Back in January '22, Anton Van Dalen joined us on MPR for an episode of Dena Yago's show New York Conversations. In this episode, Yago and Van Dalen discuss his art and his pigeons, which he has raised, bred, and flown on Avenue A since 1971. Born in Amstelveen, Holland in 1938, Anton van Dalen emigrated to the US and settled in the East Village in 1966, where he continues to live and work. Van Dalen, who first learned to rear the birds at the age of 12, is one of the few remaining pigeon keepers in Lower Manhattan. 

Since then, we've enjoyed more of Anton's work at PPOW where his show, ➚Doves: Where They Live and Work, was up until the end of January '23, followed by a screening at Anthology of the documentary Anton: Circling Home about Van Dalen's "lifelong commitment to exposing inequality amidst the societal influences of technology, war, and capitalism with his personal and artistic dedication to the lives of the white pigeons who have lived on his East Village roof" since the '70s.

Keep an eye out for more on Anton Van Dalen next month when we'll be hearing from Morgan Schmidt-Feng, Katy Swailes, and Dennis Mohr, the producers of Anton. In the meantime, you can watch the film in its entirety ➚here and listen to his New York Conversation ➚here. 

Self-portrait with Pigeon Coop facing South, 2014.