BASIL KINCAID AT ROCKEFELLER CENTER
Presented in partnership with Rockefeller Center at Rockefeller Center
PRESS RELEASE
ROCKEFELLER CENTER® & ART PRODUCTION FUND
ANNOUNCE PUBLIC ART PRESENTATION BY CELEBRATED ARTIST BASIL KINCAID
@ROCKEFELLERCENTER / @ARTPRODUCTIONFUND / @BASILKINCAID
NEW YORK, NY - Rockefeller Center and Art Production Fund are pleased to present work by interdisciplinary artist BASIL KINCAID throughout the Rockefeller Center campus, beginning April 24, 2023.
Basil Kincaid’s artistic practice is actualized through various creative techniques such as quilting, collage, installation, and performance to construct new narratives of possibility. Kincaid’s work incorporates found or donated materials, often sourced through social media, weaving together lived experiences while also reducing waste. The Art In Focus presentation underscores how each of the artist’s mediums—fiber, collage, drawing, performance—informs the other and become nourishing environments: visions for a full, thoughtful existence. The installation will feature woven quilts, a 125-foot mural, and a monumental sculptural quilt.
The vitrine spaces at 45 Rockefeller Plaza act as capsules - they’re earthly environments where quilted beings exist among picnicking friends. The quilts displayed were produced using cloth salvaged and gathered across St. Louis and Ghana, and address the sensations and creation process of integrating in a community, as well as the integration of potentially disparate parts of self.
In conversation with the vitrine spaces, the 125-foot mural in the concourse of 45 Rockefeller Plaza features photographs showcasing miniature resin figurines of the artist holding charged postures; they extend the energy of joy, wonder, tenacity, and ambition outwards onto viewers. Detailed imagery highlighting the physically and emotionally laborious task of constructing such intricate quilts and embroideries can be viewed at 10 Rockefeller Plaza, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, and Radio Park. As part of the Art Sundae installation, the artist will also install The River, a monumental sculptural quilt in the 10 Rockefeller Plaza window.
Reflecting on the profoundly human legacy of Rockefeller Center, this iteration of Art In Focus speaks to the permeability of space, the heritage of place, and the ability people have to connect and co-create new realities through memory, material, and imagination. It represents the courage to create and experience joy and the victory that is maintaining an open, loving heart when so much of the contemporary experience is designed to harden.
"While conceptualizing my work within the walls of Rockefeller Center, I found myself wanting to magnify the works' details. Highlighting the intricacy of the embroidery as a medium to hold content, and the way it acts as a through-line, unifying my drawing and fiber art practices. I hope that walking through the exhibition feels like a field study of intimacy, nourishment, familial joy, and individual purpose." - BASIL KINCAID
“Rockefeller Center is a beloved destination for community gathering in New York City. The campus is rich with layered memories, and the presence of Kincaid’s quilted works beautifully spotlights both the history and contemporary community of such an iconic space.” - CASEY FREMONT, ART PRODUCTION FUND
“Basil Kincaid’s art represents a commitment to sustainability that is also deeply embedded in the fabric of Rockefeller Center. From the Channel Gardens at street-level, to the rooftop Radio Park, the Center provides unexpected oases of greenery in the heart of the city.” – EB KELLY, HEAD OF ROCKEFELLER CENTER AND SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR AT TISHMAN SPEYER
Basil Kincaid (b. 1986, St. Louis, Missouri) finalized their formal training in drawing and painting at Colorado College, 2010. Since then, the artist has exhibited work at notable galleries, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Mindy Solomon, Kravets Wehby, Carl Kostyal, Galleria Poggiali, among others. In 2019, Kincaid presented their first institutional commission, The Release, at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation of St. Louis, MO. Awarded with the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis and selected for the United States Artists Fellowship, the artist's work can be found in numerous prestigious private and public collections in America, including, but not limited to, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and JP Morgan. This year Kincaid participated in Frieze LA's Now Playing public art program, has been included in curator Legacy Russells' show The New Bend, presented at Hauser & Wirth, Somerset, UK, and is set to debut new works with two separate institutions later in 2023
ART IN FOCUS is a multidisciplinary program that showcases installations by contemporary artists inspired by the New York City landscape and contemporary life. Artists featured in the series will have their work displayed in a number of prominent and unexpected public locations throughout Rockefeller Center. Art in Focus is presented in partnership with Rockefeller Center and Art Production Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to commissioning and producing ambitious public art projects, reaching new audiences, and expanding awareness through contemporary art. Past Art in Focus artists include Joana Avillez, Hein Koh, Portia Munson, LaKela Brown, Lucy Sparrow, Angelica Hicks, Vanessa German, Ryan Flores, Genevieve Gaignard, Oliver Jeffers, Hiba Schahbaz, Sanford Biggers, Hilary Pecis, Maurice Harris, Lisa Congdon, Max Colby, Hugo McCloud, Emily Mullin, Arghavan Khosravi, Lorraine Nam, and most recently Joel Gaitan.
ABOUT TISHMAN SPEYER (tishmanspeyer.com): Tishman Speyer is a leading owner, developer, operator and investment manager of first-class real estate in 33 key markets across the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Our portfolio spans market rate and affordable residential communities, premier office properties and retail spaces, industrial facilities, and mixed-use campuses. We create state-of-the-art life science centers through our Breakthrough Properties joint venture, and foster innovation through our strategic proptech investments. With global vision, on-the-ground expertise and a personalized approach, we are unparalleled in our ability to foster innovation, quickly adapt to global and local trends and proactively anticipate our customers’ evolving needs. By focusing on health and wellness, enlightened placemaking and customer-focused initiatives such as our tenant amenities platform, ZO, and our flexible space and co-working brand, Studio, we tend not just to our physical buildings, but to the people who inhabit them on a daily basis. Since our inception in 1978, Tishman Speyer has acquired, developed, and operated 531 properties, totaling 221 million square feet, with a combined value of approximately $130 billion (U.S.). Our current portfolio includes such iconic assets as Rockefeller Center in New York City, The Springs in Shanghai, TaunusTurm in Frankfurt and the Mission Rock neighborhood currently being realized in San Francisco.
ART PRODUCTION FUND is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to commissioning and producing ambitious public art projects, reaching new audiences and expanding awareness through contemporary art. Past projects include: Elmgreen & Dragset,“Prada Marfa,” Valentine, TX, Ugo Rondinone, “Seven Magic Mountains,” Las Vegas, Jeff Koons, “Seated Ballerina,” Rockefeller Plaza, NYC, Zoe Buckman, “CHAMP,” LA; Raul de Nieves “When I Look In To Your Eyes I See the Sun,” Miami; Nancy Baker Cahill “Liberty Bell”, multiple cities; Sanford Biggers “Oracle”, Rockefeller Center, NY; Lucy Sparrow “Tampa Fresh Foods'', Tampa, FL. Derrick Adams “Funtime Unicorns”, Rockefeller Center, NY, Sanford Biggers “Oracle”, Hammer Museum.
For more information about Rockefeller Center visit www.rockefellercenter.com and follow Rockefeller Center on Twitter @rockcenternyc, Instagram @rockefellercenter, and Facebook @rockefellercenternyc.
Press
