NEWSLETTER
Neighborhood-Wide Video Art Series, Projected onto the BQE And Bridges of Dumbo
Dumbo, Brooklyn (March 11, 2025) – The upcoming fifth and sixth volumes of The Dumbo Projection Project — Brooklyn’s largest-scale projection series ever — will be viewable from April 2 to 27, 2025 (Volume Five) and May 1 to 25, 2025 (Volume Six) on Wednesdays through Sundays from dusk to 11pm.
The Dumbo Projection Project, now in its second year and presented by the Dumbo Business Improvement District, is a neighborhood-wide, outdoor video art exhibition projected onto Dumbo's most iconic infrastructure, the Manhattan Bridge on both the Pearl Street and Adams Street sides, and along the BQE in Susan Smith McKinney Steward Park.
Volume Five, SPACE, launches on April 2 and continues through April 27, and is presented with Smack Mellon and the Sharpe Walentas Studio Program. Volume Five is an exploration of space, including what it means to be in a space, to have a space, to be part of a space, and even to be in space. It coincides with Smack Mellon’s 30th anniversary year, and a decade of the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, which awards rent-free non-living studio space to 17 visual artists for year-long residencies in DUMBO, Brooklyn. On view are:
- Runway: From the Mars Desert Research Station by Juan José Cielo (2017) on the Manhattan Bridge at Adams Street and at Pearl Street
- Does it work on Mars? by Juan José Cielo (2017) on the Manhattan Bridge at Adams Street and at Pearl Street
- Letters to Home II, excerpt, by Leonardo Madriz (2023) on the BQE in Susan Smith McKinney Steward Park
Volume Six, Unexpected Delight!, begins on May 1 and continues through May 25, and features content created by Interactive Telecommunications Program graduate students at NYU in Professor Gabe Barcia-Colombo’s course, Special Outdoor Video Art: Projection in Dumbo.
The Dumbo Projection Project will continue annually each winter. The full schedule is available here and listed below. Video stills available for usage are linked here.
Currently on view through March 30 is Volume Four, Wet Nose Pawject, presented by Photoville in collaboration with Kholood Eid, Matthew Gilbertson, and Professor the dog. The Wet Nose Pawject showcases and celebrates the local pups who walk the same sidewalks, ride the same transportation, and sniff the same air as we do.
In 2024, Dumbo launched The Dumbo Projection Project, an evolution of its previous video art projections programming. The Dumbo Improvement District has a long history of pioneering projection art at a monumental scale — including one hundred installments of the popular, single-channel series Light Year, which ran on the First Thursday of every month from 2015 to 2023, and previously the Dumbo Arts Festival, among other projects. Dumbo is home to many of Brooklyn’s storied studio residency programs, including Sharpe Walentas Studio Program and programs at Triangle, A.I.R. Gallery, and Smack Mellon, and to arts organizations including Brooklyn Arts Council, Photoville, and St. Ann’s Warehouse, as well as a dozen art galleries and more than 165 artist studios that open annually for Dumbo Open Studios.
"Last year was the debut of the Dumbo Projection Project and we were so thrilled with the response,” said Alexandria Sica, President of the Dumbo Improvement District. “People stop and stare at the BQE — it's such an unconventional platform for art and it works so well! We are excited to be working with local arts rockstars Photoville, Smack Mellon, and NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program for our second iteration. Expect a very Dumbo program — combining fine art, technology, and some adorable dogs!”
"Public art enlivens New York City’s iconic infrastructure, transforming our public realm to be even more beautiful and vibrant,” said NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “We are grateful for the Dumbo Improvement District's partnership for bringing exciting artistic projections to millions of New Yorkers and visitors.”
Projection tours will be given monthly during the neighborhood’s First Thursday Gallery Walks. Details will be posted on the Dumbo Improvement District’s website, www.dumbo.nyc.
This project is made possible with support from the New York City Department of Transportation's art program (NYC DOT Art), the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and Leo Kuelbs Collection.
The schedule is listed below and additional information on all of the artists and works cam be found at dumbo.nyc/projections.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
VOLUME FIVE: SPACE
April 2 to 27, 2025
Wednesdays through Sundays from Dusk to 11pm
Presented by Smack Mellon and the Sharpe Walentas Studio Program
Smack Mellon is a nonprofit arts organization located in Dumbo. It was founded in Dumbo in 1995 and moved to its current location on Washington Street in 2005. Smack Mellon’s mission is to nurture and support emerging, under-recognized mid-career, and women artists in the creation and exhibition of new work by providing exhibition opportunities, studio workspace, and access to equipment and technical assistance for the realization of ambitious projects.
