November’s Midnight Moment Transports Visitors on a Visual Journey Inside a Painting

Dream Season :: Emilio Perez

November 1–30, 2016

Every night | 11:57 pm–midnight

November’s Midnight Moment Transports Visitors on a Visual Journey Inside a Painting

(New York, N.Y.) October 20, 2016 – In partnership with the Cuban Artists Fund, Times Square Arts will take the public on an abstract, visual road trip in Emilio Perez’s Dream Season on Times Square’s electronic billboards from 11:57 p.m. to midnight every night in November. This project is a part of Midnight Moment, a monthly presentation by The Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts.

Times Square – once the starting point of the first transcontinental highway connecting New York to San Francisco – becomes the site of a new virtual journey inspired by the rhythms and energy of the city. Dream Season floats through the layers of Emilio Perez’s colorful, abstract paintings, traveling vertically through layers of atmospheric color and shadow and recalling the ebb and flow of the never-ending crowds that pass through the city and the bodies of water that surround it.

Pace Prints will be releasing a special edition print inspired by the Midnight Moment video. Dream Season (2016), 40 x 30 inches, will have a limited run of 50. Price available upon request. For more information, contact [email protected].

On November 10, Emilio Perez will join Sherry Dobbin, Director of Times Square Arts, in a conversation about how Perez deconstructed and reimagined his process of painting to create Dream Season and how that has impacted his view of his own work. The talk will take place at NYU’s Kimmel Center from 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm. Following the talk, art lovers can join Perez in Times Square for a viewing of Dream Season.

Emilio Perez, Artist, said, “Making a painting is easy but the challenge to make it move was uncharted territory for me. I was inspired by the boundless energy of the city and the thousands of people from around the world that will see and share this moment with me.”

Carlos Pomares, Executive Director, Cuban Artists Fund, said, “The Cuban Artists Fund is very excited to once again collaborate with the Times Square Alliance. As our past collaborations have proven, Times Square is a premiere platform to showcase the best of Cuban arts and culture to the world. We have witnessed a significant increase in artists’ visibility as a direct result of this collaboration.”

Tim Tompkins, President of the Times Square Alliance, said, “One of the extraordinary things about this platform is the ability and opportunity to ask artists to work outside their comfort zones and create an ambitious work worthy of the international space.”

Sherry Dobbin, Times Square Arts Director, said, “Perez uncovers the complexity of his layers of painting through the magic of animation, revealing the complexity of his artwork and style.”

Fred Rosenberg, President of the Times Square Advertising Coalition, said, “It’s always fascinating to showcase a piece on our digital screens that reflects the rhythms and energy of the Times Square streets below. With collaged drawings, painted gestures and layers of vibrant color, Dream Season interprets the never-ending crowds that pass through the city and the bodies of water that surround it. We’re thrilled to partner with cultural organizations like The Cuban Artists Fund and showcase this captivating video in the Crossroads of the World.”

The following digital screens are participating in the November Midnight Moment:

ABC SuperSign, American Eagle Times Square, Bank of America, Branded Cities 7 Times Square, Branded Cities NASDAQ Tower Times Square, Branded Cities Thomson Reuters, Outfront Media 1515 Broadway/ Viacom North & South, CEMUSA, City Outdoor, Clear Channel Spectacolor HD127/CNN, Clear Channel Spectacolor HD128, Morgan Stanley Sherwood Equities 1 Times Square, Superior Digital Displays Crossroads of the World, Triple Play on 7th Ave & The Waterfall on 42nd St

About Midnight Moment

Midnight Moment is the world’s largest, longest-running digital art exhibition, synchronized on electronic billboards throughout Times Square nightly from 11:57pm to midnight. Presented by the Times Square Advertising Coalition and curated by Times Square Arts since 2012, it has an estimated annual viewership of 2.5 million.

Past artists featured in the program include Tim Etchells; Elizabeth Peyton and Kristian Emdal; Jherek Bischoff; Beau Stanton; Saya Woolfalk; Jennifer Steinkamp; Soundwalk Collective; Lorna Mills; Peter Fischli and David Weiss; Laurie Anderson; Antony Nagelmann; Jesper Just; Shahzia Sikander; Rashaad Newsome; Osgemeos; Eric Dyer; Richard Garet; Andy Warhol; Peggy Ahwesh;  Marco Brambilla; Rafaël Rozendaal; Sebastian Errazuriz; Charles Atlas and Antony; Noah Hutton;  Ryoji Ikeda; Daniel Canogar; Alfredo Jaar; Isaac Julien; Robert Wilson; Tracey Emin; Seoungho Cho; Vicki DaSilva, Surabhi Saraf, and Elly Cho; Erika Janunger; Takeshi Murata; Bel Borba with Burt Sun and André Costantini; Zach Nader; Brian Gonzalez (aka Taxiplasm); Björk; JR; Ryan McGinley; Jack Goldstein; Nature Theater of Oklahoma; Ezra Wube; Laleh Khorramian; Brian Dailey; Leslie Thornton; and Yoko Ono. For more information on past projects, please visit: http://www.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/projects/midnight-moment/index.aspx

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Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) is a trade association comprised of major advertisers, retailers, real estate firms, media companies and other businesses involved in the outdoor sign industry in Times Square, along with organizations representing Broadway and the community.   Members of TSAC include:  ABC Regional Sports & Entertainment Sales, Clear Channel Spectacolor, Daktronics, D3 LED, Digital Domination, Hines Management, Jamestown One Times Square, Lamar Advertising Company, Landmark Sign & Electric, Metro Media Technologies, Newmark Knight Frank, North Shore Neon, P.R.omotion!, Sherwood Outdoor, SL Green, Times Square Alliance, The WOW Factor and Thomson Reuters. www.timessquareadcoalition.org. Follow TSAC on twitter at @TSACNYC.

Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world’s most iconic urban places. Through the Square’s electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance’s own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators to help the public see Times Square in new ways.  Times Square has always been a place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the Arts Program ensures these qualities remain central to the district’s unique identity. Generous support of Times Square Arts is provided by the. New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Visit http://www.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/index.aspx for more information. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at@TSqArts.

Emilio Perez

Rhythm, movement and intuition are in abundance in Emilio Perez’s works, revealing an interest in music, as well as a fascination with the forces of nature. His work is a combination of the spontaneity, the expressiveness of painting in its loosest form paired with the immediacy and graphic quality of drawing.

Perez attended Pratt Institute and University of Florida’s New World School of the Arts. Perez’s works can be found in the permanent collections of the PAMM,Miami; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Fundación ARCO, Madrid and Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; and in corporate collections, internationally. The artist’s paintings were featured in the Critical Gestures, PAMM, Miami; 12th Havana Biennial; Topographies at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; and Signs of the Apocalypse/Rapture at the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago. Perez had solo exhibitions with Galerie Lelong in New York and Paris and has been featured in exhibitions internationally. www.emilioperezart.com

Cuban Artists Fund

Cuban Artists Fund, founded in New York City in 1998, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to supporting artists of Cuban ancestry and providing the public with programs aimed at creating broader appreciation for Cuban arts and its global impact both historically and in today’s society. Specifically, CAF supports artists by helping to identify resources and people to create networks for Cuban artists, arts and culture groups, and cultural exchanges. CAF has a particular focus on presenting and nurturing artistic work by Cuban artists in New York City. For more information visit www.cubanartistsfund.org. Follow CAF on Twitter at @CubanArtistsFnd.