TAMPA, FL.- Lights On Tampa returns as the esthetically beautiful and engaging public art project from January 10 thru Super Bowl XLIII on February 1. The biennial is free, and is one of the most ambitious public art projects in the region. Lights On Tampa will transform the city’s urban spaces with installations that embellish downtown's public realm with visual innovation created by nationally and internationally renowned artists.

Chris Doyle (NY) presents Ecstatic City, transforming existing streetlights and mundane infrastructure into a giant magic lantern via mirrored balls. Friedrich Foerster & Sabine Weissinger (Germany), of Casa Magica, illuminate the exterior south façade of the Fort Brooke Parking Garage with a nightly metamorphosis utilizing classical still images and large format projection. Will Pappenheimer (NY) engages the public realm with an interactive social mood ring that translates public emotion thru light. Ben Rubin (NY), a media artist, creates a major iconic gateway sculpture for downtown Tampa. Carlton Ward Jr. (FL), an environmental photojournalist, develops messaging for a “Portal” prototype-- LED panels that feature 10 minute loops of art exploring culture, environment and well being; the Portals are part of the cultural plan for Tampa’s Riverwalk.Marina Zurkow (NY) unveils Slurb, an animated, scrolling panoramic fantasy of an urban landscape swept away by water. Using some of Tampa’s architectural, geological and meteorological features, the piece imagines a J.G. Ballardesque world in which human strata remain the same, despite the total shift of earthly circumstances.

The selected artist were chosen from over 150 submissions from all over the world by a very VIP panel of jurors comprised of Anne Pasternak, Director of Creative Time, New York City’s vanguard non-profit public art organization enterprise, responsible for broadening the notion of art in public spaces in New York City for 33 years; Jerry Saltz, Art Critic for New York Magazine and former Art Critic for the Village Voice, nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize in Critism; and the Dave Hickey, writer, cultural critic, recipient of the MacArthur Genius Award, and faculty member at the University of Nevada.

Lights On Tampa is an added bonus for visitors and a serendipitous dose of culture for all. Visit www.lightsontampa.org for additional information, site locations and times.