The Garment District Alliance (GDA) announced the latest in its ongoing series of public art exhibits, showcasing a series of eight drawings titled The Infinite Land of a Thousand Dances, created by Brooklyn-based artist Nell Breyer.
Located inside the Kaufman Arcade building on 139 W 35th Street, the free exhibit is accessible to the public through April 1. The Infinite Land of a Thousand Dances is part of the Garment District Space for Public Art program, which showcases artists in unusual locations throughout the year and over 17 years has produced more than 200 installations, exhibits and performances.
“Nell’s drawings feature unique perspectives of Garment District artisans as they craft their works, and we are so proud to showcase her artwork as part of our series of public art exhibitions,” said, Barbara A. Blair, president of the Garment District Alliance. “We encourage all to visit Nell’s exhibition to learn more about the talented individuals that make up the Garment District community.”
In an effort to make a choreographic score about touch, Breyer studied Garment District artisans from different studios and companies over several months, documenting their hands in motion. Each artisan shared aspects of their unique process through interviews, photos, video clips and meetings, allowing Breyer to document their hands at work, pressing, folding, threading, stitching, pleating, and more. Breyer’s drawings respond to their actions, and to the reach of these small touches as they extend into larger scales of human movement and activity across the globe.
The pieces also reference seminal works in dance, poetry and visual art centering on the hand, including Hand Movie (1966) by Yvonne Rainier, Hand Catching Lead (1968) by Richard Serra, Loops (1971) by Merce Cunningham, and Touch (1986) by Octavio Paz, among others.
Based in Brooklyn, Breyer is an artist who works at the intersection of media, movement and the public domain. Her work has been showcased in art institutes and galleries internationally and in the United States, including the Museo del’arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Roveret in Italy, Sadlers Wells in the United Kingdom, Cankarjev Dom in Slovenia, The Bangladesh National Museum in Bangladesh, The National Academy of Arts & Sciences in Massachusetts, and more.
The Garment District is home to diverse business sectors from technology to hospitality and includes thousands of people working in the creative economy, including fine and performing artists, designers, architects, photographers and more than a hundred theaters, galleries, performance spaces and studios.
‘The Infinite Land of a Thousand Dances” by Brooklyn-based artist Nell Breyer will be on view through April 1, 2022 inside the Kaufman Arcade building located at 139 West 35th Street, NYC.
Follow the artist on Instagram.
While you’re there, take a stroll through #Passage ~ only on view through February 13th. Don’t forget to look up when you’re walking along 40th Street. ‘InsideOut: NY Together’ is a public art installation that transformed the wall outside the Port Authority Midtown Bus Terminal in the Garment District into a massive 40-foot gallery featuring – portraits of New Yorkers.