Color Crop, 2018, digital animation, still. Courtesy the artist.
Visit Trenton Doyle Hancock's latest public commission in Times Square, on view nightly from 11:57 PM to 12 AM throughout February 2025, as part of Times Square Arts' Midnight Moment program.
Over the past two decades, Trenton Doyle Hancock has created fantastical worlds inspired by his personal experiences, superheroes, pulp fiction, art history, and myriad pop culture references. Centering around universal narratives of dark and light, Hancock’s paintings, installations, and animations often feature the saga of the Mounds: a group of mythological half-animal, half-plant creatures with interconnecting narratives and physical forms inspired by the Garbage Pail Kids, the Tower of Babel, a beehive, and even the mashed potato tower from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
In Color Crop, 2018, a cartoon avatar of Hancock himself encounters Mound #1, the Legend in a forest-like setting. The furry, clown-like creature emits colorful pigments which Hancock harvests and carries away through a series of playful techniques involving buckets, a fork, drumsticks, and a straw.
Midnight Moment is the world's largest and longest-running digital public art program. Presented nightly to millions of viewers each year, Midnight Moment showcases the work of contemporary artists on one of the most iconic public canvases — the electronic billboards of Times Square. Synchronized nightly on over 92 digital displays spanning 41st to 49th Streets, this program brings public art on a monumental scale to New Yorkers and visitors from all across the globe, 364 nights a year. Presenting a new Midnight Moment each month, the program has featured the work of over 100 artists since 2012.
Hancock’s Midnight Moment coincides with Draw Them In, Paint Them Out: Trenton Doyle Hancock Confronts Philip Guston, an exhibition at the Jewish Museum, New York, on view through March 30, 2025.
Location: Broadway between 41st and 49th Streets, New York, NY
Start: Feb 1, 2025
End: Feb 28, 2025
Hours: Nightly, 11:57 PM - 12 AM