Boston, MA — September 25, 2026 – December 31, 2026 — Emerson’s Paramount Center is once again a large-scale live digital canvas with the return of public contemporary art in Downtown Crossing. The presentation, BRIGHT MOVES: Digital Art in Motion, features digital artwork by three Boston-area artists who are pushing the boundaries of the medium in experimental, unexpected, and distinctly personal ways.
Emerson Contemporary is showcasing newly commissioned works by Yue Hua, Jeffu Warmouth, and Allison Tanenhaus. The works animate the façade of the iconic Emerson Paramount Center, transforming a prominent architectural surface in the heart of Boston’s Theater District into a dynamic platform for contemporary art. The digital canvas was restored this February with support from the Morse Family Fund for Public Art as part of the digital art event Waveforms.
Curated by James Manning, Exhibitions Manager at Emerson Contemporary, BRIGHT MOVES brings together three artists whose practices demonstrate the extraordinary range and creative potential of digital art. While each artist approaches technology and moving images differently, all three share an interest in experimentation and in using digital tools to create experiences that challenge expectations about what art can be and where it can be encountered.
“This project is about recognizing the artists who are doing some of the most interesting and inventive work with digital media right here in Boston,” says Manning. “Yue Hua, Jeffu Warmouth, and Allison Tanenhaus each have very different practices, but they share a willingness to experiment and to take digital art in unexpected directions. The Paramount canvas gives us an opportunity to bring that work into the public realm at a scale that is impossible to experience in a traditional gallery.”
Together, the artists create a vibrant and eclectic encounter with digital art, one that embraces movement, color, light, humor, experimentation, and surprise. The presentation also extends Emerson Contemporary’s mission to bring contemporary art beyond the traditional gallery and into direct conversation with the public. As a teaching gallery at Emerson College, Emerson Contemporary explores emerging forms of artistic practice while creating opportunities for students, faculty, and the wider community to encounter artists working at the forefront of contemporary culture.
“An LED screen can be more than an advertising surface,” says Dr. Leonie Bradbury, Distinguished Curator-in-Residence at Emerson College. “It can be a place for imagination, experimentation, and artistic expression. BRIGHT MOVES allows us to rethink the role of digital imagery in the city and to give artists a very large canvas on which to play and present their work.”
Located on 559 Washington St. in the heart of Boston’s Theater District, the Paramount Center is one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks. The presentation invites pedestrians, commuters, students, theatergoers, and visitors to encounter contemporary digital art as part of the rhythms of the city, unexpectedly, and at monumental scale.
BRIGHT MOVES: Digital Art in Motion runs through December 31st. The presentation is free and visible to the public.
About Emerson Contemporary
Emerson Contemporary is the contemporary art platform of Emerson College, presenting exhibitions, public art, performances, and experimental projects that connect contemporary artistic practice with the college’s interdisciplinary curriculum. With a focus on emerging technologies, time-based media, performance, and socially engaged practices, Emerson Contemporary operates as both a teaching gallery and a platform for public exchange.
About the Artist
Yue Hua, an Emerson College MFA alum and faculty, is a filmmaker and multimedia artist whose practice moves between film, expanded cinema, digital media, motion graphics, and installation. Her work investigates perception, identity, memory, and the relationship between moving images and physical space. Her experimental approach to the moving image makes her work particularly well suited to a platform that exists between cinema, architecture, and public space.
About the Project
Effervescence is the rapid escape of gas from a liquid, visible as fizzing or bubbling. It also describes a feeling of energy, excitement, and joy.
Effervescence is a 120s shape animation consisting of a series of colorful, popping shapes that continuously transform and interact with one another. For me, it reflects my experience meeting people from all over the world who share a passion for media art and filmmaking created a kind of creative chain reaction at Emerson. Conversations, collaborations, and experimentation sparked new ideas- sudden, joyful, and contagious.
Using bold colors and playful geometric forms, I want to capture that feeling of curiosity, movement, and connection with moving images.The project intends to transform the wall into a vibrant surface where digital animation, historical structure, color, movement, and energy come alive.
