LAKELA BROWN AT ROCKEFELLER CENTER
Presented in partnership with Tishman Speyer at Rockefeller Center
Press Release
PUBLIC ART INSTALLATION BY
NEW YORK-BASED ARTIST LAKELA BROWN
DISPLAYED IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT ROCKEFELLER CENTER®* PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ART PRODUCTION FUND
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NEW YORK, NY— New York-based artist LaKela Brown will unveil a new public art project in various locations throughout Rockefeller Center as the latest iteration of the year-long Art in Focus public art program presented in partnership with the non-profit Art Production Fund. The project will open to the public on Wednesday, July 25.
Brown’s work will be seen in various locations throughout Rockefeller Center including inside 10 Rockefeller Plaza, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, 50 Rockefeller Plaza and the street and concourse levels of 45 Rockefeller Plaza, as well as outside in Rockefeller Plaza.
“I feel honored to share my work at Rockefeller Center. I am interested to learn how experiencing my work in this beautiful gilded space will inform the questions around adornment, history and value that I explore in my studio. I hope that my installation will strike a juxtaposition that contributes to the context of my sources and the base of my desires,” says LaKela Brown.
“We are thrilled to present LaKela Brown’s work at Rockefeller Center for the fourth iteration of Art Production Fund’s Art in Focus series. Brown’s focus on adornment and the symbolic make the historic Rockefeller Center an ideal venue for this work, and we are excited to share Brown's work with an entirely new audience.” - Casey Fremont, Executive Director of Art Production Fund.
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 unique and unexpected locations throughout Rockefeller Center. Art in Focus is presented in partnership with 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 (Rockefeller Center Holiday Map, December 2018), Hein Koh (Braving the Cold, January- April 2019) and Portia Munson (Pink Projects, April-July 2019).
Three vitrine spaces at 45 Rockefeller Plaza will be activated with site specific installations of Brown’s plaster wall reliefs. Using bamboo hoops, door knocker earrings, heavy rope chains and her own body as tools for casting, Brown makes impressions in the plaster, embedding the material with a series of references to hip-hop, 90’s music, and the culture in which she grew up.
Vinyl murals installed throughout the public areas of the concourse and on the plaza will include a variety of Brown’s motifs and symbols throughout her wall reliefs, immortalizing relics traditionally associated with African American culture. The opportunity to exhibit Brown’s reliefs as prints will allow the work to be appreciated in an entirely new context, while continuing to recall her interest in the sartorial.
LAKELA BROWN was born and raised in the city of Detroit, MI where she attended the College for Creative Studies. Brown majored in Fine Arts, and earned her B.F.A. in 2005. Recent solo shows include Material Relief at Reyes Projects (Detroit, 2018), Lars Friedrich (Berlin, 2018) and Surface Possessions at 56 Henry (New York,).
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