NOTE: This event is being postponed and a new date will be announced later.
What does public art mean without a public? In this era of social distancing, the notion of public art may be changing. Two Chicago public art platforms, Art on theMART and 150 Media Stream, will discuss issues facing artists who create public art now and in the future in an online panel discussion, “What is Next for Public Art: Time-Based Media Artists in Conversation,” at 6pm Wednesday, June 3. Six artists and curators will explore the challenges, responsibilities and opportunities in the new sphere of public art as well as issues that are specific to technology-based public platforms and time-based media artists. The discussion will be moderated by Cynthia Noble, executive director of Art on theMART, and Yuge Zhou, video artist and curator of 150 Media Stream. The discussion will feature these participants:- Robyn Farrell, assistant curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Art Institute of Chicago
- Diana Thater, Los Angeles-based artist, curator, writer, and educator, who created “True Life Adventures” for Art on theMART’s debut program in 2018
- Charles Atlas, pioneering filmmaker and video artist, perhaps best known for his longstanding partnership with choreographer Merce Cunningham, and the creator of “Geometry of Thought” for Art on theMART in September 2019
- Jan Tichy, a Czechoslovakian-born Chicago-based artist and educator, who was commissioned by the Terra Foundation for American Art to create “Artes in Horto—Seven Gardens for Chicago” for Art on theMART
- Penelope Umbrico, an artist affiliated with 150 Media Stream, whose multidisciplinary installations utilize web content and the physical materials of technology to explore objects and images within globalized economies
- Nicolas Sassoon, a Canada-based artist associated with 150 Media Stream, whose work has been concerned with the tensions between the pixel and the screen, reflecting on their entanglement and materiality