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Celebrity Cruises, one of the world's foremost cruise lines, The GALAXY ART COLLECTION is composed of more than 450 worksof art by over 150
emerging and established artists from the late 1980sand 1990s, The Collection reflects the pluralism and diversity
that definethe international contemporary art world today. Current trends representedin the GALAXY COLLECTION include
photography, video, conceptual and installationart as well as painting and sculpture. Permanently installed on
the interiordecks of the cruise ship, the GALAXY ART COLLECTION virtually representsa contemporary museum of art
at sea.
A highlight of the GALAXY COLLECTION is Tony Oursler's Fire(1996), the compelling color video image of an eyeball that is projectedonto a large, hollow, white - painted fiberglass globe with accompanyingsound tracks, which was featured on the June 1997 cover of "Art inAmerica."
The works in various media found in the GALAXY ART COLLECTION involve issues of image proliferation, perception, vision, time, social ritual and exploration of the body. Highlights of the collection include works by emerging and better known artists such as Marina Abramovic, Katarina Fritsch, Sherrie Levine, Christian Marclay, Mariko Mori, Tony Oursler, Jack Pierson, Philip Taafe, Kiki Smith, Lorna Simpson, and Rachel Whiteread. Mariko Mori's "Tea Ceremony" (1994) reenacts a traditional Japanese tea ceremony in the decontextualized space of a crowded Tokyo street. PhilipTaafe's (Siamese) "Leaves" (1996), a poetic, pattern painting of ethereal geometric shapes, engages an ongoing dialogue of repetition, ritual, myth and ceremony. Marina Abramovic's mineral pillows, one of amethyst and one of rose quartz (both, 1994), expand the space of the artwork by involving the viewer in participatory activity. The viewer is required to conceptually complete Abramovic's artwork by pressing one's forehead into the pillow, feeling its vibrations and thus carrying the sensation into the space beyond the work. Serving as a survey of early works involved with modes of perception and as possible reference for the various younger artists represented, the collection also includes works by artists such as Leedert Blok, Karl Blossfeldt, Jacques-Henri Lartigue and Louis M. Rutherford. As well, late works by more established contemporary artists, such as Gerhard Richter, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg, have been included.
The GALAXY ART COLLECTION was assembled by Christina Chandris,Celebrity Cruises's curator and fine art advisor, in collaboration withTom Cugliani and Tara K. Reddi, both directors of Marlborough GaIlery in New York. In the early 1980's, Christina Chandris and her husband John Chandris, Chairman of Celebrity Cruises, began building their own art collection, focusing on the Abstract Expressionists; the English School, including Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach and R.B. Kitad; as well as early works byRobert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Christina Chandris began collectingfor the cruise line in 1990, choosing works for Celebrity's first three ships, Horizon, Meridian and Zenith. With Celebrity's new trilogy of ships-Century(1995), GALAXY (1996) and Mercury (1997), Mrs. Chandris envisioned museum quality art collections each focusing on a different theme.
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