Coors Light: THE COLD STUDIO
August 1st - August 2nd, 2019
Thursday, Friday, 12pm–10pm
326/332 Canal Street, New York City
It’s time to step out of the heat and into The Art of Cold. In these unique installations, some of the world’s most innovative artists in, partnership with Coors Light, have created a refreshing and thought-provoking oasis that salutes the brand’s obsession with cold.
Whether it’s Kiri Leigh Jones’ “invisible” painting that is brought to life through cold- activated technology, Shintaro Okamoto’s frozen tribute to time and memory, or Néle Azevedo’s existential monuments of ice, each of these pieces presents a different perspective on the nature of cold and what it means to live in the moment.
Welcome to The Cold Studio.
Kirileigh Jones
Denver-based muralist and street artist Kirileigh Jones believes that anything can be a canvas. Her vibrant, large-scale works are notable for their sense of color and intricate detail.
For this piece, Kirileigh worked with a cold-activated “reveal ink” (the same one that turns the mountain blue on the Coors Light can) that was developed by Lyle Small, founder of Chromatic, Inc. She created an invisible work of art that only reveals itself when the unique aluminum canvas on which it’s painted is chilled to 39 degrees or below. “I want everyone to be standing in front of it and feel that exhale of coldness as it rushes over them,” Kirileigh says, emphasizing her wish to bring viewers a moment to pause and be mindful of the world around them.
Shintaro Okamoto
Shintaro Okamoto has been a student of cold for his entire life. Born in Japan and raised in Alaska, Okamoto trained as an ice sculptor under his father, Takeo Okamoto, and spent his teenage years competing in ice sculpting contests around the world. After receiving degrees in fine arts and painting, Okamoto opened an ice studio with his father in Queens, New York, where they began to create extraordinary frozen works of art.
“[Ice is] constantly changing and evolving,” Okamoto says. “It’s the embodiment of time passing. Freezing an item inside the ice does the exact opposite - it stops time.” This juxtaposition is what inspires this work, in which Okamoto suspended his favorite symbols of summer inside large blocks of ice in order to depict the season frozen in time.
Néle Azevedo
Sculptor, scholar, and conceptual artist Néle Azevedo creates monuments for the people. Her best-known work, entitled the “Melting Men,” is an art installation that celebrates and memorializes the everyday individual.
In this piece, Azevedo recreated her “Melting Men” installation in her native Sáo Paulo, where she suspended small ice figures that looked as though they had been paused while leaping or dancing in mid-air. As the figures melted, the water fell into resonant bowls, creating a symphony of dripping sounds intended to remind us of how fleeting life is. As a result the work is part sculpture art and part performance, once showcased the art melts away never to be fully experienced again.
For more information contact oncanal@wallplay.com
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