Onassis Foundation opens experimental art and technology space in Tribeca
Onassis ONX, the Onassis Foundation’s experimental art and technology studio, is doubling its size in a new location in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood. It is expected to open in January with the multimedia exhibition “TECHNE: Homecoming.”
Founded in 2020, Onassis ONX has spent the past five years supporting artists working across mediums such as extended reality (XR), artificial intelligence (AI) and performance at the 645 Fifth Avenue space. The arts center partners with Lincoln Center, Pioneer Works, MIT Open Documentary Lab and many others.
Its first exhibition, TECHNE: Homecoming, will feature new multimedia works by artists including Björk and FKA twigs collaborator Andrew Thomas Huang, augmented reality (AR) artist Tamiko Thiel and self-taught microbiologist Sister Sylvester, who consider the ways in which biology, mythology and technology shape identity.
Located on the fourth floor of 390 Broadway, adjacent to PPOW Gallery and the Matthew Brown Gallery, Onassis ONX features 6,000 square feet of production and exhibition space designed to leverage advanced technology for artistic creation; facilities include a larger motion capture stage, a three-wall seamless projection room, an expanded recording studio with high-fidelity systems, and enhanced computing infrastructure with new servers for artificial intelligence and generated media.
“Our move downtown represents both continuity and change,” Afroditi Panagiotakou, artistic director of the Onassis Foundation, said in a statement. “With this new, larger studio in Tribeca, we are reaffirming our commitment to artists – providing them with the tools, space and community to create work that expands the reach of art in the digital age.”
The move signals a larger transformation of the gallery, center and space into the TriBeCa community. This follows another expansion by the Onassis Foundation with Onassis Ready in Athens, Greece. The new experimental culture space, which opened in October in a former factory, offers a mid-career survey of Juergen Teller in dialogue with the nearby flagship space Onassis Stegi.
“The Onassis Foundation continues to invest in the infrastructure of imagination, connecting Athens and New York through creativity and technological inquiry. We provide artists with the time, resources and, most importantly, the freedom to choose when to use and when not to use advanced technologies to best serve their artistic vision,” said Panagiotakou, adding, “In Athens, our new space Onassis Ready started out as a factory, and in many ways still is. Now we call it a factory of dreams and ideas, in New York and Athens, ONX Artists shape their visions and bring them to life in spaces designed for artists to flourish and supported by people who believe in their work and the world they imagine. ”
