Arts & Entertainment
Stephen Powers: Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To a Seagull)
Site-specific installation recalls the birth of new public art in Coney Island, and the emergence of a uniquely American style of painting.
Come and enjoy this site-specific installation by artist Stephen Powers who has been a longtime admirer of the fading craft of sign painting. Powers has revitalized the tradition of colorful, hand-painted signage and advertisements in an age of digitization. In his work, he uses logotypes that have a superficially commercial look, combining them with his own text to create enigmatic meanings that deliver an emotional punch.
Powers transforms our Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery into an immersive environment filled with paintings and signs created by the visual vernacular of the iconic seaside community. This is the newest and ninth iteration of his ICY SIGNS, a traveling sign shop he first conceived in Coney Island in 2003.
The installation also includes works by Justin Green, Matt Wright, Mike Levy, Dan Murphy, Mike Langley, Mimi Gross, Alexis Ross, Sean Barton, Eric Davis, and Tim Curtis.
Find out what's happening in Prospect Heights-Crown Heightsfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Photo caption/credit: Stephen Powers: Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To a Seagull) (detail). Photo by Jonathan Dorado, Brooklyn Museum
