CYNTHIA TALMADGE AT ROCKEFELLER CENTER
NEW YORK, NY - Art Production Fund and Rockefeller Center are pleased to announce a newly commissioned public art project by acclaimed artist Cynthia Talmadge, opening on Monday, November 10. Kicking off the iconic holiday season at Rockefeller Center, the installation situates Talmadge’s rigorously detailed and conceptually layered practice within the historical and cultural context of the Center. Visitors will get lost in Cynthia’s detailed narratives and delightful storytelling, offering a moment of reflection within the spectacle and thrill of the holiday season.
Talmadge has developed a site-specific public installation transforming Rockefeller Center into an immersive tableau that underscores the excitement and theatricality of the season. Here, Talmadge continues the story of Alan Smithee, an ongoing character and muse in her work. “Alan Smithee” has been historically used by Hollywood directors who remove their names from a film gone wrong. Talmadge brings that pseudonym to life, imagining Smithee as a man with a colorful personal life and new ambitions.
Inside the lobby vitrines of 45 Rockefeller Plaza, Talmadge employs sculptural elements to bring Smithee’s world to life. Skewed dioramas of a musical's set fill the spaces, while a bright pink Hollywood star of his name now wears a comedy-tragedy mask. Playbill posters, freshly designed, are scrawled and annotated in Smithee’s hand, as if hot off the press from his imagination. Photographs of costumes showcase heavily patched baby-blue plaids clashing with green and pink piping, projecting a well-rehearsed eccentricity. Even within Talmadge's clear narrative, the objects she imagines shift between costume and clothing, object and prop, creating a thought-provoking experience for passersby of the public exhibition.
Viewers will also discover Talmadge’s detailed paintings, exhibited at an enormous scale in the spaces of 45 Rockefeller Plaza, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, 10 Rockefeller Plaza, and 1 Rockefeller Plaza. Vivid colors explode throughout the exhibition in fuchsia, sky blue, and acid green, tying together scenes and ephemera, all parts of Smithee’s story.
As part of the presentation, Talmadge and Art Production Fund hosted a free and public children’s art-making workshop on site at Rockefeller Center on Saturday, November 8 as part of the ongoing Art Sundae program. Children had the opportunity to create their own sand paintings, inspired by Talmadge’s presentation concurrently on view, and contribute to a public art installation that will be on view at 10 Rockefeller Plaza.
“The story of Alan Smithee is a New York story, and I am so grateful to Art Production Fund and Rockefeller Center for the opportunity to present the work in one of the city’s most iconic landmarks. This unique chance to present my invented ephemera, for a fictional musical, by an imaginary director, in such an authentic context is a dream come true. It is surreal in the best way and adds a whole new layer to the narrative. It is especially thrilling to present this body of work to the public, which is meant to be comical and exuberant, and that requires an audience. I hope the viewing experience is genuinely fun.” - CYNTHIA TALMADGE
“Talmadge’s presentation at Rockefeller Center invites viewers to lose themselves in the artist’s meticulous storytelling. The works are intricately layered, expertly executed, and uniquely representative of the energy of New York City, especially during the holiday season. Talmadge has considered every detail to capture the essence of her imagined character, offering visitors an opportunity to escape in to the world of Alan Smithee” - CASEY FREMONT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ART PRODUCTION FUND
“For her Art in Focus exhibit, Cynthia Talmadge has created a fictional musical whose playbills and set pieces will take over Rockefeller Center for a playful narrative with the landmark’s history as an epicenter for multimedia,” said EB KELLY, SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR, TISHMAN SPEYER AND HEAD OF ROCKEFELLER CENTER. “The holiday season is magical, and Talmadge’s custom pieces will be a fun addition alongside Broadway’s filled houses, Radio City’s Christmas Spectacular and the showstopping Christmas Tree in the heart of Rockefeller Center.”
CYNTHIA TALMADGE (b. 1989, New York) is a New York-based artist known for paintings, photographs, and installations featuring subject matter from the romantic dark side of contemporary Americana and tabloid culture. Talmadge’s work exhibits a fascination with heightened emotional states, mediated portrayals of those states, and particularly the places where both converge. While Talmadge’s primary medium is painting, she also designs elaborate interior environments for her work. Her 2018 New York solo show 1076 Madison consisted of eight paintings of the venerable Frank E. Campbell funeral home. Her 2017 debut solo show, Leaves of Absence, consisted of life-sized photographs of meticulously styled sets depicting celebrity rehabs alongside an architectural installation reconstructing a fragment of an imagined room from McLean Hospital. By viewing a funeral parlor or a treatment center through the conventions of pointillism or midcentury melodramas, she transforms the private inevitability of loss or trauma into something demanding collective examination.
ART IN FOCUS is a multidisciplinary program that showcases installations by contemporary artists inspired by the New York City landscape and contemporary life. Artists featured in the series will have their work displayed in a number of prominent and unexpected public locations throughout Rockefeller Center. Art in Focus is presented in partnership with Rockefeller Center and Art Production Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to commissioning and producing ambitious public art projects, reaching new audiences, and expanding awareness through contemporary art. Past Art in Focus artists include Joana Avillez, Hein Koh, Portia Munson, LaKela Brown, Lucy Sparrow, Angelica Hicks, Vanessa German, Ryan Flores, Genevieve Gaignard, Oliver Jeffers, Hiba Schahbaz, Sanford Biggers, Hilary Pecis, Maurice Harris, Lisa Congdon, Max Colby, Hugo McCloud, Emily Mullin, Arghavan Khosravi, Lorraine Nam, Joel Gaitan, Basil Kincaid, Dominique Fung, Debbie Lawson, Melissa Joseph, Joel Mesler, Shantell Martin, Jake Clark, Will Cotton, Greg Ito and Julia Chiang.
ROCKEFELLER CENTER is a global icon in the heart of New York City. Conceived by John D. Rockefeller Jr. as a “city within the city,” the Center comprises 13 buildings connected by an underground concourse. Under the stewardship of owner and operator Tishman Speyer, the Center has become the city's most dynamic place to work, play, dine, shop, and celebrate. Rockefeller Center offers an outdoor, public museum experience with more than 100 permanent art works across campus along with rotating exhibitions and the gallery at legendary auction house Christie’s. Visitors can join an official Rockefeller Center group or private VIP tour to learn about the campus’s art, architecture, and history. For more information or to purchase tickets to attractions and programs, visit rockefellercenter.com.
ART PRODUCTION FUND is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to commissioning and producing ambitious public art projects, reaching new audiences and expanding awareness through contemporary art. Past projects include: Elmgreen & Dragset, “Prada Marfa,” Valentine, TX; Ugo Rondinone, “Seven Magic Mountains,” Las Vegas; Jeff Koons, “Seated Ballerina,” Rockefeller Center, NYC; Zoe Buckman, “CHAMP,” LA; Raul de Nieves “When I Look In To Your Eyes I See the Sun,” Miami; Nancy Baker Cahill “Liberty Bell”, multiple cities; Sanford Biggers “Oracle”, Rockefeller Center, NYC and Hammer Museum, LA; Derrick Adams “Funtime Unicorns”, Rockefeller Center, NYC. Frieze Projects LA 2023-2025, LA. www.artproductionfund.org
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