MOVI E POST E RS SEPT 1 2 - O CT 1 2 METRO PI CTUR ES, N EW YO R K
I N TH E A I R SEPT 1 9 - F E B 9 THE WH I TN EY M US EU M O F AM ERI CA N A RT, N EW YO R K
METRO PICTURES 2013
Installation view from “Movie Posters,� Met ro Pictures, New York, 2013
Installation view from “Movie Posters,� Met ro Pictures, New York, 2013
Futura, 2013 Collage and poster 40 x 26 3/4 inches, 101.6 x 67.9 cm
Precious Mettle, 2013 Collage and poster 40 x 26 3/4 inches, 101.6 x 67.9 cm
Silver Cloud, 2013 Collage and poster 40 x 26 3/4 inches, 101.6 x 67.9 cm
On the Horizon, 2013 Collage and poster 40 x 26 3/4 inches, 101.6 x 67.9 cm
Manhattanhenge, 2013 Collage and poster 40 x 26 3/4 inches, 101.6 x 67.9 cm
John, 2013 Collage and poster 40 x 26 3/4 inches, 101.6 x 67.9 cm
T.J. Wilcox
Movie Posters PRESS RELEASE
T.J. Wilcox presents six collages for the films in his panoramic film installation “In the Air,” opening at the Whitney Museum on September 19. Wilcox made posters from his unique collages, which he used to cover the gallery’s walls. The collages hang over the posters that are installed in a manner that recalls the wheat-pasted posters that blanket exterior walls around New York City. The films were shot from Wilcox’s studio on Union Square with spectacular 360-degree views of Manhattan and tell New York-specific stories that are rep- resented in the collages and posters in the exhibition. Futura shows the Empire State Building with a zeppelin moored to the skyscraper’s pinnacle; Precious Mettle pictures artist, starlet and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt against a kaleidoscopic quilt print; an image of Pope Paul VI, whose motorcade Andy Warhol released Mylar balloons onto from the roof of the Factory in 1963, is combined with elements from Warhol’s album covers for the Rolling Stones’ “Sticky Fingers” and the Velvet Underground & Nico’s self-titled album in Silver Cloud; On the Horizon incorporates Polaroids of young men photographed by the legendary fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez; the super of Wilcox’s studio building stands on the roof looking downtown as construction of One World Trade Center is underway in John: and in Manhattanhenge the sun sets with perfect precision between the canyon-like walls of the city’s grid. “In the Air” is on view at the Whitney Museum September 19 – February 9, 2014. A catalogue for “In the Air” will be published by Hatje Cantz and is scheduled for release in December. T.J. Wilcox has had one-person exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Kunstverein München, Munich; Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland; and the ICA London. His work has been in group shows at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Haus der Kunst, Munich; GAM Galleria d’arte Moderna, Turin; Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; Ludwig Museum, Cologne; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Migros Museum, Zurich; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and PS1, New York.
METRO PICTURES Vogel, Carol. “A Historic Immersion Before Whitney Moves,” New York Times (May 16, 2013).
by Carol Vogel May 16, 2013
About a year ago the Manhattan artist T. J. Wilcox moved his studio from the lower floor of a Union Square building to its penthouse, where he suddenly had 360-degree views. “At first I spent weeks just staring out of the window,” he said. “I pretty much thought it was the end of my art making.” But as his new views became more familiar, Mr. Wilcox was reminded of places from 20 years ago, when he first came to New York from Los Angeles. “When we are looking at the present, we are simultaneously looking across time,” he said. The combination of the sights outside his windows and the memories they conjured inspired his most ambitious project: “In the Air,” a panoramic film chronicling a single September day. “It’s a portrait of New York from the 18th floor of the building,” he said. “I had become fascinated with panoramic films because that was the way, in the early 19th-century, people first saw film.”
T.J. Wilcox’s “In the Air,” a panoramic film featuring New York, will be shown at the Whitney in the fall. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
The work is composed of six short films that unfold in the round as viewers stand surrounded by a giant circular screen. Each film is inspired by an image that Mr. Wilcox took in from his new perch, in real time or in memories — sights like Andy Warhol’s Factory and the Empire State Building, or stories about Sept. 11.
Chrissie Iles, a senior curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, saw the work in Mr. Wilcox’s studio during its creation and persuaded him to show it at her museum. “None of my galleries have that much contiguous space,” Mr. Wilcox said. So from Sept. 19 to Feb. 9, 2014, “In the Air” will occupy nearly all of the Whitney’s second floor. Mr. Wilcox has chosen artworks and videos from the Whitney’s collection that relate to New York and the experience of living in the city, also for viewing on the floor. “New York is like an endlessly unfolding movie,” Ms. Iles said. “And T. J. has created a unique way of understanding how we experience the city and how we view film, taking it back to its 19th-century roots.” Mr. Wilcox said he decided to shoot the film on a clear September day, “the same kind of day that it was on Sept. 11 when, after a rainstorm, the air becomes so clean and clear that it almost has a surreal quality to it, the kind of day I heard a weatherman once describe as ‘severe clear,’ ” he said. The exhibition will be among the Whitney’s last in its landmark Marcel Breuer building on Madison Avenue, before the museum decamps to its new building, designed by Renzo Piano, under construction in Manhattan’s meatpacking district and scheduled to open in 2015. “My work has always been about history,” Mr. Wilcox said, “and to be one of the last shows in the Breuer building was also important to me.”
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Published on the occasion of “Movie Posters” at Metro Pictures and “In the Air” at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2013. All images are courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York Metro Pictures 519 West 24 Street New York, New York 10011 T 212-206-7100 gallery@metropictures.com