ATLANTIC CITY, NJ — ARTLANTIC, a public artwork commissioned by the Atlantic City Alliance (ACA) and the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA,) has been named as one of the 50 best public art projects by the 2013 Public Art Network Year in Review by Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts. The annual Year in Review program recognizes the most exemplary, innovative, permanent or temporary public art works created or debuted in the previous year. The 2013 Year in Review awardees were chosen from more than 350 submissions from across the United States.
Three independent public art experts—John Carson, artist and Head of Carnegie Mellon University School of Fine Art, Norie Sato, artist, and Justine Topfer, Project Manager, San Francisco Arts Commission and private curator—juried the 2013 Year in Review. Their selections were announced on June 13, at the Americans for the Arts Public Art Preconference in Pittsburgh. The artists and commissioning organizations involved in creating and supporting these public art works received letters of congratulations and certificates from Americans for the Arts.
ARTLANTIC, a project curated by Lance Fung of Fung Collaboratives, is located near the historic Atlantic City Boardwalk. There are two, unique outdoor art exhibitions – one seven acres and the other 8,500 square feet – that double as public meeting places for the local community. Fung Collaboratives has brought together a stellar group of artists including Robert Barry, Peter Hutchinson, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Robert Lach, Jedediah Morfit, John Roloff and Kiki Smith.
The large site with the Barry, Hutchinson, Kabakov, Lach, Morfit and Smith installations has two grass mounds interwoven into a giant earthwork. Terraces covered in native grasses and wildflowers surround the two open spaces. The “Devil’s Rage,” the Kabakov’s first, US public art commission, is a playful pirate ship referencing the sunken ships that line the ocean floor off the New Jersey coast. Kiki Smith’s installation, a bronze sculpture of a woman holding a doe surrounded by a red garden, faces the “Devils Rage.” Robert Barry’s twenty-three, illuminated text pieces surround the Kabakov and Smith installations and create an informal dialogue with the signage on the Boardwalk. Eight “thrown rope” pieces by Peter Hutchinson and fiberglass nest sculptures by Robert Lach have recently been installed. “The Flood Suite,” Jedediah Morfit’s cast aluminum chairs and love seats, will be installed by the beginning of August 2013.
Étude Atlantis, John Roloff’s illusionistic installation on the 8,500 square foot site, explores the idea of finding Atlantis. Bold linear stripes converge into a spiral pattern leading the visitors to the center of the space where an embedded cistern of lights simulating an image of trickling water suggests a pathway to Atlantis.
“ARTLANTIC is a way to revive vacant lots and blighted areas and not only make them aesthetically pleasing, but also to re-imagine the city as a cultural destination,” said Liza Cartmell, president of the Atlantic City Alliance. “We have a unique opportunity to attract and integrate art into the fabric of Atlantic City, which by all accounts will enrich the quality of life for our residents, as well as improve and expand the visitor experience.”
“By creating a sense of identity of places we inhabit, public art makes an enduring impact on our lives,” said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. “We congratulate the artists and commissioning groups of the 13th annual Public Art Year in Review and look forward for honoring more great works in the coming years.”
Since 2000, the Public Art Network Year in Review has annually recognized outstanding public art projects through an open call submission and juror selection process. The Year in Review program is the only national award that specifically recognizes public art projects.
About Lance Fung
Curator Lance Fung of Fung Collaboratives has a reputation for ambitious, innovative approaches to public art. He is perhaps best known for The Snow Show, a series of exhibitions that teamed world-renowned artists with cutting-edge architects to design ephemeral, large-scale installations from ice and snow in Lapland, Finland in 2004 and then at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Following the The Snow Show, Fung curated Lucky Number Seven for the seventh SITE Santa Fe International Biennial in 2008 and Wonderland, a public art exhibition in San Francisco in 2009. www.fungcollaboratives.org
About The Atlantic City Alliance (ACA)
The Atlantic City Alliance was established in 2011 as a private, not-for-profit corporation whose primary mission is to develop and implement a full-scale, broad-based, multi-year marketing program for Atlantic City.
About Atlantic City
From sandals to stilettos and foie gras to funnel cakes, Atlantic City offers something for everyone. Enjoy world-class entertainment, dining, shopping, gaming, relaxing on the beach and strolling on the historic Boardwalk in the city created to escape the city. For more information visit www.doatlanticcity.com
