Liz LaManche | |
|---|---|
 Liz LaManche with one of her paintings, ~2022 | |
| Born | Elizabeth Manicatide 1967 (age 56–57) |
| Alma mater | Yale University |
| Known for | Public Art Street art Graphic Design |
| Website | earthsign |
Liz LaManche (born Elizabeth Manicatide [1] 1967) is an American artist based in Somerville, Massachusetts, known for creating large-scale public installations and street art in the Boston and Washington, DC, areas. [2]
LaManche received a B.A. in Architecture at Yale University studying graphic design under Inge Druckrey, and did a thesis project in architectural ornament/site specific urban installations advised by sculptor Kent Bloomer. [3]
LaManche spent her early professional career in software user interface design, web development and graphic design, painting in her spare time. [4]
At Burning Man in 2005, LaManche began to experiment with large-scale murals illuminated with programmed color-changing LED lighting, [5] later known as "art for kinetic light". [6] These murals and their successors were some of the first experiments in this genre of LED art as architectural LED lighting first became available to makers and artists. [7] [8] LaManche's murals appeared for several years at the Burning Man festival in Black Rock City, NV, [5] and at the Boston and New York Decompression events. [9]
The "bright color, fanciful characters" and "playful figures" of LaManche's festival work and its layered use of symbolic & iconographic details" [7] [10] proved a crowd-pleasing combination, and commissioned work for large-scale murals and installations in the Boston and Washington D.C. areas followed. [4] Her work in Hyattsville, Maryland achieved national notice for both its innovative use of LED technology and its role in that city's urban renewal, [8] launching opportunities for local projects in her home state.
A goal of Lamanche's work is to humanize the urban environment, the legacy of her architectural training. In a 2016 interview, LaManche stated: "I'd like to provide ways for people to engage with each other and break down barriers, contributing to greater understanding, peace and justice in our society. Literally, I believe we need this to be sustainable as a species." to , and create a more inclusive, progressive vision of human society." [4]
A 40x14-foot mural for kinetic light on the Franklin's Brewery building, facing Route 1 in Hyattsville, Maryland, part of the designated Arts District. [11] [12] ""After Dark" has been described as the first permanent outdoor mural for kinetic light. [7] The piece features colorful characters and dreamlike imagery alluding to aspects of the neighborhood, including the local college's mascot and a humorous reference to another piece of public art in a nearby park. [13] Programmed light shows projected on the piece via architectural lighting are designed to make the colors in the painting appear to swap and move. [8]
This 2014 installation in the Boston City Hall building was the product of a New Urbanism design competition run by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh's Office of New Urban Mechanics, aimed at improving public spaces in Boston with temporary, low-budget installations designed to "surprise and delight." [14] One of 9 winners of the 2014 Public Space Invitational, [15] [16] [17] LaManche's "Stairs of Fabulousness" placed 1,200 linear feet of safety non-skid tape on the large central brick staircase in Boston City Hall's main atrium, a building renown for its off-putting Brutalist aesthetic and failure to create a "welcoming public space." [18] LaManche's tape, in an array of fluorescent colors, created a large rainbow gradient over the whole height of the staircase, which served "to essentially transform the concrete milieu into something colorful and inviting." [19] [20]
"Stairs of Fabulousness" was described as "simple yet tremendously effective." [20] The installation was praised for having brought vibrant, attractive color to the Boston City Hall stairs, and LaManche was lauded for her work as one of "Fifty on Fire" in the Boston culture scene: "anyone who can successfully spice up the facade of Government Center through creativity is on fire in our books." [21]
"Connected by Sea" or the "Dock Tattoo Project", also dubbed "The 1000-foot tattoo" is located in a sculpture park in a working shipyard in East Boston that is part of the Boston Harborwalk. [22] [23] A series of 19 large tattoo-themed designs, stained into the cement surface of a 1000-foot long pier, forms a walking path to its end and a view of Boston Harbor. The work illuminates :"the cultures local maritime trade has connected with around the world" [24] to a "poignant" effect, memorializing the "indelible bond" Boston maintains with its harbor. [25] This inclusive and multicultural story of Boston's history [26] was ranked as one of the "50 best pieces of Boston public art" by WBUR's ARTery in 2016. [24]
A sister project to "Connected By Sea", this temporary installation made up a walking path that covered three city blocks of the Downtown Salem District in Salem, Massachusetts. It consisted of painted tattoo-themed symbols and designs from the different cultures specifically connected to Salem's maritime history. [5] Installed in the spring of 2015, it was the first project funded by the new Salem Public Art Commission. [27] Some of the designs are still visible along the cement walk of Artists Row.
