Visual art | Friday, April 7 | 5-9 PM | FREE
Friends of the Orphan Signs Retrospective
Opening Reception Date: Friday, April 7, 5 p.m.
Friends of the Orphan Signs (FOS) invites you to the opening reception of their immersive exhibition in the gallery at FUSION | 708 as part of The ABQ Artwalk. FOS is a public art and educational organization that revitalizes abandoned road signs along historic Route 66. Our purpose is to visually renew abandoned public spaces, explore neighborhood identity, and inject intimacy and surprise into Albuquerque’s built environment. This retrospective exhibition celebrates the organization’s work and collaborators since our origin in 2010. It will feature a compilation of photos and ephemera of the many projects done over the years including 8' vinyl banners; images of poetry on aluminum sign material; light box signs; as well as interactive components.
This exhibition will run from April 7–April 30.
FEATURED ARTISTS
Friends of the Orphan Signs Collaborators 2010–2023
Executive Director: Ellen Babcock
Project Director: Lindsey Fromm
Artistic Director: Sara Rivera
Fundraising and Marketing Intern: Gina Artino
ABOUT FOS
Friends of the Orphan Signs facilitates innovative collaborations and partnerships between local communities and artists to create public artworks sited in “orphaned signs”—roadsigns that are unused or on empty lots, deemed unworthy of restoration, and likely to be torn down unless their potential for creative reuse is realized.
FOS’ body of work includes temporary sign installations and permanent restorations, as well as public events, community and school workshops, gallery exhibitions, playful artistic exercises, printed materials, and more.
Our work encompasses dynamic and complex territories of participatory social practice and intervention, while aiming to revitalize the visual character of disinvested areas within the city. We subvert the function of road signs to instigate shifts in perception that allow for thoughtfulness, surprise, and individual participation with sites that signify corporate structure.
