If you've never experienced the Seventh Regiment Armory's gargantuan Drill Hall space minus the art and antiques fairs that move in throughout the winter months, you have until Sunday at 6:00 pm to be there. The 200 x 300-foot hall, with a barrel vault roof that soars to a height of 80 feet, is wide open, temporarily housing a 128 x 72-foot painting masterminded by conceptual artist Aaron Young.

For his first New York exhibition, Young had gallery assistants and students paint 288 panels of plywood in alternating colors of red, pink, orange and yellow fluorescent paint, finishing with an opaque coat of black paint to conceal the bright layers underneath. These boards were then laid on the Drill Hall floor, where ten motorcycle stunt riders etched burnout patterns through the black paint to reveal neon colored swirls according to Young's directions. This 9,216 square foot painting was inspired by the 1943 Jackson Pollack action painting, Greeting Card.

Left: Grand stairway; center: the Drill Hall; right: plasma screen display of Greeting Card production.

This is the first in a series of exhibitions and performances to launch the space, recently renamed The Park Avenue Armory, as a cultural destination for the future. Last year its new nonprofit parent, the Seventh Regiment Armory Conservancy, quietly took over management of the historic landmark that is desperately in need of restoration.

To date, the building's exterior has been cleaned along its Park Avenue side, revealing its limestone trim and refurbished iron entrance gates. Over the next several years, research will be done to enable the restoration of its fabled rooms, which were designed by Louis C. Tiffany, Stanford White, the Herter Brothers, and others during the Gilded Age. On October 3, an exhibition about the building's history and design will open in the Mary Divver Room. And on October 4^, the art fairs return.

Greeting Card, Young's painting, is accompanied by a large plasma screen and sound system displaying a film of the production, complete with the extremely loud sound effects of the motorcycles. The Park Avenue Armory Drill Hall, at Park Avenue and 66^th Street, is open from 10:00 to 6:00 pm through Sunday, September 23. Admission is free.

The production of Greeting Card was enabled by the Art Production Fund, which assists artists in realizing difficult-to-produce projects, and helps to expand public participation and understanding of contemporary art. Read about producing the project in the New York Times.