A commissioned piece for the City of Lowell, Massachusetts, the entire installation included a 16-foot mural, and 2 blocks of sidewalk and other wall art along a new pedestrian walkway, and "rain art" using hydrophobic coating on the pavement to make art that appears when it rains. [28] [29] The entire project, called the Decatur WAY Green Alley, created a pedestrian walkway from a disused back alley in a program to use green technology to deal with storm water runoff. [30] The mural depicts the Lowell mills and canals with a portrait of a young Harriet Hanson Robinson, a mill worker who became a labor leader and suffragette. [31] [32]
Middlesex County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,632,002, making it the most populous county in both Massachusetts and New England and the 22nd most populous county in the United States. This also makes the county the most populous county on the East Coast outside of New York or Florida. Middlesex County is one of two U.S. counties to be amongst the top 25 counties with the highest household income and the 25 most populated counties. It is included in the Census Bureau's Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA–NH Metropolitan Statistical Area. As part of the 2020 United States census, the Commonwealth's mean center of population for that year was geo-centered in Middlesex County, in the town of Natick.
Medford is a city 6.7 miles (10.8 km) northwest of downtown Boston on the Mystic River in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, Medford's population was 59,659. It is home to Tufts University, which has its campus on both sides of the Medford and Somerville border.
Somerville is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a total population of 81,045 people. With an area of 4.12 square miles (10.7 km2), the city has a density of 19,671/sq mi (7,595/km2), making it the most densely populated municipality in New England and the 19th most densely populated incorporated municipality in the country. Somerville was established as a town in 1842, when it was separated from Charlestown. In 2006, the city was named the best-run city in Massachusetts by The Boston Globe. In 1972, 2009, and 2015, the city received the All-America City Award. It is home to Tufts University, which has its campus along the Somerville and Medford border. Tufts, alongside Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, makes up one corner of the Brain Power Triangle, which thus includes the city of Somerville.
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The Somerville Community Path is a paved rail trail in Somerville, Massachusetts, running 3.2 miles (5.1 km) from Massachusetts Avenue to East Cambridge via Davis Square. The first portion opened in 1985 along part of the former Fitchburg Cutoff rail line. Extensions opened in 1994 and 2015. A further 1.9-mile (3.1 km) extension to East Cambridge opened in June 2023 as part of the Green Line Extension project. It is a section of the partially completed Mass Central Rail Trail.
The Lowell Line is a commuter rail service of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, running north–south between Boston and Lowell, Massachusetts. It is 25.4 miles (40.9 km) long, with nine stations including the terminals at North Station and Lowell station. All stations are accessible except for West Medford and Mishawum.
Winter Hill is a neighborhood in Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. It takes its name from the 120-foot hill that occupies its landscape, the name of which dates back to the 18th century. Winter Hill is located roughly north of Medford Street, west of McGrath Highway, and east of Magoun Square.
OSGEMEOS are identical twin street artists Otavio Pandolfo and Gustavo Pandolfo. They started painting graffiti in 1987 and their work appears on streets and in galleries across the world.
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The Green Line Extension (GLX) was a construction project to extend the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Green Line light rail system northwest into Somerville and Medford, two inner suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. The project opened in two phases in 2022 at a total cost of $2.28 billion. Total ridership on the 4.3-mile (6.9 km) extension is estimated to reach 45,000 one-way trips per day in 2030.
Stephen Knapp was an American artist best known for his use of the medium of lightpainting. A native of Worcester, Massachusetts, he gained an international reputation for large-scale works of art held in museums, public, corporate, and private collections, which are executed in media as diverse as light, kiln-formed glass, metal, stone, mosaic, and ceramic.
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{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)One of the amphibian designs embedded in the pavement, that only shows up when wet.