Project 1 reveals artists

Project 1 reveals artists

"Oracle of Lacuna" by Heather Hart, who will be a Project 1 artist. Courtesy Project 1

The artists for Project 1 by ArtPrize have been selected.

The inaugural event will feature art from a group of artists: Amanda Browder, Heather Hart, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Olalekan Jeyifous and the duo of Paul Amenta and Ted Lott.

Each of the artists will produce large public art.

The pieces will be on display from Sept. 7-Oct. 27 at multiple locations in Grand Rapids under the exhibition “Crossed Lines.”

The art will be multi-faceted installations, urban interventions and community-oriented projects.

The pieces will also serve as stages for performing arts and community collaborations, while others will be geared toward audience participation.

“The exhibition seeks to explore thresholds and intersections of many — aesthetic, political, social — that result in the harmonies, tensions and unexpected outcomes that make a city what it is,” said Kevin Buist, artistic director, Project 1.

“When people, places and points of view cross one another, it causes friction, which can be the root of both conflict and creativity.”

Amanda Browder, Brooklyn, New York

Browder produces fabric installations for building exteriors and other public sites. She’ll invite members of the community to donate fabric and work with her to sew striped textile pieces that she will use to wrap around multiple buildings and structures at various sites for Project 1.

Heather Hart, Brooklyn, New York

Hart is an interdisciplinary artist. She develops shingle rooftops and dormer windows that encourage visitors to climb on top and contemplate regional oral histories, as well as serve as a stage for performances.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Montreal

Lozano-Hemmer develops interactive installations. He will create a new site-specific piece for Project 1.

Olalekan Jeyifous, Brooklyn, New York

Jeyifous is an artist and architect. For Project 1, he will create a sculpture that refers to the “historic and contemporary challenges of housing discrimination and inequities of urban life.”

Paul Amenta and Ted Lott, Grand Rapids

Amenta and Lott will collaborate with DisArt to create an architectural intervention open to the community and activated by performances and events for the duration of Project 1. The work will flip ADA specifications from design constraint to design inspiration, and the entire structure will be accessible. 

The artists were selected by Buist, who worked with a Curatorial Advisory Committee: Joseph Becherer, director of the Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame; Dan Cameron, independent curator; Nicole Caruth, independent curator and writer; Alice Gray Stites, chief curator, 21c Museum Hotels; Larry Ossei-Mensah, Susanne Feld Hilberry senior curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; and Rebecca Carbin, independent curator and founder, I Heart Your Work Art Futures and ART + PUBLIC UnLtd.