SVA faculty member Tim Rollins (BFA 1977 Fine Arts) is one of eight artists commissioned to create work for the Frieze New York 2012 art fair, May 4 – 7 at Randall’s Island Park, Manhattan. Rollins will appear with K.O.S. (Kids of Survival), a group of high school students based in the Bronx that he has collaborated with artistically since 1984.

The artwork of Rollins and K.O.S. is based on Western literary classics such as Melville’s Moby Dick or Kafka’s Amerika, and they create images on book pages which are then typically pasted on mural-sized canvases. For Frieze, they will present ‘AS IMAGINATION BODIES FORTH …’ (after Shakespeare and Mendelssohn), 2012, a choral painting rendered on top of Mendelssohn’s musical score based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. To create the water color and ink painting on mulberry paper, the collaborative group will also facilitate a workshop for children and youth attending the fair.

Paintings, drawings, and sculptures by Rollins and K.O.S. are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and the Tate Modern; the group’s work has also been featured in the Whitney Biennial (1985, 1991), Documenta XIII, and the Venice Biennale (1988).

To learn more about the Frieze Art Fair and to purchase tickets, visit friezenewyork.com. SVA students can purchase discounted tickets, which include free bus or ferry transport to and from Randall’s Island for $25 by showing their SVA ID card.

Painting: Image: ‘AS IMAGINATION BODIES FORTH …’ (after Shakespeare and Mendelssohn), 2012.