Columbia Artists Reimagine Coney Island in New Exhibition

By
Cristóbal Riego
October 22, 2024

Visual Arts students Javier Griffey and Sharon Lee, along with Undergraduate Visual Arts student Vivien Ko Sweet, are exhibiting new works responding to Coney Island's rich history as a site of leisure, creativity, and cultural exchange.

Coney Island, Spectacular features photography and art by the three Columbia students alongside historical photographs and documents from the library's W.F. Mangels Company collection, offering a dialogue between past and present perspectives on the iconic Brooklyn destination.

Lee contributes a painting inspired by an archival photograph, reimagining a scene depicting an anonymous beachgoer. Griffey, meanwhile, offers a  series of photographic portraits.

Black and white photograph of a ferris wheel.

Ko Sweet's nighttime photographs employ dark backgrounds and brilliant fairground lights to evoke Coney Island's mysterious, seedy undercurrents. Her work also incorporates personal notes and ephemera, highlighting the everyday experiences of visitors and residents.

The exhibition, which aims to reflect the enduring cultural significance of Coney Island, is the result of a first-time collaboration between the Rare Book & Manuscript Library and Columbia's Department of Fine Arts. Students Griffey and Lee developed their projects under the guidance of School of the Arts faculty members Adama Delphine Fawundu '18, Director of Graduate Studies and Assistant Professor of Visual Arts, and Naeem Mohaiemen, Concentration Head of Photography and Associate Professor of Visual Arts.

Coney Island, Spectacular is on view from September 26 to January 14, 2025 at the Kempner Gallery in Butler Library.