RENEWAL, a solo exhibition by New York painter Todd Stone (b. 1951), opens for public exhibition at the NYC Culture Club in the World Trade Center’s Oculus from September 1 through September 30, 2021. The exhibit features over 30 works in oil, watercolor, and digital media that document the 20-year story of the rebuilding of downtown, and the 12 years of Stone’s tenure as an artist in residence at the World Trade Center. The opening, aligned with the 20th anniversary of September 11, offers the public a moment to remember those who we lost, while highlighting the transformation, renewal, and rebuilding of the World Trade Center site.

Stone’s body of work stands apart in reflecting the transformation of the Ground Zero site: produced in the span from 2001 to 2021. The show presents a journey from devastation to recovery to renewal. It is a visual diary that opens with paintings that document that tragic day, the work tracks the two decades journey and ongoing reconstruction of the World Trade Center and the building of the 9/11 Memorial, the Oculus, and the WTC office towers. In watercolor and oil, Stone paints a resilient city working through trauma and rebuilding to emerge as a renewed modern metropolis. Stone, who has worked for 12 years from various studio spaces throughout the new World Trade Center, presents sweeping cityscapes with 360 degree panoramic views of Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey, and New York harbor in addition to portraits of streetscape construction and renewal-in-action.

The public exhibit at the NYC Culture Club offers visitors the unique opportunity to pay tribute to – and reflect on – the rebuilding of downtown at the site itself. Visitors can both honor the past and clearly see New York’s present, and perhaps glimpse into its future. In the spirit of renewal and looking forward, this show also debuts Todd’s foray into digital media. Digital animations of Stone’s work will be displayed on LED screens in the Oculus throughout September, as well as in video prints that have been developed in collaboration with creative agency Bodega Bunnies.