An exhibition will open in the main gallery of Pratt’s Juliana Curran Terian Design Center on Monday, October 26 at 10 a.m. that will feature a world-famous and uniquely gifted artist drawing – from memory alone – a stunningly detailed panorama of New York City following a 45-minute helicopter ride over the city. The artist will spend a week at Pratt Institute, the world-famous college of art, design, and architecture, where he will create an 18-foot-long image of the city from memory. The public will be able to visit Wiltshire while he works and watch him create his New York panorama from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday, October 26 through Friday, October 30. The Early Show on CBS will feature several live nationwide broadcasts of Wiltshire working during the week beginning the morning of Monday, October 26.
Wiltshire is a London-based artist with a particular talent for drawing extraordinarily accurate representations of cities, sometimes after having only observed them briefly. His New York panorama will complete his collection of nine works depicting some of the world’s most iconic cities – London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Rome, Madrid, Frankfurt, Dubai, and Jerusalem. Following the creation of this New York panorama, he will explore new creative directions with his work.
Wiltshire shot to international fame in 1987 when his talent was featured on a BBC program and he was introduced by former president of the UK’s Royal Academy of Art Sir Hugh Casson as “the best child artist in Britain.” Since then, Wilshire has continued to draw and paint prolifically, traveling all over the world to create his work and achieving worldwide fame. He has twice been featured in the list of the 100 most influential black people in Britain and in 2006 was awarded an MBE, or membership to the Order of the British Empire, for services to the art world.
Work from Stephen’s entire career is permanently on display at the Stephen Wiltshire Gallery in London, where he also has a studio. His New York panorama will go on permanent display in the London gallery later this year and members of the public will be able to put in their orders for a print of his New York panorama from Saturday, October 24 by visiting his website at www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk.
For directions to the main gallery in the Juliana Curran Terian Design Center, please visit http://www.pratt.edu/about_pratt/visiting_pratt/maps_and_directions/.