Frontrunner is a

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic co ...

collective based in New York City “with an ongoing dedication to supporting emerging artists”. Frontrunner was founded in the Fall of 2009. Beginning as an online magazine in order to feature the creative work of friends, the collective expanded into a physical art gallery space on Franklin Street in

TriBeCa Tribeca (), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Stre ...

in 2010. The storefront space was divided to allow for studios for working artists in the back and a front room devoted to exhibitions of all types. During the

Occupy Wall Street Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement against economic inequality and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in September 2011. It gave rise to the ...

movement, Frontrunner held an art exhibition, ''Faces of Occupy Wall Street'', that included street portraits of protestors by artist Andrew Piccone. The gallery was criticized for trying to profit from the protests. The gallery curates fully immersive exhibitions as well as offering shows to relatively unknown artists with a range of talents including queer, transnational, radical feminist art collective

Go! Push Pops Go! Push Pops, formally named The Push Pop Collective is a queer, transnational, radical feminist art collective under the direction of Elisa Garcia de la Huerta (b. 1983 Santiago, Chile) and Katie Cercone (b. 1984 Santa Rosa, CA). History G ...

who performed by cutting off their clothes and aggressively smearing lipstick all over each other. Andre Woolery created a new form of painting composed entirely of thousands of color thumbtacks in his first solo exhibition, Bruised Thumbs. Corinne Beardsley's The Cave included over 20 artists, performers, musicians, and “essences of the cave". Many of the participants were from Beardsley's alma mater the neighboring

New York Academy of Art The New York Academy of Art is a private art school in Tribeca, New York City. The academy offers a Master of Fine Arts degree with a focus on technical training and critical discourse as well as a Post-baccalaureate Certificate of Fine Art. The ...

. The Cave was built of cardboard, wheat pasted newsprint covered in India ink drawings, and filled with robotic

rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include '' Neotoma'' ( pack rats), '' Bandicota'' (bandico ...

s, sculptural

stalactite A stalactite (, ; from the Greek 'stalaktos' ('dripping') via ''stalassein'' ('to drip') is a mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of caves, hot springs, or man-made structures such as bridges and mines. Any material that is soluble an ...

s, and a “birthing canal”. Frontrunner continued to present exhibitions, performances and special events until 2012. The final show, The ChiBeCa Project by fine art photographer Leah Overstreet inspired yet another real estate subdividing of Lower Manhattan and renaming of the blocks between TriBeCa, Chinatown, and Federal Plaza. The show consisted of black and white portraits in

Cortlandt Alley Cortlandt Alley is an alley in Lower Manhattan, New York City, which is often used as a filming location. Filming is not allowed in many of New York City's alleys, so Cortlandt Alley appears in many movies and TV shows, including ''Crocodile Du ...

of the neighborhood's chefs, shoe repairman, and artists including

Ross Bleckner Ross Bleckner (born May 12, 1949) is an American artist. He currently lives and works in New York City. His artistic focus is on painting, and he held his first solo exhibition in 1975. Some of his art work reflected on the AIDS epidemic. Early ...

Casey Neistat Casey Owen Neistat (; born March 25, 1981) is an American YouTube personality, filmmaker, vlogger and co-founder of the multimedia company Beme, which was later acquired by CNN. In 2018, he founded ''368'', a creative space for creators to co ...

, and Victor Matthews.

References

{{reflist American artist groups and collectives