November 20, 2024

Take Another Look: "Activating Downtown with City Brights II"

Join us for a conversation with teaching artist and downtown business owner James Black, and project coordinator and artist Christine Jelson West as they talk about activating downtown Albuquerque with temporary, light-based art installations for City Brights II.

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James Black is the creator and owner of Downtown Albuquerque’s T-Shirt Lab, an artistic hub for creativity with a community building purpose. Black has worked with teams and engaged with the community to create events, host workshops, and support up-and-coming creatives in the fields of live art and music. He has a talent for helping others manifest their ideas into tangible reality, particularly in the form of poster and t-shirt graphics as performance with live printing pop-ups at events and venues.

He has received multiple public art project awards over the past ten years including temporary installations for SOMOS, managing a team from Amy Biehl High School to implement a large-scale art installation on the 4th St. side of the Rosenwald Building. James has been a mentor for the Mayor’s Creative Youth Corps, where he trains and guides young people in printmaking and executing creative projects. James founded the screen print department at Warehouse 508 (now Warehouse505). James has also been a teaching artist at Harwood Art Center and hosts youth field trips at his shop downtown.

James is interested in collaborating with other creatives, project managers, and landscape architects, and is familiar with various artistic mediums and techniques, including traditional drawing, vector-based work, and video projection mapping. James is committed to working as a community leader and creative collaborator, and to manifesting ongoing community arts-based events in the downtown area.

In 2019, the Public Art Program invited local artists to submit proposals for site-specific temporary art installations to activate downtown spaces with light-based installations. From September to December 2019, four sites were lit up with installations, architectural interventions, sculptures, performance, projection and more.

Five years later, the City of Albuquerque's Department of Arts & Culture announces the launch of City Brights II, a partnership with the Public Art Urban Enhancement Division and Albuquerque ArtWalk to activate and illuminate Downtown Albuquerque.

Eleven temporary, light-based art installations envisioned by Albuquerque based artists will be placed in businesses and on City properties, activating downtown in unique ways. City Brights II installations will roll out beginning with the December, January, and February First Friday ArtWalks in Downtown Albuquerque and will be on view through the winter of 2025.

Learn more about City Brights II art installations, artists, locations, and activations at cabq.gov/publicart/events.

Rosenwald Faces

by James Black at Rosenwald Building

James Black will illuminate downtown with colorful, animated portraits of Albuquerque residents. Black's loosely drawn, thoughtful, and often humorous caricatures come to life using stop motion animation. The animations will be digitally projected onto the 4th Street side of the historic downtown Rosenwald Building during the December, January, and February Artwalks. Black plans to schedule times during upcoming Artwalks where attendees may have their likeness sketched and transformed into an animated avatar.

Rosenwald Faces mock-up

These drawings will be added to the ever-growing loop of Rosenwald Faces. Black will also send each willing participant their portrait to keep and to share.

Paige mock-up

Paige

by David Santiago at Main Library

Viewable day and night in the Main Library's front window is Paige.  Paige celebrates her love of reading, glowing with the magic books bring to life. During the day, she offers a quiet place to rest and read in a tucked away corner of the library's second floor. David Santiago combines form and function in this large lighted sculpture that also serves as a comfortable bench to relax amid the bustle of downtown Albuquerque.

Dispersion Immersion

by Chris Casey and Kasra Manavi at Levitated Toy Factory

Step into a world where your smartphone becomes a palette and your taps create a masterpiece. By scanning a QR code, you can access a web page letting you control the artwork. Use the dynamic interface to release vibrant drops of ink into a cubic tank of water. As the ink dances through the water, cameras capture its mesmerizing journey from two sides, streaming the live footage to an illuminated light box in front of your eyes.

Dispersion Immersion mock-up

Watch as your interactions transform into dynamic, ever-changing abstract art.

Screen Time mock-up

Screen Time

by Aaron Mancha with Secret Gallery at 517 Central Ave NW

An arrangement of multiple television monitors from current and past eras constructs a unique display of digital artworks and camera-based interactive elements. The entire array functions as one singular display. Video and digitized works by local artists dynamically cycle through an ever-changing program. A street facing camera adds to the content with reactive live video as audience members become the subject of the temporal, morphing display.

Onlookers are invited to take selfies, dance, and play with their images on the screens.

