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For immediate release

The best art this Fall won't be found in the galleries
Public Art Fund announces…

Alexander Brodsky
Canal Street Subway Project

New York, NY - This November, Public Art Fund in collaboration with the Metropolitan Transit Authority will unveil one of the most dramatic and surprising public art projects by artist Alexander Brodsky.

Imagine walking along the unused tracks of the Canal Street Station this November as you transfer from the N/R to the 6 line. You see something out of the corner of your eye, a slight movement and flash of color. As you continue through the station, are you really hearing strains of music and lapping water? Suddenly you are standing aside a Venetian canal. Life-size gondolas rock gently in the water. Music and laughter fill the air. You wonder, can this possibly be real? This moment in time is created for you by the remarkable young Russian artist Alexander Brodsky.

Brodsky incorporates a shadow puppet style to create this illusion. The gondolas are tin and wooden "cutouts" placed in a shallow tank of water gently rocked by waves. Lights and sound recordings are used to enhance the experience and the rear wall is filled with a perspective drawing of an ancient Venetian street that helps create a sense of depth. The artist describes the project as "one of the millions of strange things that happen to you in this city. You have to transfer subways-to do this you must go through a long space of dead station. You want to pass through this space as fast as possible and suddenly in the middle of it you see a mirage-lights, water, boats, sounds of street life. You see a canal. It's real and unreal at the same time. You stop for a few minutes trying to understand what it is and why it is here and then you go on with your life, keeping the mirage in your memory. You might come back another day to check-was it a dream or not?"

Artist Bio
Alexander Brodsky, who now lives in New York, is part of the first generation of Russian artists to experience intellectual and artistic freedom, previously unavailable under the old Soviet regime. With little opportunity to exhibit or create public projects, Brodsky was a founding member of a small but influential group of artists and architects known as the "Paper Architects". They were so called because, while their projects were ambitious and innovative, the only outlet for their creative vision was on paper. His proposal for Canal Street Subway Project immediately struck the jurors of the In the Public Realm program as quite unlike any other public art project to be seen in recent years. It is a dynamic theatrical response to the site that references the canal formerly located in lower Manhattan and the diverse cultures that make up that area of Manhattan.

This project is made possible through the support and cooperation of the MTA Arts for Transit Program. The In the Public Realm program is supported with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs' Challenge Grant Initiative, the National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council on the Arts, the Silverweed Foundation and the Heathcote Art Foundation.

About Public Art Fund
The Public Art Fund is New York's leading presenter of artists' projects, new commissions, installations, and exhibitions in public spaces. With twenty-five years of experience and an international reputation, the Public Art Fund identifies, coordinates, and realizes a diversity of major projects by both established and emerging artists throughout New York City. By bringing artworks outside the traditional context of museums and galleries, the Public Art Fund provides a unique platform for an unparalleled public encounter with the art of our time.

Public Art Fund is a non-profit arts organization supported in part with public funds from The New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs and through generous contributions from corporations, foundations, and individuals.

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Contact:
Public Art Fund
tel: (212) 980-4575
e-mail: press@publicartfund.org