Juan José Cielo (b. 1996, Medellin, Colombia) is a Colombian American artist, based in New York working in painting, photography, and short films. In 2017, Juan was selected as an artist-in-residence with scientists and researchers at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Hanksville, Utah. MDRS is a full-scale analog facility simulating living on Mars that receives partial research funding from NASA. Juan is a graduate of The Cooper Union in New York, with studies at the École nationale supérieure beaux-arts in Paris. His work has been featured in group exhibitions in New York, Bogota, and Miami. His work has been exhibited at the Coral Springs Museum of Art, the Consulate of Colombia in New York, the Alliance Français in Bogota, and the XVII Festival Internacional de la Imagen in Manizales, Colombia. His work was featured on Univision 41 news and published in National Geographic Traveler magazine, El Heraldo Newspaper and ARTnews.
The Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program awards rent-free non-living studio space to 17 visual artists for year-long residencies in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Its mission is to provide working studio space and community for artists. Artists are selected annually based on merit from a competitive pool of applicants by a professional jury comprised of artists and members of the SWSP Artists Advisory Committee.
Leonardo Madriz (b. 1987, Lafayette, Louisiana) is an interdisciplinary artist working across lens-based media, painting, sculpture, installation, and creative writing. Madriz presents short films projected onto minimalist structures and sculptures inspired by home construction, borders, and domestic life. Through layered vignettes and filmic abstraction mapped onto physical objects, he explores the fluid boundaries between objects, space, and narrative to address themes of migration, place as home, the personal as political, and the roles of grief-work and storytelling in the search for belonging.
On view are:
- Runway: From the Mars Desert Research Station by Juan José Cielo (2017) on the Manhattan Bridge at Adams Street and at Pearl Street
- Does it work on Mars? by Juan José Cielo (2017) on the Manhattan Bridge at Adams Street and at Pearl Street
- Letters to Home II, excerpt, by Leonardo Madriz (2023) on the BQE in Susan Smith McKinney Steward Park
VOLUME SIX: UNEXPECTED DELIGHT!
May 1 to 25, 2025
Wednesdays through Sundays from Dusk to 11pm
Curated by Gabriel Barcia-Colombo for NYU
Volume Six features a collection of made-for-Dumbo works by a cohort of students in the NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), taught by the mixed-media artist Gabriel Barcia-Colombo. Students applied to the class, Special Outdoor Video Art: Projection in Dumbo, specifically to create content for Volume 6, and were chosen by Gabriel along with the Dumbo Improvement District. Collectively, the works created in 2025 play with the theme of “unexpected delight”, exploring both medium and place in ways that will surprise passersby, encouraging us to once again marvel at the spaces we occupy, and at the infrastructure we share those spaces with.
The NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program is a two-year, full-time graduate program at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, where the students explore new forms of communications and expression using interactive media technologies. The program focuses on critical thinking, creative exploration, and the ability to learn how to learn.
Gabriel Barcia-Colombo is a mixed-media artist whose work focuses on collections, memorialization, and the act of leaving one's digital imprint for the next generation. His work takes the form of video sculptures, immersive performances, large-scale projections, and vending machines that sell human DNA. In all of his projects, Gabe explores and plays with the digitization of memories, our changing relationship to technology in society, and the virtual and physical identities we create across platforms.
About Team Dumbo / The Dumbo Business mprovement District
The Dumbo Business Improvement District, founded in 2006, is a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing and promoting DUMBO, Brooklyn — a bustling enclave on the waterfront where quintessential old New York charm meets creative Brooklyn at its very best. The DUMBO Improvement District showcases DUMBO as a world-class destination, advocating on behalf of DUMBO's businesses, property owners, and residents, and amplifying its creative and innovative vibe through The Archway programming, public art, free WiFi, public space maintenance & beautification, and the #DUMBOVIP card, among other initiatives. @dumbo_brooklyn
About NYC DOT Art
The New York City Department of Transportation’s Art Program (NYC DOT Art) partners with community-based not-for-profit organizations and professional artists to present temporary public art on NYC DOT property throughout the five boroughs for up to eleven months. Artists transform streets with colorful murals, dynamic projections, and eye-catching sculptures. A variety of public spaces serve as canvases for temporary arts, including sidewalks, fences, triangles, medians, bridges, jersey barriers, step streets, public plazas, and pedestrianized spaces. Since 2008, NYC DOT Art has produced over 475 temporary artworks citywide. For more information, visit nyc.gov/dotart and @nyc_DOTArt on Instagram.
Photo at top by @mingomatic
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Contact: Katlyn Morahan | Morahan Arts and Media
katlyn@morahanartsandmedia.com | (646) 378-9386