A Marvelous Order Photo by Robert Bloom
Joshua Frankel is an artist and director who makes films, opera, animation, paintings, public art and multi-disciplinary experiences. He grew up in Hell's Kitchen, New York City in a building filled with musicians, actors and dancers, and spent most of his youth trying not to let anyone take his lunch money.
His work has been called:
“Stunning” —Heidi Waleson, Wall Street Journal
"Sensitive" —Blake Gopnik, New York Times
“One of the best matches of visuals to music I’ve seen” —Ann Midgette, Washington Post
Drawings from Emergent System
His projects contain both animation and physical works in conversation with each other, weaving together hand-made processes with code and computer generated imagery, wielding each with equal virtuosity. The physical works crystallize time and motion—attributes central to the nature of animation—in material form.
Within the crowd there is a quality at New York's Moynihan Train Hall. Photo by George Etheredge
Recently, Frankel’s large-scale four channel video Within the crowd there is a quality was presented at the Moynihan Train Hall in New York City, in a program including works by Derrick Adams, Shahzia Sikander and William Kentridge.
In the New York Times, Laura van Straaten called this work "A kinetic cloud of humanity” and “deliberately subtle."
In conjunction, HESSE FLATOW in New York City presented a solo exhibition of paintings, sculpture and video from the same body of work.
A Marvelous Order. Video still by Chris Wahlmark
Frankel’s most ambitious work to date is A Marvelous Order (2022)—an opera about Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs with multi-channel animation throughout. Frankel conceived the opera in collaboration with composer Judd Greenstein and former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith.
In her review, Wall Street Journal opera critic and historian Heidi Waleson praised the work’s “thoughtful depiction of the conflict and its unusually imaginative multimedia form”, and called the animation “stunning”.
A Marvelous Order premiered at the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State—the culmination of a multi-year partnership, including three creative development residencies. A tour is coming soon.
What Is This Place? Cyanotype from A Marvelous Order
Code of the Streets. Cyanotype from A Marvelous Order
In conjunction with the premiere, the Palmer Museum of Art presented an exhibition of Frankel's cyanotypes, generated during his creative process for A Marvelous Order, titled "Every night we chase our shadows".
Mannahatta at BAM
Frankel's animated films often engage deeply with music, and have been presented synchronized to live musical performances by chamber ensembles and full orchestra by institutions including BAM, the US Library of Congress, Brooklyn Public Library, the San Diego Symphony, The Whitworth (Manchester), Sinfonia Cymru (Cardiff), PEAK Performances (New Jersey), and New York City's River to River Festival, where his animation took over 50 video advertising screens in the Fulton Center transit hub at rush hour—synchronized to a live performance by a chamber ensemble and 5 vocalists.
A Marvelous Order adapted for NYC's Fulton Center Transit Hub. Photo by Ryan Speth
Just before the pandemic, Frankel’s experimental film Emergent System (2020), created with composer Missy Mazzoli and choreographer Faye Driscoll, was commissioned by and premiered at PEAK Performances with music performed live on six(!) grand pianos, along with an exhibition, coordinated with the George Segal Gallery, of Frankel’s drawings.
Emergent System at PEAK Performances
Animation from Emergent System
Frankel’s films have been screened with recorded audio by presenters including the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the New Museum, Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Animation Block Party, EMPAC, Wassaic Project, Vimeo Staff Picks, the UN World Urban Forum, and in a shipping container in Berlin.
He has received awards and fellowships from institutions including Sundance, the NEA, the Graham Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts and the Architecture Film Festival of Lund.
Animation from Plan Of The City
The profound relationships between people, architecture and urban spaces are a theme in Frankel’s work. His film, Plan Of The City (2011), created in collaboration with composer Greenstein and NOW Ensemble, was called "One of the best matches of visuals to music I've seen" by Anne Midgette of The Washington Post, "Amazing" by Tom Huizenga at NPR, and "Gorgeous" by Alex Ross of The New Yorker. This work has been presented with music performed live as well as with its recorded track around the world.
Frankel was a member of the groundbreaking digital team for President Obama’s 2008 campaign, and is one of the “Superforecasters” described in the New York Times bestseller by Dr. Phil Tetlock and Dan Gardner. He has also created over twelve thousand square feet of public murals in collaboration with his wife, artist Eve Biddle, including the recently restored Queens Is The Future (2007). Frankel lives and works in Wassaic, NY.
The Queens Is The Future mural, in Jackson Heights