SilentK and Hip-Hop Style: Fashion Week Continues at the Port Authority Bus Terminal

Posted on September 17, 2015 by PANYNJ PORTfolio

By Neal Buccino, Senior Public Information Officer

New York Fashion Week continues at the Port Authority Bus Terminal with this display by SilentK, an emerging fashion and lifestyle brand represented by CATM New York.  The display will remain in the glass-enclosed display areas in the bus terminal’s Main Floor through the end of September.

David Zelikosky of CATM called SilentK “a manically playful and mischievous urban legend taking root during Fashion Week 2015 and launching globally in 2016.”  The brand is at the cutting edge of New York City’s hip-hop culture as an experimental style that is bold and engaging.  The display is side-by-side with an exhibit of wearable art by surrealist painter Philippe Valy.

Posted in Port Authority, Port Authority Bus Terminal, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Trans-Hudson | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Fashion Week Comes to the Port Authority Bus Terminal

Posted on September 15, 2015 by PANYNJ PORTfolio

By Neal Buccino, Senior Public Information Officer

Phillipe Valy
Valy Jacket
Valy Hat
Autographed jacket
Even Shrek signed

During New York Fashion Week 2015, running now through September  17,  style creators and fashion geeks from around the world preview  the season’s upcoming fashion collections.  In celebration of the tradition, a surrealist artist and a hip-hop style visionary have combined forces to bring their fashion brand and unique art sensibility to the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

That’s right, the bus terminal.

David Zelikofksy of CATM New York, who represents surrealist painter Philippe Valy and the emerging lifestyle brand SilentK, believes the midtown terminal is an ideal place for artists to showcase their work to people from all walks of life.  It is “a gateway for vast demographics within the tri-state area and beyond” and offers “a unique playground for the multi-talented artist,” he said in a recent press release.

Works by Valy and SilentK can be seen through the end of September in the glass-enclosed display areas in the bus terminal’s Main Floor.  The display is located within the terminal at 40th Street and Eighth Avenue, near the Ninth Avenue entrance just south of the main ticketing area.  When Valy’s fashion works are removed at the end of this month, they will be replaced by a collection of his paintings until the end of October.

Commissioned art and cultural exhibits are nothing new to the Port Authority Bus Terminal.  For example, George Segal’s life-size sculpture of three travelers in line at a boarding gate is on permanent exhibit in the South Wing of the terminal.  The sculpture was a juried selection in an international competition that attracted more than 100 entries.

The Valy exhibit, a perfect choice during Fashion Week, is a collection of his wearable artworks – jackets, a dress and other garments painted and decorated with faces, abstract designs and vibrant colors that evoke a sense of playful anarchy in a nod to the influences of Picasso and Peter Max.

A-list celebrities such as Viola Davis, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta Jones and others have autographed the works, which were created originally for past Drama Desk Awards events (another New York tradition) as a kind of living art exhibit.  At the 55th annual Drama Desk Awards in 2010, for example, a model wore the dress with multicolored paint patches and Cubist-inspired human faces and invited guests to contribute to the artwork by signing it.

Valy’s installation includes garments as well as poster-size photos of celebrities who’ve admired and signed the dress in a demonstration of what Zelikofsky calls Valy’s “unique interpretation of celebrity status.”  He continued, “Through the combination of celebrity autography and vibrant slashes of color technichrome, Valy brings us the excitement of the red carpet.”

Back-to-back with the Valy exhibit is the SilentK display, a collection of mannequins wearing the hip-hop inspired styles of this New York City-based lifestyle brand.  Zelikofsky described SilentK as “a maniacially playful and mischievous urban legend taking root during Fashion Week 2015 and launching globally in 2016.”   SilentK’s shirts, jeans, dresses, and shoes are based on hip-hop styles that are intended to emphasize the dignity of those wearing the experimental and bold designs.

A slice of New York Fashion Week at the Port Authority Bus Terminal.  Should you pass through the terminal, be sure to take time to experience the exhibit.

Posted in New York, Port Authority, Port Authority Bus Terminal, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, public art, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Portfolio at the U.S. Open

Posted on September 10, 2015 by PANYNJ PORTfolio

By Roz Hamlett, Portfolio Editor

It’s a safe bet the tennis crowd at this year’s U.S. Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium will not be cheering for both Serena Williams to win the Grand Slam and the Port Authority’s contributions to the 1964-65 World’s Fair, even though the futuristic Fair also commanded center court at Flushing Meadows Corona Park just over 50 years ago.

Unfair to compare a major sports event with New York history you say?  Certainly it is.  On a recent visit to the stadium, I too was preoccupied with scoring a selfie with the celebrity tennis star.

In fact, so distracted that I almost failed to realize I was standing on ground where Port Authority roots are particularly deep and storied.

That is, until my inquisitive seven-year-old grandson visiting New York from Maryland for his first-ever U.S. Open Kid’s Day interrupted my celebrity stalking with an obvious question as we strolled the north promenade of the Unisphere:   “What’s that big metal thing Grandmom? It looks like a world!!”

Some 50 years ago when I was a small child at the Fair, my first glimpse of the Unisphere was equally astonishing.  Like Spaceship Earth at Epcot, the Unisphere was the centerpiece of the Fair.  It is 140-feet high, 700,000 pounds and made from stainless steel as a representation of the Earth.  The sculpture heralded the dawning of the jet age.

The Port Authority wasn’t responsible directly for the Unisphere, but the agency played an indispensable role at the World’s Fair by designing the transportation pavilions set aside for airlines, automakers and oil companies.

The Port Authority even built the world’s first roof-top heliport at a time when helicopters were a relatively new thing.   The helicopters lifted off from Top of the Fair Restaurant for aerial tours of the Fair for the ticket price of $6.50.  The restaurant today is widely known as Terrace on the Park.

Also in 1965, the lease between the City of New York and the Port Authority, under which the agency operates LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy Airport, was extended to December 2015.

Aside from being home to both airports, the history of Queens always has been tied closely to aviation.  It’s the birthplace of transatlantic flight when three Curtiss N-C, or “Nancy Boat” airplanes, left the U.S. Naval Air Station in Rockaway, Queens, just a short distance from Flushing Meadow.

As I told my grandson the story of my own trip to the World’s Fair as a young girl, and how his great-grandfather filmed me standing in front of the sphere with his 8 mm camera, I was careful to add that tennis in America also began in this place, which likely will resonate the strongest with him given that his nickname is Ashe.  He too aspires to compete one day in the U.S. Open, and by then, I’ll really be competing for his attention.

Posted in airports, first nonstop flights, history, history of aviation, John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment