It took months of planning, but finally, through October 18, 2015, the Juxtapoz x Victory Journal "T.SQ Newsstand" is open in Times Square in New York City. We had a bit of an opening, unveiling if you will, yesterday where the Newsstand resides (on 44th and 7th Avenue to be exact), and guest artist clerks Cheryl Dunn and November cover artist and Newsstand creator Kimou "Grotesk" Meyer took over for a few hours each. Everyday, we will be announcing the next days clerks on all of our media, so stay tuned.
All photography by Andrew White for Juxtapoz. This project wouldn't have been completed without the generous support of Converse and the Times Square Alliance.
Here is our official press release, if you like those things:
Brooklyn-based and Swiss born artist Kimou “Grotesk” Meyer, Victory Journal, Juxtapoz Magazine, and Times Square Arts bring the T.SQ Newsstand, a new take on the iconic NYC newsstand of yesterday, to the Broadway plaza between 44th and 45th Street from October 9 - October 18, 2015.
The T.SQ Newsstand is an artful reminder of New York City’s support of artists and printed publications. It will offer a roster of hand-picked art and culture magazines, including Juxtapoz, Brooklyn’s own Victory Journal and a limited edition publication featuring Charlie Ahearn, Daniel Arnold, Barbara Kruger, and more.
In June 2009, Juxtapoz Magazine commissioned a cover illustration from Grotesk. The result was an idiosyncratic update of the newsstand, the New York staple that represented a classic version of the city we know and love. In 2014, Grotesk brought the illustration to life, designing, painting and constructing a pop-up installation at the SCOPE Miami Art Show.
The T.SQ Newsstand now arrives in Times Square with a fresh face: the 4 x 8 x 8.25 plywood and aluminum structure is now waterproof, all of the signs—as well as the marquee—are redone by classically trained sign painters Matt Wright and Mike Langley of Sky High Murals. Some of New York’s most respected graffiti writers were invited to add their own personal touch to the structure. To emulate the New York he idealized, Grotesk built wooden items, including fake cigarette packs, pigeons and more.
The T.SQ Newsstand will also feature surprise visits from some of the publication’s contributing artists, including Jason Polan, Jean Jullien, Cheryl Dunn and more. The artists will be on-hand to sign their work, sell limited edition prints, books, and rare pieces from their personal archives. Artist residency announcement will happen the day of their appearance.
“When I arrived in New York from Switzerland in 1999, I was trying to find a French newspaper in Midtown. I found one in a very small newsstand on 23rd Street and was immediately fascinated by the raw beauty of the little shack; the feeling that it had been there for 50 years. To follow up on the 2009 Juxtapoz cover illustration of the urban relic, we built a fictionalized newsstand to scale and dropped in the middle of the SCOPE art fair. As a busy, vibrant structure with lots of color, it was a total anomaly in a gallery that normally featured a lot of white space. With the disappearance of the newsstands in NYC, it’s a great opportunity to bring the newsstand to the middle of Times Square, reminding people of the New York that existed not so long ago.” - Kimou "Grotesk" Meyer
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