The Brooklyn artist is installing her latest project at Grand St & Humboldt Ave
Students from Williamsburg HS of Arts & Tech painting.
If you’ve walked anywhere out of the Grand Street L station it’s hard not to notice some of the bright, puzzle looking designs on the intersections of Grand Street at Humboldt, Graham, and Manhattan Avenues. Maybe you’ve stopped and read the plaques that are posted on the wall detailing each work. If you haven’t, you may be pleasantly surprised that there’s a story to be told for each one.
The paintings are all orchestrated by Brooklyn artist Ellie Balk, who made her name in the community by working with local public school students to create what Balk calls “Math Driven Art”. That is, art that’s conception + design comes from quantitative research, numerical formulas, and data.
With a portfolio of public art that crosses cities and expands internationally, Balk considers herself to be more of a composer. The process begins with an idea of transforming data + numbers into an artistic visualization. Balk’s most recent work seeks to map out students’ interactions throughout the day by genre (phone, face to face, social media) and create art by giving a color to each interaction in a pie chart.
The students of the Williamsburg High School of Arts & Technology were hands-on in bringing the piece to life. Each student involved with the project conducted research for 2 weeks, and contributed to painting the final work under the guiding hand of Balk.
With the completion of this latest installation, Balk will have led students in painting 4 walls on Grand Street alone, incorporating math with art and giving students a platform + opportunity to beautify their community.
See Balk’s work come to life this week at the southern corner of Grand Street & Humboldt Avenue, and explore her entire Grand Street collection throughout the neighborhood.
