Vito Acconci speaking at a Design Pioneer Talk at Design Miami, where he was named designer of the year.
James Harris Vito Acconci speaking at a Design Pioneer Talk at Design Miami, where he was named designer of the year.

Brooklyn, N.Y. designer and alternative performance artist, Vito Acconci, founder of Acconci Studio, died in New York on Thursday following a short illness. He was 77 years old.

Best known for his provocative, avant-garde installations and performances—most notably his "Seedbed" piece during which he hid beneath a false floor and audio recorded himself masturbating—Acconci began his work in the late 1960s and ultimately transitioned to architectural and furniture design. He founded Acconci Studio in the late 1980s. In 2012, Acconci was named Design Miami's designer of the year and in 2016 his work was featured in a retrospective at MoMA PS1 entitled, “Vito Acconci: Where We Are Now (Who Are We Anyway?), 1976."

Some of the designer's architectural work includes the redesign of the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Center Visitor Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Murinsel, a floating steel platform amphitheater in Graz, Austria; and "Sliding Walls" for the 161st subway station in New York.

The art and design world has already taken to social media to mourn the artist's loss.