Wall St. building hosts Art Downtown.

Lower Manhattan became the focal point of the New York City art world with Art Downtown, a unique exhibition of contemporary art on view at the Grand Banking Hall at Swig Burris Equities' 48 Wall St. Art Downtown is being sponsored by Wall Street Rising and is featuring the private art collection of Deutsche Bank, which holds the largest corporate art collection in the world.

Titled "Connecting Collections," the exhibition brings together an exciting and diverse group of artists. Guest curators Mikhail Baryshnikov, Diane von Furstenberg, Danny Simmons, Russell Simmons and Robert Wilson, all distinguished artists in their own fields, were asked to select art works that reflected their personal vision or their life's work. These leaders in the worlds of dance, fashion, music, art and theater have created exciting exhibits using works by artists from their personal collections and/or works by artists from the Deutsche Bank Collection.

"This groundbreaking exhibit showcases lower Manhattan and increases the visibility of the area as an important arts and cultural destination," said Kent M. Swig, principal of Swig Burris Equities.

"Art Downtown reiterates Swig Burris' commitment to restoring vitality and vibrancy to downtown, not only through our owner ship of properties, but also through cultural enrichment."

The exhibition seeks to underline the inter-dependence between artistic disciplines, while simultaneously emphasizing the connections between generations of artists.

The museum-quality exhibition features major works by prominent artists including: Derrick Adams, Stephan Balkenhol, Chris Doyle, Futura 2000, Anders Knutsson, Simone Leigh, Katherina Mayer, MERES, Vik Muniz, Takashi Murakami, Wangechi Mutu, Sigmar Polke, Neo Rauch, Thomas Ruff, Cindy Sherman, Mark Dean Veca, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Gillian Wearing, Miwa Yanagi, Bernd Zimmer and others.

Additional sponsors include Bloomberg LP, the AT&T Foundation, the New York Stock Exchange Foundation and Sullivan & Cromwell.

The artists representing the "Simmons Collection" have strong roots in the Brooklyn Arts community and reflect the wide range of working talents found in the borough. The selection showcases works from spray can art to classical renderings, wearable costumes to clay vessels shaped by hand. An impressive 10 x 32 foot narrative of graffiti history painted by acclaimed aerosol artist, MERES, will be on view for the first time.

Mr. Baryshnikov has selected a site-specific video installation by another Brooklyn based artist, Chris Doyle. Titled "We Will Again Be Optimists," the work directly interacts with the architecture in the form of life size video projections of modern day figures superimposed upon four painted murals in the Grand Banking Hall.

Diane Von Furstenberg's contribution will include an original dress created from fabric printed with one of Miwa Yanagi's surreal images, "Midnight Awakening Dream." The fabric, a sheer georgette, was created as a limited edition artwork for the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin. The dress will be accompanied by photographs and a video, "Kagome Kagome," from the "Elevator Girl" series.

Robert Wilson will create a variety of dramatic tableaus using sculpture, furniture and glass pieces from his personal collection and artworks from the Deutsche Bank collection. Titled "Anna Didn't Come Home Last Night II," the installation mixes art and theater with Wilson's signature brilliance. The exhibition will run until December 10, 2004. Admission is free.