Joshua Frankel

Joshua Frankel (born 1980) is an American contemporary artist and director who makes work in many different media, including animation, film, opera, drawing, printmaking and public art.

Music is often central to Frankel's work. His animation has been presented synchronized to live musical performances by chamber ensembles and full orchestra by institutions including the Library of Congress,^[1] the Brooklyn Academy of Music,^[2][3] the San Diego Symphony,^[4] and The River to River Festival, where his animation took over 50 video advertising screens in New York City's Fulton Center transit hub at rush hour.^[5][6] Ann Midgette of the Washington Post called his film Plan Of The City “one of the best matches of visuals to music I’ve seen.”^[1]

Joshua Frankel's animated collages use modern techniques to represent history, not depicting precisely what happened during specific events but evoking how they felt.^[7] New York City, architecture and urban planning are recurring themes in Frankel's work. His use of collage also connects his work to the visual language of architectural proposals.^[8]

Frankel was also one of the “Superforecasters” described in the 2015 book Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction by Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner about the Good Judgment Project, a research project that studied how accurately civilians can forecast future news events.^[9][10]

Early life

Frankel grew up in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan.^[11] He is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School^[12] and Williams College.^[13]

Selected works

A Marvelous Order (2022)

A Marvelous Order is an opera about the battle between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs^[14] over the fate of New York City, conceived by Frankel, composer Judd Greenstein and poet Tracy K. Smith.^[15][16] The opera is framed, implicitly, as a love triangle in which Moses and Jacobs vie for the affections of New York City.^[17] In addition to being through-composed musically, A Marvelous Order has animation that runs throughout, created by Frankel.^[8][18] Work-in-progress productions were presented at '62 Center for Theater and Dance at Williams College^[19] and the River to River Festival.^[6][5] The completed opera had its world premiere on October 20, 2022 at the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State, in the culmination of a multi-year partnership including three creative development residencies.^[20][21]

Emergent System (2020)

Emergent System is an animated film by Frankel synchronized to music by composer Missy Mazzoli and featuring choreography by Faye Driscoll, commissioned by Peak Performances at Montclair State University.^[22][23] The film premiered at Peak Performances in 2020 with music performed live on six grand pianos by Grand Band, a piano sextet. In conjunction with the performances, an exhibition of Frankel's drawings was presented in collaboration with the George Segal Gallery.^[24][25]

Mannahatta (2013)

Mannahatta is an animated film by Frankel, synchronized to music by composer Judd Greenstein and the poem by Walt Whitman of the same name. It premiered at the BAM NextWave Festival in 2013 with music performed by the NOVUS orchestra, Trinity Wall Street Choir and soloist DM Stith.^{[2][26][3][27]}

Plan Of The City (2011)

Plan Of The City is a film by Frankel that combines animation with live action footage^[28] synchronized to music by composer Judd Greenstein performed by NOW Ensemble, a contemporary chamber ensemble. Greenstein and NOW Ensemble also appear in the film. Plan Of The City has been presented with music performed live by NOW Ensemble by institutions including The Library of Congress, the Brooklyn Academy of Music^[29] and the New Museum.^[30] The work was awarded the Guldbågen by the Lund Architecture Film Festival.^[31] Ann Midgette of the Washington Post called the film “one of the best matches of visuals to music I’ve seen,”^[1] while New Yorker critic Alex Ross called the work "Gorgeous."^[32]

Queens Is The Future (2007)

Queens Is The Future is a public mural created by Frankel in collaboration with artist Eve Biddle on a handball court in Jackson Heights, Queens. It originally depicted a subway blasting off into space. In 2015, without consulting the original artists, Sony Pictures altered the mural, inserting Spider-Man into the image, to promote the release of the film The Amazing Spider-Man 2.^[33]

Awards

• NEA Art Works — Media Arts^[34]
• NEA Art Works — Opera^[34]
• Graham Foundation Fellowship^[35]
• Sundance Institute's New Frontier Story Lab Fellowship^[36]
• Jerome Foundation New York City Film & Video Fellowship^[37]
• New York State Council on the Arts^[38]

See also

• A Marvelous Order
• Queens Is the Future
• Joshua Frankel on KCRW's Design & Architecture

