Announced officially on 14 January 2020, the ONX Studio is a new joint venture of the New Museum’s NEW INC and Onassis USA. The doors to ONX Studio will open at the end of spring 2020.
Designed over 4000sq feet space by Leong Leong, one of the top architectural companies in NYC, ONX Studio is situated in the Olympic Tower Onassis Gallery, Midtown Manhattan. This is where Onassis USA is also headquartered.
The studio aims at serving as a workspace, an accelerator as well as a gallery for the flourishing community of artists, designers and filmmakers who work enthusiastically in mixed reality. This is where the mixed reality community will be able to create, test, demo and showcase their works of art for producers, curators, agencies and collectors. From salons to open houses, the members of the community will get the opportunity to present their work and share the best practices to foster the growth of this network and provide a support system, encouraging more people to join hands.
Initially, ONX Studio will have a dozen artists and producers, which includes both the alumni of NEW INC and others who work in mixed reality. They will come together for a year to create artistic works. Every year, the studio will be transformed into a gallery for a month to showcase the works of the members for the public. The first showcase at the ONX Studio will take place in winter 2020/2021.
For now, ONX Studio will function as a two-year pilot program. The vision of ONX Studio is steered by Stephanie Pereira (the director of NEW INC), Karen Wong (The co-founder of NEW INC), Vallejo Gantner (artistic & executive director at Onassis USA), and Prodromos Tsiavos (the head of digital and innovation at the Onassis Foundation).
ONX Studio by the New Museum’s NEW INC and Onassis USA is the perfect venture as both partners share the same ideologies. In the last six years, NEW INC has drawn the industry’s top talents interested in exploring the art of storytelling through mediums like VR, AR, Spatial audio, motion capture and projection mapping. Its alumni and other members have acted as a powerful force in giving meaning to this culture in the form of award-winning studios, such as Dave&Gave, Hyphen Labs, Superbright, Scatter and artists like Rachel Rossin, Stephanie Dinkins and Eliza McNitt.
The glorious work of the members of the community has been able to bag prestigious awards, including an Emmy Award and laurels from Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca and SXSW Film.
Likewise, the Onassis Foundation has worked for years discovering contemporary art and exploring the relationship between digital, multimedia, hybrid artistic practices and mixed reality. The mission of the Onassis Foundation is to provide ideal conditions for the community members to explore new ideas and encourage bold discussions to shape the society for the better through art and education so that the people can see the world from a new perspective.
Furthermore, the ONX Lab, which is a cross-disciplinary incubator of the Onassis Foundation located in Athens, Greece, will also extend support for innovation across disciplines. It will do this by providing comprehensive programs for professional development.
The Senior Advisor of Onassis USA, Karen Brooks, said that Onassis USA is excited to help mixed reality fraternity who are using new mediums for storytelling. On the other hand, the New Museum’s director also shared her comments and said that ONX Studio is an evolution and a step forward to whatever they have experienced and learned at NEW INC. She is happy that the Onassis Foundation has moved forward with their vision to provide a space where artists can grow and share their work.
