In May, the Port Authority Bus Terminal kicked off the Cosmic Reveries art exhibit as part of its public art showcases. While historically known as New York’s Grittiest Bus Terminal, leadership has partnered with local arts organizations and contemporary artists over the past few years to improve aesthetic conditions for the 225,000+ commuters who pass through each day.
Cosmic Reveries converts vacant advertising spaces into an immersive realm that beckons straphangers to disengage from their electronic devices and embrace the universe in its glory and strangeness.
Each artwork is immersive and prompts sincere moments of profound introspection. Through the urban setting of New York, Cosmic Reveries reflects the spark and relentlessly inspired vision of perceived reality faced against scenarios of a future landscape. Cosmic Reveries creates imminent settings, albeit not yet known, and forces the viewer to explore the interplay between the mysteries of existence and our evolving relationship with technology.
Cosmic Reveries blends science fiction and reality. It explores how potential threats and illusions can take on human, animal, or technological forms. Influenced by existentialism and spiritual awakenings, the scenes are reminiscent of those depicted in Sufism and Catholicism. Fahad Sinan draws artistic inspiration and energy from the unknown, creating a fully realized vision of the future.
“The device in your hands is not just a tool; it’s a barrier. It presents a distorted image of humanity, hindering our path to higher consciousness and shielding us from experiencing the world in its unfiltered, raw form,” said the artist Fahad Sinan, Brooklyn-based graphic designer and illustrator.
“The technology meant to help us advance, enabling us to explore outer space like never before, is being used to subdue us in ways that hinder our advancement as a species. The profit-driven forces behind our digital world manipulate us, controlling what we see. It’s time to open our eyes to this, and putting our phones down is a start.”
Sinan works primarily with ink on paper and combines watercolor and digital painting. For Fahad Sinan, the Cosmic Reveries exhibit is a reflection of the uncertain nature of current and future realities. It presents a perpetual existence in myriad forms, whether human or another imagined state of being, inviting viewers to contemplate the mysteries of existence.
The Cosmic Reveries exhibit is located at Port Authority Bus Terminal Gallery, 625 8th Ave W 40 St (Main Floor), and will run through June 29th.
