Times Square Immersive will present installations by Noah Scalin, ICY and SOT, Michael Zelehoski, and Devra Freelander and Gracelee Lawrence

New York, NY – Times Square Arts and SPRING/BREAK Art Show present Times Square Immersive, four outdoor sculptures that will blur reality and fantasy with delight and warning on the Broadway Plazas in Times Square from March 5–31, 2019. All four works are presented as part of this year’s SPRING/BREAK Art Show in response to the theme FACT AND FICTION.

A New America
ICY and SOT
Curated by Zahra Sherzad
Broadway Plaza at 42nd Street

A New America is an American flag made of steel bars and fencing material mounted on a pole. The materials contrast the hopeful symbol of the American dream by evoking the physical barriers immigrants face as they try to enter America, from border fencing to detention cells.

Eventual Artifact
Devra Freelander and Gracelee Lawrence
Curated by Ambre Kelly and Andrew Gori
Broadway Plaza between 43rd and 44th Streets

In a fantasy core sample of Times Square from the future, fluorescent faux-geological strata are peppered with 3D printed copper forms of imported fruits, hands, CDs, sneakers, Styrofoam cups, and other techno-capitalist artifacts.

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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 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Visit TSq.org/Arts for more information. Follow us on Instagram at @TSqArts.

SPRING/BREAK Art Show is an internationally recognized exhibition platform using underused, atypical and historic New York City exhibition spaces to activate and challenge the traditional cultural landscape of the art market, typically but not exclusively during Armory Arts Week. By first inhabiting St. Patrick's Old School, and then the former James A. Farley Post Office, the initiative offers independent curators free space within New York City landmarks, past and future. In exchange for no-cost exhibition space, visionary perspectives both established and unknown are charged with engaging these areas under a unifying theme and pushed to extend the boundaries of typical market week practices. All artworks in the show are displayed and available for purchase online, giving artists unknown, emerging, mid-career, and beyond a virtual complement to their tactile exhibition. Low-cost exhibition space and low-cost entry for art patrons, public, and practioners alike widens the arts audience in New York and broadens the dialog of what constitutes value and economy in a 21st Century city. springbreakartshow.com

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Artists

ICY and SOT (born 1985 and 1991, Tabriz, Iran) reside in Brooklyn, New York. The two brothers started creating stencils in 2006. Their work appears on walls and galleries throughout Iran, U.S., Germany, China, Norway, and the world. icyandsot.com

Devra Freelander (born 1990, Suffern, NY) is a sculptor and video artist whose work explores geology and ecofeminism with a contemporary lens. She received her MFA in Sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design in 2016, and her BA with honors in Studio Art from Oberlin College in 2012. Freelander has participated in the Socrates Sculpture Park Annual (2017), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Residency (2016-2017), and the Arctic Circle Residency (2017). She is currently represented by CIRCA Projects in Minneapolis, MN. She is a founding member of feminist sculptor collective MATERIAL GIRLS, and a recipient of the 2018 Women's Studio Workshop Studio Residency Grant and a 2016 St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award. devrafreelander.com

Gracelee Lawrence (born 1989, Sanford, NC) creates sculptures that explore the relationships between food, the body, and technology. She has attended seven residency programs in the U.S. and abroad in 2018. She spent 15 months as a Visiting Artist in the Multidisciplinary Department of Art at Chiang Mai University on a Luce Scholars Fellowship in 2016–2017. She completed her MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media at the University of Texas at Austin in 2016 and graduated from Guilford College in 2011 as a Principled Problem Solving Scholar with an honors degree in Sculpture. She is a cofounder of Pig & Pony, a longtime contributing writer for the International Sculpture Center Blog, and member of the collective MATERIAL GIRLS. Gracelee was a 2016-17 Luce Scholars Fellow, a recipient of the 2015 UMLAUF Prize, 2013 Eyes Got It Prize, and the 2011-12 Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artist Grant. She is currently an artist in residence at Sculpture Space in Utica, NY. graceleelawrence.com

Noah Scalin (born 1972, Richmond, VA) is the first artist-in-residence at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business. He is creator of the Webby Award-winning project, Skull-a-Day, and the collaborative, science fiction universe and performance art project, League of Space Pirates. His fine art has been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Mütter Museum, and Krause Gallery in New York. His work has been featured in dozens of publications including Fast Company, Hi-Fructose, Juxtapoz, Beautiful/Decay, USA Today, The Telegraph, and The New York Times. Noah co-runs Another Limited Rebellion, an art and innovation consulting firm, and is a sought-after public speaker on creativity. He is the author of six books, including most recently Creative Sprint, which he co-wrote with his sister and business partner Mica Scalin. noahscalin.com

Michael Zelehoski (born 1979, Concord, MA) lives and works in Newburgh and Brooklyn, New York. He holds degrees from Bard College and Universidad Finis Terrae in Santiago, Chile. Zelehoski’s work resides in private and public collections around the world, most notably the Musée National d'Art Moderne Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. Recent solo exhibitions include Things Fall Apart at Backslash, Paris (2018), Inner Space at Tang Contemporary, Hong Kong (2017) and New Order at Mike Weiss Gallery, New York (2015). He has received numerous awards including those from the Staten Island Museum and the Massachusetts Cultural Council among others. michaelzelehoski.com

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Curators

Dawne Langford is an independent curator, documentary filmmaker, and artist based in Washington, DC. In 2014, she founded quota, a curatorial initiative dedicated to centering traditionally marginalized viewpoints in public discourse around artistic creation. Her previous exhibition venues and collaborations include Mel Chin Studios, Corcoran School of Art and Design, Transformer, Olly Olly, Torpedo Factory, George Mason University, SPRING/BREAK, and The Smithsonian Asian Pacific Center's Culture Lab series, Crosslines. quota-art.com

Ché Morales (born 1980, Long Beach, CA) is a Brooklyn-based curator, experiential designer, and self-proclaimed art junkie with an insatiable appetite for unique, mind-blowing aesthetics. Morales' curatorial approach is to present groundbreaking material in new and thought-provoking ways. He believes art should be a seismic experience to remember. Ranging from large-scale murals and art installations to branded cultural events, Morales’ curatorial work has been covered by Juxtapoz, The Creators Project, Artnet, The Huffington Post, W Magazine, and Whitewall Magazine. In 2017, he housed his practice by founding ABSTRKT, a creative studio with a focus on art, design, and experiences. Clients include Nike, New Balance, Adidas, The Standard Hotel, New York City Ballet, and more. abstrkt.nyc

Zahra Sherzad is a curator whose interests are driven by contemporary art and activism. She is Head of Visual Arts for the Level Forward, a new breed media company that commissions and presents public art projects. She holds a degree in Art History with a strong focus on sculpture. She became interested in contemporary art and began a career at the frontier of the Street Art movement. Zahra pursued showing works of emerging artists in galleries, museums and in the public sector. At the same time she began to work in activism and philanthropy as a founding member of School of Hope, an organization supporting underground girls’ schools in Kabul, Afghanistan during the Taliban era. Currently she presides as Board Chair on The Heliotrope Foundation, started by artist Swoon, to help communities respond and heal after natural disasters and other urgent humanitarian crises.

Ambre Kelly is a multi-disciplinary artist and Andrew Gori is a writer and filmmaker. In their spare time, they collaborate together and have co-created projects like the curator-driven art fair SPRING/BREAK Art Show, the production house The They Co., the publishing house The Underground Library, and the co-operative domestic art collective BOYFRIENDGIRLFRIEND. springbreakartshow.com