Pretty Pink Pollock at Poe Park
Exhibits employing techniques pioneered by Jackson Pollock on view through May 9th
Pretty Pink Pollock is a part of a five-year project which was produced by 100 students in collaboration with artist Ray Felix.
The work on display was influenced by the paintings and techniques of Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock.
Each Pollock tapestry was created with a minimum of thirty students working in collaboration with Felix to overlap layers of paint.
“Art has the ability to perpetuate itself by inspiring others to create,” said Parks Commissioner Veronica M. White. “Poe Park has become a nexus for art in the Bronx, exhibiting the work of established and up-and-coming artists, in a strikingly designed Visitor Center that is equally inspirational.”
The Pretty Pink Pollock series, which began in 2007 on canvas panels with students from Information Technology H.S in Long Island City, has since expanded in scale when the project was moved to the Wings Academy in the Bronx in 2009. Students employed Pollock’s artistic methodology of applying paint to canvas using sticks and old brushes to apply paint in circular motions on a flat surface.
Pollock was also known for applying painting while moving a full 360 degrees around the canvas. These students applied paint in a similar rhythmic, 360° motion, making each brushstroke intentional and in harmony with every other. By doing this the Pretty Pink Pollock series demonstrates unity, balance and appears to have been created by a single hand, rather than hundreds.
Also on view at the Poe Park Visitor Center are newer collaborations from 2012 between students and Ray Felix, which include Pretty Pink Haring and the Dead Kings Will Rise – series that are tributes to the late Pop artist Keith Haring and Neo Expressionist Jean Michel Basquiat.
Found between the Grand Concourse and Kingsbridge Road, Poe Park offers an oasis in one of the most densely-populated regions of the Bronx. The park houses a small playground, a historic bandstand, and most notably the last home of one of the nation’s most important literary figures—poet and author Edgar Allan Poe. The cottage was recently restored in 2011 by the Bronx County Historical Society and the Historic House Trust. The latest addition to this historic park is the Poe Park Visitor Center, a 5,400-square-foot structure that includes a gathering space for community uses, display areas, and public bathrooms. The striking one-story building, designed by Toshiko Mori, inaugurated Mayor Bloomberg’s Design and Construction Excellence Initiative and is the recipient of a Public Design Commission Special Recognition Award.
The Poe Park Visitor Center hosts public programs supportive of Parks’ mission, with particular emphasis on the arts. Types of activities that are encouraged include artist workshops, readings, film screenings, temporary exhibits, lectures and community planning.
The Poe Park Visitor Center is located at 2640 Grand Concourse in the Bronx. It is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. For more information, please call www.nycgovparks.org/parks/poepark.
