letters, and four Pushcart Prizes. She has been a Lannan Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Witter Bynner Fellow, and received The Academy of American Poets’ Lavan Award, selected by W. S. Merwin. She has been featured on two PBS poetry specials including The Language of Life with Bill Moyers and also appeared on NOW with Bill Moyers. She has been poetry editor at The Texas Observer for 20 years. She is also laureate of the 2013 NSK Neustadt Award for Children’s Literature; and in 2017 the American Library Association presented her with the 2018 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award.
Jamie Scott
Jamie Scott (b. 1977, lives and works in New York, NY) studied Media Production at Bournemouth University and Majored in 3D animation. He started his career in 1999 at the London post production facility The Mill where he became a lead Flame artist working on commercials, music videos and short films. In 2003 transferred to the New York office. He has since worked at Mass Market and Psyop in New York and Method Studios in LA. He now works as a freelance senior Flame artist and visual effects supervisor in New York. He has worked on several award-winning campaigns including Miller Domino (Clio), Nextel Build (Clio), Stereogram Walkie Talkie Man (MTV VMA), Nike Human Chain (Clio, Cannes Lion) and Audi Synchronised (Clio).
Partners
Artists at Risk Connection
Artists at Risk Connection (founded 2017) is committed to improving access to resources for artists at risk, enhancing connections among supporters of artistic freedom and raising awareness about artistic freedom. ARC is a collaborative project led by PEN America, which has been committed to protecting open expression in the United States and worldwide since 1922. PEN America, a champion of the freedom to write, stands at the intersection of literature and human rights. It is the largest of more than 140 centers of PEN International. artistsatriskconnection.org
Clocktower
Clocktower (founded 1972) is a non-profit art institution working in the visual arts, performance, music, and radio. Founded in Lower Manhattan by MoMA PS1 Founder Alanna Heiss, Clocktower is the oldest alternative art project in New York, and its radio station, Clocktower Radio, was founded in 2003 as one of the first all-art online museum radio stations in the world. The institution functions as a laboratory for experimentation, working closely and collaboratively with artists, musicians, curators, writers and producers to develop, realize and present innovative and challenging work in all media, ranging from installation to performance and from experimental music to radio theater. By engaging both the physical resources of its partner organizations and Clocktower Radio’s access to a broad and international online audience, Clocktower disseminates experimental work to numerous communities, and promotes a rich cultural and social dialogue between artists, audiences, and institutions worldwide. Clocktower produces multidisciplinary art projects all over the city through these creative collaborations with Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Knockdown Center in Queens, Playland Motel in Far Rockaway, and Times Square Arts, Red Bull Studios, and Jones Day in Manhattan. These spaces host Clocktower exhibitions, performances, residencies, radio, and administrative activities. clocktower.org
House of Trees: See Artists
Moving Image Art Fair
Moving Image Art Fair was conceived to offer a viewing experience with the excitement and vitality of a fair, while allowing moving image-based artworks to be understood and appreciated on their own terms. Moving Image New York 2018 takes place March 2 – March 6, 2018 at 591 Park Avenue (between 63rd and 64th streets) in Manhattan. The fair, which is free to the public, will be open Friday, March 2 through Monday, March 5 from 11–6 PM and on Tuesday, March 6 from 11-4 PM. The newly formed Moving Image Curatorial Advisory Committee for New York 2018 is inviting a selection of international commercial galleries and non-profit institutions to present single-channel videos, single-channel projections, video sculptures, immersive media, and other larger video installations. www.moving-image.info/new-york
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Media Contacts:
For Times Square Arts:
TJ Witham
212.452.5234 | TJWitham@TimesSquareNYC.org
Marisa Wayne
212.843.9216 | MWayne@Rubenstein.com
For TSAC:
Justine DiGiglio
212.205.6632 │Justine@NicholasLence.com