References

1. Midgette, Anne (2011-05-15). "Music review: Alt-classical groups Victoire and NOW Ensemble at the Atlas". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
2. "Judd Greenstein on the Space Between Sounds | Mixtapes". WQXR. 20 November 2013. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
3. "Leon Levy BAM Digital Archive: Production: 21c Liederabend, op. 3 [2013f.00026]". levyarchive.bam.org. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
4. "Program Notes: Chamber Music Series: An Evening with Art of Elan" (PDF). San Diego Symphony. 2015-11-03. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
5. Barone, Joshua (2017-04-12). "An Opera About Robert Moses Is Among the River to River Festival Highlights". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
6. Zax, Tayla (21 June 2017). "New Opera Tells Story Of Robert Moses And Jane Jacobs — In The City Where They Battled". The Forward. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
7. "Times Square Arts: May's Midnight Moment Animates The Battle for the Streets of New York City". arts.timessquarenyc.org. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
8. McArdle, Molly (2016-05-25). "A Marvelous Order: A Gentrification Opera for Our Times". Brooklyn Magazine. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
9. Zweig, Jason (2015-09-26). "The Trick to Making Better Forecasts". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
10. Jiménez, Fanny (2016-07-31). "Sie haben den Durchblick". DIE WELT. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
11. Pomorski, Chris (2015-05-29). "Power Couple: The Feud Between Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses Becomes Operatic". Observer. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
12. Tetlock, Philip E.; Gardner, Dan (2016). Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction. New York: Broadway Books. ISBN 978-0804136716.
13. "A Marvelous Order". Williams Magazine. Summer 2016. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
14. Wiedeman, Reeves (15 February 2016). "Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses, In Song". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
15. Murray, Larry (2016-01-21). "Upcoming theatre and dance events at Williams College '62 Center". Berkshire on Stage. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
16. "Judd Greenstein and Joshua Frankel: A Marvelous Order". Destination Williamstown. 2016-03-12. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
17. "Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs: An Operatic Myth | On the Media". WNYC Studios. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
18. "Pitch Project: A Marvelous Order". www.ispa.org. 2019-04-10. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
19. Lange, Alexandra (2016-05-04). "Imagining Jane Jacobs". Curbed. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
20. Waleson, Heidi (27 October 2022). "'A Marvelous Order' Review: Battling the Power Broker". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2022-10-31.
21. Weiner, Natalie. "A 'Marvelous' Endeavor". PennStater Magazine. Retrieved 2022-10-31.
22. Lustig, Jay (2020-02-24). "No other instruments needed as six-piano Grand Band creates a big sound of its own". NJArts.net. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
23. "A Look At Peak Performances 2019-20 Season". NewJerseyStage.com. 2019-07-07. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
24. "The Grand Band - Peak Performances". Issuu. 7 February 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
25. "Grand Band - Feb 14th & 15th - Peak Performances". Arts & Cultural Programming. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
26. "Developing an Opera about Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses by Joshua Frankel". cityvision. 2014-04-07. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
27. Folsom, Ed (2016). "Walt Whitman: A Current Bibliography, Summer 2016". Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. 34: 88–100. doi:10.13008/0737-0679.2226 – via University of Iowa.
28. "Critics Picks: 'Tiny Kushner,' 'Stranger's Child,' 'Plan of the City'". The Seattle Times. 2012-09-16. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
29. "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry: Friday". Feast of Music. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
30. "Plan of the City". www.newmuseum.org. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
31. "ArchFilmLund Prize 2012". www.archfilmlund.se. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
32. Ross, Alex (2004-04-30). "The Rest is Noise". The Rest Is Noise. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
33. McGrath, Ben (9 February 2015). "Writing on the Wall". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
34. "National Endowment for the Arts: Winter Grant Announcement for FY2020" (PDF). 2019-01-01.
35. Blahut, Chelsea (2016-05-12). "Graham Foundation Announces Its 2016 Grants to Individuals". www.architectmagazine.com. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
36. Hanna, Beth (2013-10-11). "Sundance Institute Selects Six Creative Teams and Projects for New Frontier Story Lab". IndieWire. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
37. "Past Grantees: Film, Video & New Media (2005): Joshua Frankel". The Jerome Foundation. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
38. "NYSCA: New York State Council on the Arts FY11 Grantees". www.nysca.org. Retrieved 2020-07-22.

External links

• Joshua Frankel’s website