NEW YORK.- PULSE Contemporary Art Fair will return to New York for the third year in a larger venue and with expanded cultural programming, offering the public a dynamic and extensive perspective on the latest developments in visual arts. Held at Pier 40 on the West Side Highway at West Houston from March 27 through March 30, 2008, the Fair will run concurrently with The Armory Show, and will present a selection of 90 established and emerging international galleries, its largest production to date. PULSE New York will also host a series of large-scale installations and sculptures, the debut of its experimental programs PULSE PERFORMANCE and PULSE PAUSE, and the return of PULSE PLAY>.

Following its critical and commercial success in Miami, which drew a record 16,000 visitors and brought unprecedented sales, PULSE New York will take over Pier 40, an 80,000 square-foot space that allows for more spacious and innovative booth displays. Making their first appearances at the Fair will be CONRADS of Düsseldorf, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery of London, and Espacio Liquido of Gijón, as well as Monya Rowe, Yossi Milo, and envoy of New York, among many others. “We are very happy to welcome the new galleries on our distinguished list of exhibitors. PULSE Contemporary Art Fair will provide them with the most vibrant and professional environment to conduct their business”, says Helen Allen, Director of the Fair.

PULSE New York will also feature an array of cultural programs, which will be on view throughout the Pier and will enhance the experience for collectors and visitors alike. “Our new home will provide us with a tremendous opportunity to introduce innovative programming and open up new avenues for discourse on contemporary art”, says Helen Allen. Among the highlights will be PULSE’s celebrated series of original installations and large-scale sculptures, which will include works by Mark Anstee, Jennifer Burkley Vasher, Graham Caldwell, castaneda/reiman, Leonardo Drew, Ryan Humphrey, John Kalymnios, Mike Latham & Arts Corporation, Lucas Lenglet, Nathaniel Rackowe, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Mark Shetabi, Andy Yoder, and Almond Zigmund. Detailed information on each installation is available upon demand.

PULSE PERFORMANCE, featuring the Brooklyn dance troupe Chez Bushwick and artist Mary Coble will make its debut. Chez Bushwick will present The Invention of Minus One, a performance choreographed by Jonah Bokaer with music by Christian Marclay and interpreted by award winning dancers from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. The product of a year of research using advanced motion-capture technology to study the movements of dancers, the work examines the erasure of the moving body and the trace of its presence.

Artist Mary Coble will perform Blood Script, an endurance act in which a list of graphic, hateful insults will be tattooed onto Coble’s skin without ink over the course of two six-hour long sessions. Contact prints of each word will be created and exhibited for the duration of the fair.

PULSE PAUSE, a reading room produced in collaboration with Parsons The New School for Design will also debut at the Fair. The space, designed by a group of students from the MFA Program in Fine Arts selected by Independent curator Jeffrey Walkowiak, will serve as a place for relaxation, discussion, and contemplation. In addition to viewing artworks from the MFA Studios, visitors will therefore be offered an insight into the readings and interests of students in today’s art schools.

PULSE PLAY >, the video and technology lounge, will return for its second edition, this year featuring Sameness, Difference and Desire, a series of works examining the human eye and its perception of desired objects. The program, curated by Bill Arning, Curator at the MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, will include videos by Ann Carlson and Mary Ellen Strom, Maria Friberg, Allen Grubesic, Danny Hobart, Sean M. Johnson, and Gabriel Martinez.

The Lounge of Ethereal Fun, the Children’s VIP Lounge by Jenny Marketou, is conceived as an appealing space designed with a welcoming mix of artwork and children’s artifacts to provide "red carpet" hospitality to children ages 6–14 who love to create and collect art. All children visiting PULSE New York will receive special VIP cards for the Lounge at the Fair’s entrance. The Lounge will feature floating drawings, video programs, easy tunes, artist magazines, a range of creative activities, the artist’s interviews of the children, plus exclusive ethereal guided tours of the Fair.

Malgorzata Romanska, President and CEO of MR Industries, will present the PULSE Prize New York 2008. The PULSE Prize is a cash grant awarded to an emerging artist selected from those exhibiting in the IMPULSE section of the Fair, without restriction on medium, to be selected by a committee comprised of international art professionals. Previous PULSE Prize recipients include: Duke Riley, Travis Somerville, Chris Natrop and Chen Chieh-Jen.