55 Fifth Avenue – New York, New York
March 13, 2017 – April 06, 2017
Time Equities Inc Art-in-Buildings is pleased to announce the next exhibition in the lobby of 55 5th Avenue, featuring new works by Hugo Bastidas created as an investigation into the construction of 50 West, a luxury residential 64 story tower rising in downtown Manhattan.
Beginning in May 2014, the 50 West Artist-in-Construction Residency has hosted four artists: Hugo Bastidas, Bahar Behbahani, Noa Charuvi, and Paul Anthony Smith. The residency, sponsored by real estate developer Time Equities Inc., was designed to integrate the art-making process into the fabric of 50 West, from the very beginning of its construction.
Art-in-Buildings invited these artists to consider and respond to the development of 50 West. The building, designed by Helmut Jann, will be a spectacular addition to the skyline when finished however, rather than simply anticipating completion, 50 West was interested in the construction process: the seemingly impossible ballet of workers and machinery that is usually hidden behind construction fences. 50 West gave each artist a hard hat and access to the site so that they could witness the work being done and bring that experience to the studio. The works on view here are the results of the observations made on the 50 West construction site and they were executed in the Artist-in-Construction studios located at 40 Rector Street, one block away from the construction site.
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Hugo Bastidas (b. Quito, Ecuador 1956 – lives and works in New York), received a B.F.A. from Rutgers University in Newark, NJ and M.F.A. from Hunter College in New York. He is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship as well as a Pollock Krasner Grant. Bastidas has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally and is represented in the collections of numerous museums worldwide. He was recently elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts.
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Time Equities Inc.’s Art-in-Buildings program organized the residency. Art-in-Buildings is an innovative approach that brings contemporary art by emerging and mid-career artists to non-traditional exhibition spaces in the interest of promoting artists, expanding the audience for art, and creating a more interesting environment for our building occupants, residents, and their guests.
