CHELSEA — To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1964 New York World's Fair, a Chelsea art gallery is showing what's left of the iconic festivals.
"World's Fairs: Lost Utopias" debuts Wednesday at the Onishi Project gallery at 521 W. 26th St., exhibiting haunting photos of the decaying ruins of the fairs of the 1960s.
The centerpiece of the show is the debut of Jade Doskow's seven-year photography project, which includes images of the remains of the carousel-like New York State Pavilion taken in 2007 and 2014.
“It’s exciting to debut Doskow’s seven-year project after seeing it develop year by year, and the 50-year anniversary of the New York Site provided the perfect occasion for this exhibition,” said gallery curator Kipton Cronkite.
The show will also include a 1968 triptych by artist Robert Rauschenberg and photos by Alexandra Posen, Greg Haberny, Naomi Rei, and Mark Freedman.
The fairs were massive spectacles in cities like Paris, Brussels, Seattle, Montreal and San Antonio. The new Chelsea show focuses on what happened after the crowds went home and the fairs' structures were torn down or repurposed — or left to crumble.
"World's Fairs: Lost Utopias" debuts with an opening reception on Wednesday night and runs at the Onishi Project gallery, 521 W. 26th St., until June 10.