Artist Ryan McGinley Gets Prime Exposure In Times Square

Ryan McGinley a leading New York artist presents Varúð which had its Manhattan premiere just before midnight on Monday, July 1st. It will now play nightly 11:57pm – midnight throughout the month of July.
Ryan McGinley’s ethereal video, Varúð documents the artistʼs friend Jessica Tang as she traverses the streets of Manhattan in slow motion, leaving a trail of stardust in her wake.  McGinley captures a free-spirited and barefoot Tang, impervious to her surroundings as she passes the hectic world around her. McGinley hopes to offer city goers a moment of calm amidst the bustling streets by presenting an homage to the city.   “I wanted to bring a childhood innocence to the streets, through a character whose own light and wonder affect the world around her,” McGinley explains.  “Iʼm always interested in an atmosphere where dreams and reality mingle on equal terms.”  

Midnight Moment is the largest coordinated effort in history by the sign operators in Times Square to display synchronized, cutting-edge creative content on electronic billboards and newspaper kiosks throughout Times Square every night. The program, formerly known as Times Square Moment: A Digital Gallery, premiered in May 2012 and is organized and supported by the Times Square Advertising Coalition in partnership with Times Square Arts, the public art program for the Times Square Alliance, with additional partners of participating sign holders and artists.  Past artists featured in the program include Robert Wilson; Tracey Emin;  Björk and Andrew Thomas Huang,  JR,  Seoungho Cho; Neil Goldberg; Nabil Elderkin, Andrew van der Westhuyzen and Gregory Stern; Vicki DaSilva, Surabhi Saraf, and Elly Cho;  Erika Janunger; Takeshi Murata; Bel Borba with Burt Sun and André Costantini;  Brian Gonzalez (aka Taxiplasm); and Yoko Ono.  

Each night, Times Square becomes a digital art gallery through dazzling visuals on select billboards and newsstands. Every show begins at 11:57pm with a “countdown” that signals the start of the 3 minute nightly presentation. Content changes monthly; selected works are announced in the weeks preceding the start of a new show as are the exact signs participating in that month’s selection.

Ryan McGinley is an artist who was raised in New Jersey. After moving to NY city in 1996, he began extensively photographing downtown culture. McGinley’s work is in numerous museum collections, including the Guggenheim Museum, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He has been the subject of monographic exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Kunsthalle in Vienna, MUSAC in Léon, Spain, and MoMA PS1 in New York City. He has had numerous solo gallery and museum exhibitions around the world in cities such as Paris, Amsterdam, London, Athens, Milan, and Berlin.   Please visit: ryanmcginley.com

Midnight Moment is a presentation of the Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts.  This month’s program is presented in partnership with Art Production Fund

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