The Office of Arts & Culture, (ARTS) in partnership with Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), has selected Seattle artist Ben Zamora to create a permanent, site-specific artwork along the Madison Street Bus Rapid Transit route.
“I am excited about this opportunity to create a new artwork that will serve as a vibrant focal point resonating with energy of a city in constant change and movement,” Says Zamora. “I hope this new work will reflect the spirit and identity of this community, serve as a beacon from afar and an interactive experience up close.”
The Madison Street Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service will provide fast, frequent, reliable, and safe public transportation between First Avenue in downtown Seattle and Martin Luther King Jr Way. The new route will serve densely developed neighborhoods and feature a redesigned streetscape as well as new state-of-the-art electric trolley buses. Throughout 2017, The artist will participate in a variety of outreach and community conversations to develop a proposed design. Construction is scheduled to being in early 2018.
Zamora is best known for his light-based artwork and earned a MFA from University of Washington in 2005. He has created large-scale installations and sculptures for Art Basel/Design Miami, Kunsthalle Krems in Austria, Salle Pleyel in Paris, the Getty Villa in Los Angeles, and the Frye Art Museum, as well as a number of other galleries, museums, private art collections, and public art projects including the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.
The artwork is being funded through SDOT and Move Seattle Levy 1% for Arts Funds.
Photo: BEN ZAMORA, IMAGE 10 & 11, NEVER FINISHED, 2014, Seattle, Washington. Photo credit: Mark Woods. Dimensions: 20’ x 50’ x 15’
Description: Created as a companion piece to THROUGH HOLLOW LANDS (Frye Art Museum, 2012). A Lilienthal/Zamora project. 300 suspended fluorescent tubes move from the gallery’s wood planked floor and ascent toward the open beam ceiling, expanding and imploding. Black and white tubes create the movement.
