As New York City prepares to mark the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, people are shifting their focus to the vibrant community of artists who will pay tribute to lives lost with unique pieces of art.
More than two dozen museum and gallery exhibitions will be on display around the city and local artists are using their experiences as the inspiration for their work, the Associated Press reports.
Artist EJay Weiss will display four works from his series of twelve titled “9/11 Elegies: 2001-2011″ at the Narthex Gallery.
In the nine panel series, Weiss mixed ash and paint to create the first seven works, but left ash out of the last two panels.
He said of his decision: “I left it out of the last two because I felt it was time to move on. It was symbolic for me.”
Another artist, Todd Stone, was living in downtown Manhattan six blocks from the World Trade Center buildings during the attacks and created a series of 15 watercolour paintings titled “Witness”.
Stone has also been working to chronicle the rebuilding of the World Trade Center with a series he calls “Downtown Rising”.
To create the pieces, he spent 18 months perched on 48th floor of the new 7 World Trade Center, overlooking the trade centre site.
Stone said of the project: “I never thought I would be able to approach the ground zero site as anything but the saddest place on earth, but it’s not like that anymore. The strength of our city and country are manifest in the work force of thousands of men who are here every day making this incredible construction before my very eyes.”
Many local artists have chosen to illustrate compassion and humanity over destruction in their works, and gallery exhibitions around New York will feature art in all mediums, with everything from photography to painting to quilt work on display.
