The Sinking of the Taj Mahal

For months, artist Peter Tunney carefully collected giant pieces of the infamous Taj Mahal casino from Atlantic City to convert these ruins into The Sinking of the Taj Mahal, a site specific installation at Faena Playa.

The artist’s access to the demolition of the casino led to an obsession with the monumental pieces from the façade and rooftop of the building, which created the illusion of the self-titled, “8th wonder of the world,” the Taj Mahal Hotel and Casino. Giant chandeliers, a two-ton ornate concrete elephant and towering letters will all emerge out of the sand. Tunney’s installation of metal, glass, gold, concrete and steel finds extreme beauty in ruins.

Peter Tunney’s work probes our culture by mining images from newspapers, magazines, and art books and reinterpreting them through his own unique perspective. His recent works, in which refreshingly optimistic phrases and quotes are colorfully painted over collaged headlines, serve as a subtle attack on our culture of fear and ennui. As our media sources relay stories of death, destruction, hysteria and greed, Peter whimsically overpowers them with his own headlines, such as “Don’t Panic,” “Believe,” “Gratitude” and “Change the way you see everything.”

After having a career on Wall Street, Tunney turned to art and opened his first gallery in New York in 1991. In 2010, he became the first tenant of the iconic Wynwood Walls when he opened the Peter Tunney Experience gallery.