ArtPrize Artist Whose Work Was Stolen in 2015 Returns with Positive Attitude and New Work

Do you remember the artist in ArtPrize 2015 whose work was literally dismantled, stolen, by the public last year?

He was Jeffrey Augustine Songco, and he's back with a new work.

The Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (UICA), Michigan’s largest Contemporary Arts center, presents FUTURE TALK, its ArtPrize Eight Exhibition, and Songco is a part of it.

To refresh your memory, Songco had installed his entry last year, 27,000 Mardi Gras beads for his exhibit entitled "Revelry." Saturday, after the opening of last years ArtPrize, beads went missing, and by that evening, most of them were gone. Not a cool thing. People, for whatever reason, thought they were for the taking. Hmmmm.

This year, Songco returns in good spirits, with new work, and playfully nods at his 2015 experience by selling beads in The Shop at UICA.

His entry this year, "Let’s Dance America!” is a video compilation of short stories that are collected, written, and performed for the camera by the artist. Each story begins with an answer to the question: when and where did you first learn the “Macarena”? And, it's something that can't be stolen!

FUTURE TALK at the UICA, is a survey of recent digital and new media works and presents 15 works by 16 emerging, mid-career, and established American artists whose media, materials, and content are reflective of and responsive to their time.