Occ Station 22

by Celestino Crowhill at Occidental Life Building

Using open-source weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other remote weather sensors, Crowhill will create a visual real-time weather monitoring station on the columns, towers, and windows at the 3rd Street side of the Occidental Life Building. Solar powered locking hexagon rings will be placed around some columns that will house lights and other light projections along the windows. Lasers will be projected on the corner tower at 3rd and one block south of Central Ave during "First Friday" events at dates TBD. "0cc Station 22" is an urban lab where interaction with NOAA weather satellites will be used as architectural design to understand the current and imminent weather for populations that otherwise may not have access to this information.

Occ Station 22 mock-up

Interefraction mock-up and site

Interefraction

by Dason Culver at OT Circus

Large transparent colored hands attached to the side of the long wall on the side of OT Circus create colorful reflections during the day. LEDs mounted in the base of each hand create a gentle glow at night. Passersby will delight in the shadow play and wonder of these large lighted sculptures.  The artist statement describes “A strong value of community is to reach out for help and to lend a hand to others, and the goal of this installation is to create dialogue on what community means, and how we can all lend our hands to build a resilient one.”

DIFFUSION

by David Estes and John-Mark Collins at 505 Central Food Hall

DIFFUSION combines the carefully balanced sculptural mobile making expertise of David Estes with the technical wizardry of John-Mark Collins. Translucent ellipsoid discs hang and spin in constant motion in this large site-specific mobile installation. DIFFUSION will accentuate the interplay of digital and physical, highlighting depth, balance, movement and form of the physical structure and its augmented digital counterpart.

By day the beautiful undulating form of the sculpture itself is highlighted. At night, the mapped projections and precisely beamed lights create depth at the point of digital and physical intersection, transforming the sculpture into an ever-changing visual spectacle.

At night, the structure becomes more than just a sum of its parts by the synergistic interplay of digital and physical, creating a wholly new piece after the sun goes down.

DIFFUSION mock-up and sample

Robot Laser Show mock-up

Robot Laser Show

by Jordan MacHardy at 517 Central Ave NW

Three animatronic robots moving in unison work together to create a stunning light show. With lasers coming out of their hands and foreheads they communicate in the universal language of light and dimensional form. Reflections from a mirrored floor transform their complex geometric patterns into 3-D animated sculptures. The ever-changing display is sure to delight and surprise passersby the storefront windows.

Flowers Bloom Because of You

by Hong Yan at Damacios Bar and Tapas

Albuquerque artist and architectural designer brings to the City Brights II celebration “Flowers Bloom Because of You.” Giant lighted flowers open and close as passersby activate a hidden sensor in the stem. At night the flower’s center glows with larger-than-life intensity. As the sun powers all living things, solar energy fuels the blooms with the energy of life.

Flowers Bloom Because of You proposal image

Quannumthrows Presents screenshots

Quannumthrows Presents

by Michael Pino and Dusty Deen at Studio 519

Michael Pino (aka Quannumthrows) and Dusty Deen will project video art and animation onto the storefront windows Studio 519, transforming them into a giant video screen. Video art from Quannumthrows, Deen, and local Albuquerque artists such as Lady JennD will fill the windows, creating a stunning animated and immersive experience for viewers on the street.

Mirage (2024)

by Zuyva Sevilla and Kirsten Angerbauer at Rosenwald Building

Strips of lightweight reflective material, bird scare tape, is typically used agriculturally for deterring birds in fields. For this installation designed for the exterior entry of the historic Rosenwald Building in downtown Albuquerque, bird scare tape takes on a new role sublimely creating a site-specific dazzling architectural activation both day and night. Sevilla and Angerbauer create frames carrying multiple strips of the film and carefully mount them in various angular forms in immediate reaction to the installation site, drawing new lines that activate the location in unexpected ways. At night projections mapped to the structures create vibrant, dynamic light reflections. Wind and other elements produce an ever-changing display.

Mirage (2024) studio tests

Join us for the closing reception of Gallery One's NA(RRA)TIVE on Friday, December 6, 2024 from 5 - 7 pm during the December ArtWalk.

• SOMOS Albuquerque Festival
• Scottsdale Arts' Canal Convergence
• Dallas' AURORA Biennial

City of Albuquerque Public Art Urban Enhancement Division | cabq.gov/publicart