MELISSA JOSEPH AT ROCKEFELLER CENTER
NEW YORK, NY - Rockefeller Center and Art Production Fund are pleased to announce the sixth year of Art in Focus will begin with an installation by New-York based multidisciplinary artist MELISSA JOSEPH. The Art in Focus public art program has featured 25 artists since its inception, including Sanford Biggers, Hilary Pecis, and Dominique Fung. This exhibition will be Joseph’s first-ever public art presentation and will be on view from January 30, 2024, through April 19, 2024.
Melissa Joseph’s exhibition at Rockefeller Center engages viewers in a dialogue around the importance of inclusivity, creating visibility for underrepresented voices. Centered in heartfelt storytelling, Joseph's process of felting, compressing, blending, and bonding wool fibers together seamlessly mirrors her personal journey as a bi-racial individual, navigating the in-between spaces of her diverse cultural heritage and diaspora.
Joseph's artistic practice is a testament to the diversity of visual mediums. With an eye for detail and an unwavering dedication to exploring personal and societal narratives, Joseph's Art in Focus exhibition invites viewers to connect with the profound and the forgotten.
Programming will take place throughout the public spaces of Rockefeller Center. Joseph’s inclusion of found objects within the vitrine spaces of 45 Rockefeller Center exemplifies Joseph's commitment to preserving the stories held and embedded within. Lined in yellow industrial felt, the dynamic compositions and varied textures found in the vitrine spaces further elevate felting to the strata of fine art.
The exhibition will feature a 125 ft display of personal archival imagery from Joseph at the Rink Level of 45 Rockefeller Plaza which highlights the private tender moments of domestic living. Furthermore, acknowledging that first and second-generation immigrants often lack consistency of physical sites throughout their lifetimes, this piece is a study of how our bodies move in relation to space and time.
A curated selection of felt works by the artist can also be viewed at 10 Rockefeller Plaza, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, Zo. Clubhouse, and Radio Park.
Having spent over a decade as a K12 arts educator, Joseph will also be hosting a free and open-to-the-public Art Sundae children's workshop at Rockefeller Center in April 2024, where participants will have the opportunity to create felt works alongside the artist and incorporate them into a larger public art window installation.
“We are all in need of extra softness and tenderness at the moment, and my work is about those very things. I can't think of a more meaningful way to enter into the public art sector. I am so grateful for the opportunity to share images of love and care across the Rockefeller Center Campus and to help kids to make their own in the Art Sundae event this Spring. If my work can bring even a small amount of comfort to those passing by, it is a gift.” - MELISSA JOSEPH
“We are thrilled to begin our 2024 Art in Focus program with Melissa Joseph’s inspired installation. Surrounding the diverse public visitors to Rockefeller Center with this beautiful gesture of love and acceptance is a wonderful opportunity to experience Joseph’s unique practice, while reflecting on the personal stories and individual experiences that contribute to New York’s vibrant landscape. - CASEY FREMONT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ART PRODUCTION FUND
“We are delighted to welcome Melissa Joseph to Rockefeller Center’s community of artists and kick off the sixth year of our partnership with Art Production Fund. Joseph’s work tells her distinctive story, while inviting visitors to the Center to reflect on their own woven identities as they explore our historic campus.” - EB KELLY, HEAD OF ROCKEFELLER CENTER AND SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR AT TISHMAN SPEYER
MELISSA JOSEPH Melissa Joseph completed her MFA at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2018. Joseph uses her own family photo archive along with craft and found materials to consider themes of memory, family history, and the unique juxtapositions of diasporic life. Her work is in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, ICA Miami, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and has been shown at the Delaware Contemporary, Woodmere Art Museum, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Jeffrey Deitch Projects, MOCA Arlington and List Gallery at Swarthmore College. Solo exhibitions include, Margot Samel “Irish Exit”, NYC, 2023; NADA Miami FL, REGULARNORMAL, 2021; Fleisher Art Memorial “Tharavadu: 42nd Annual Wind Challenge,” Philadelphia PA, 2019; The Growlery "Sisters, not Twins" San Francisco, CA, 2018. Joseph has been featured in Vogue, Artsy, WNYC, Hyperallergic, Artnet, New American Paintings, Le Monde, CNN, and Architectural Digest and has participated in residencies including Dieu Donné, Fountainhead, the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts, the Museum of Arts and Design and upcoming at Greenwich House Pottery in 2024.
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, Joel Gaitan, Basil Kincaid, Dominique Fung, and most recently Debbie Lawson.
TISHMAN SPEYER is a leading owner, developer, operator and investment manager of first-class real estate in 36 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 535 properties, totaling 223 million square feet, with a combined value of over $128 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. www.artproductionfund.org
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