MOTOMICHI + NowHere Present:
Front St Illuminations
Friday, June 26
6PM music, 8PM projections
195 Front Street, Newburgh NY (Map link)
We’re hosting a free public art show in Newburgh Upstate Art Weekend.
When MOTOMICHI lit up the corner of Liberty and South William Street in March, the response from the Newburgh community moved us deeply. That night reminded us why public art matters, so we're back, and this time, we're taking it to the waterfront.
Front St Illuminations is NowHere's commitment to art that belongs to everyone. As a gallery dedicated to Japanese and Japan-connected artists, we believe the work we champion deserves to live beyond gallery walls and Newburgh, with its creative energy, its stunning Hudson River setting, and its community of artists and makers, feels like exactly the right place to do that.
On the opening evening of Upstate Art Weekend, 195 Front Street becomes a canvas for a curated program of large-scale digital works. The projections will be visible from across the Hudson over at Beacon Station, but it’s obviously better viewed up close.
The projection program has been curated by MOTOMICHI and features works by MOTOMICHI, a Japanese-born, Parsons-trained projection and immersive artist based in Croton-on-Hudson, whose animated works have appeared at the New Museum, the MTA's Fulton Center, and major festivals worldwide; Maiko Kikuchi, a multidisciplinary artist whose practice weaves together text, performance, and image into layered explorations of memory and identity; CHiKA, a visual artist and creative director whose imagery moves between nature, technology, and the luminous space between them; and exonemo a duo formed by Kensuke Sembo and Yae Akaiwa in 1996. Originally active in the early days of the Internet and now based in New York, they traverse the boundaries between digital and analog, as well as the physical and informational realms.
The evening also includes a very special contribution from the Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation (NYC/Beacon). We are deeply honored to present work by Kubota — a pioneering figure in video art and a key member of the Fluxus movement — as part of this program.
The evening begins at 6PM with Water Music, a live performance program curated by Newburgh's own Elizabeth Arnold, featuring sitar master John Carl Dubberstein, whose four decades of study in the classical raga tradition have taken him from India to the banks of the Hudson, and Shawn Feeney, a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow whose work spans quartz bowls, tuning forks, strings, and electronics into deeply immersive sonic experiences. We are so grateful to Elizabeth for bringing this beautiful musical program together.
Projections begin at 8:30PM/ at sunset
Bring a blanket, bring a chair, bring the whole family. There will be a food truck on site and accessible bathroom facilities. This is a free evening of art, music, and community on one of the most spectacular stretches of the Hudson River.
Parking is available at 134–140 Front Street. Walk through the gates along the water to find us.