Table of Contents
- Overview
- TheNakedNYC YouTube Highlights
- TheNakedNYC Instagram Highlights
- Photo Gallery
- Immersive Design
- The Big One
- Artistic Intent and Impact
- About Brad Walls
- Wrapping Up
Overview
NEW YORK, NY — Australian visual artist Brad Walls brings his groundbreaking exhibition PASSÉ to New York City. PASSÉ, his first solo exhibition in the United States, runs September 12–14, 2025, at 347 Broome Street. The exhibition is free and open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Walls reimagines classical ballet through minimalist aerial photography, immersing audiences in a vivid monochromatic red environment. The exhibition includes collaborations with leading institutions, including New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet School, and Ballet East Trainees.
Its centerpiece, The Big One, displays three concentric rings of fifty ballerinas in breathtaking symmetry and scale. The production required six months, sixty-five dancers, and extensive technical staging with a sixty-foot crane. Choreographer Ian Schwaner was instrumental in the project’s development, creating movement sequences that seamlessly blended classical technique with elements of graphic design.
PASSÉ reflects Walls’ design-driven approach, balancing spontaneity with control and expanding the boundaries of aerial art. Visitors step inside the frame and encounter life-sized images that merge performance, intimacy, and memory.
Each day at PASSÉ, 150 visitors will receive a handwritten postcard from a featured ballerina, printed with imagery from the series. These distinctive keepsakes offer a personal connection and a lasting memento, transforming viewers into collectors of the dancers’ narratives.
For more information, visit Brad Walls’ official website and experience ballet as never before.
TheNakedNYC YouTube Highlights
TheNakedNYC Instagram Highlights
Photo Gallery
Immersive Design
PASSÉ reimagines classical ballet through minimalist aerial photography. Audiences encounter life-sized portraits of dancers. They step inside the frame and experience ballet beyond traditional viewing. The presentation merges performance, intimacy, and memory in a vivid, participatory encounter. The exhibition unites the precision of ballet with the vision of contemporary art.
The Big One
The exhibition’s central work, The Big One, depicts three concentric rings of fifty dancers. Ballerinas arranged in precise formations across a vast red carpet. It is recognized as one of the largest choreographed ballet photoshoots ever staged.
This monumental image embodies Walls’ vision and technical precision. The production required six months of preparation. It engaged a crew of ten, a cast of sixty-five dancers, a choreographer, and a single 8-hour session of continuous shooting. Every logistical element demanded the discipline of a ballet performance. The technical design included a football-field-length red carpet, twelve strobes, a sixty-foot crane, and one of the largest light bounces ever engineered.
Artistic Intent and Impact
PASSÉ demonstrates Walls’ composition-first process. Each frame is sketched and mapped before execution. This method balances spontaneity with control and reduces movement into moments of graphic stillness. The project taught Walls to slow down and value each individual work. He regards PASSÉ as one frame within a much larger vision. The exhibition reflects Walls’ conviction that the sky represents infinite possibility. Within this space, art, design, and photography intersect, pushing the boundaries of visual expression.
About Brad Walls
Brad Walls was born in Sydney in 1992 and now works from New York City. He has established himself as an internationally recognized visual artist. Walls is self-taught. His journey began in 2017 with a drone, where he discovered patterns, symmetry, and scale. These discoveries became the foundation of his practice. He is internationally known for color-rich, razor-sharp aerial imagery. His subjects include synchronized swimming, gymnastics, ballet, and architecture. His work emphasizes geometry, negative space, rhythm, and spatial harmony. These elements define his minimalist aesthetic. Although often called a photographer, Walls identifies as a designer. He underscores the design-driven foundation of his practice.
Walls has received several prestigious awards. He is recognized as a leading figure shaping a new era of aerial photography. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, CNN, and The New York Times. He has graced the cover of Signature Luxury Travel and has been featured in Aesthetica Magazine and Vanity Fair. His 2020 series Pools From Above achieved global recognition. Critics compared it to the work of David Hockney and Slim Aarons. His work circulates widely across social media and international press, connecting him with audiences far beyond traditional art spaces.
Wrapping Up
PASSÉ stands as a bold intersection of dance, design, and photography. It pushes the boundaries of artistic presentation. The exhibition demonstrates how aerial perspectives transform familiar traditions into fresh and immersive experiences. Walls’ vision highlights the discipline of ballet while capturing its beauty in vast, carefully constructed compositions.
PASSÉ celebrates ballet and challenges audiences to reconsider how art interacts with environment and memory. It affirms Walls’ growing influence as a designer shaping a new era of aerial artistry. The scale of production raises expectations for future projects.
For more information, visit Brad Walls’ official website and experience ballet as never before.
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