Art in the Parks
Past Exhibits (2009)
Citywide
LEAP, A View from the Lunch Table: Students Bringing
Issues to the Table
May 28, 2009 to September 2009
Various Locations
Image: Students from PS 219 gather behind their work at Claremont Park, Bronx. Photo courtesy of LEAP.
Description:
Students from ten New York City public middle schools, with two schools representing each borough, have transformed lunch school tables into personalized canvases and created colorful works of public art that touch upon critical social issues in their community and across the globe. The tables, which have been installed in ten community parks across the five boroughs, are a way of giving young teens the chance to voice their opinion and reach out to the public in hopes of inspiring social change through their art. LEAP (Learning through an Expanded Art Program), which has provided public arts–based education to over two million students K-12 throughout New York City, has empowered its students with this project. The program included visits with artists such as Tom Otterness, Christo and Jeanne–Claude, Dennis Oppenheim, and Kenny Scharf.
Artworks can be found at: Inwood Hill Park and Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan; Commodore Barry Park and Green Central Knoll in Brooklyn; Crotona Park and Claremont Park in Bronx; Juniper Valley Park and Parsons Greenstreet in Queens; and Silver Lake Park and Stapleton Playground in Staten Island.
For more information, download a PDF with all of the artworks, or visit the LEAP website.
Brooklyn
Wiktor Szostalo and Agnieszka Gradzik, Tree Huggers
Project
September 1, 2008 to July 12, 2009
Person Square (Myrtle and Carlton avenues), Brooklyn
Image: "Mohawk Girl," Tree Huggers Project
Description:
The Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership, NYC Parks & Recreation
(Parks), and the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) have collaborated
to inaugurate the Partnership's new Myrtle Avenue Public
Art program with the 11-month installation of pieces from the
Tree Hugger Project
at the park triangle at Carlton and Myrtle, and on NYCHA Ingersoll
housing development grounds near Myrtle and Prince.
Tree Hugger Project artists Wiktor Szostalo and Agnieszka Gradzik's ongoing public art project combines sculpture made of natural, found, and free materials such as twigs, vines, and tree branches with a simple environmental message. The Project is an ongoing work of Environmental Art designed to help us rediscover our relationship with nature at a very personal and intimate level.
These art installations are part of the larger Myrtle Avenue Arts & Enterprise Initiative which represents a multi-faceted effort to establish the retail corridor as an access point to visual art and cultural activities for community members of diverse socio-economic backgrounds. The Tree Hugger Project serves as a kick-off for the Partnership's new public art program, launching both an open call for proposals for temporary sculpture pieces for locations along Myrtle Avenue as well as a request for sponsors to support future artists and their installations. Seed funding for the new program was provided by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation and Myrtle's Business Improvement District.
Julia Vogl, Leaves of Fort Greene
May 23 to July 9, 2009
Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn
Image: Julia Vogl, Leaves of Fort Greene
Description:
Leaves of Fort Greene relies on the movement of sunlight.
In this work, people can walk between large panels of Plexiglas
to catch the light streaming through painted images of enlarged
foliage. The images painted on the Plexiglas mimic the diversity
of the park's foliage and symbolically represent the diverse
population of the Fort Greene community. Come picnic and play near
this project and encounter the ever-changing combinations of pattern,
color, and light!
Roxy Paine, Erratic
September 2008 to June 4, 2009
Prospect Park, Litchfield Villa, Brooklyn
Image: Roxy Paine, Erratic. Courtesy of the Prospect Park Alliance.
Description:
Internationally acclaimed artist Roxy Paine’s Erratic is a stainless
steel boulder measuring 7 feet high by 15 feet wide, part of a larger
series of works by the artist. In geology, the term “erratic” refers
to a rock that has been carried by a glacier hundreds of miles away
from its original geographic location. Erratic’s slick exterior
leaves its origin unexplained. It is a boulder displaced from somewhere
between a mountain and a steel factory. The work reflects the artist’s
interest in the interactions between humans and nature and specifically
from Paine’s examination of nature through the lens of industrial
processes. The work was previously seen in Madison Square Park.
The current installation was organized by the Prospect Park Alliance
and James Cohan Gallery.
Paine was born in New York in 1966 and is currently based in Brooklyn and Treadwell, NY. His work has been shown internationally and is included in major collections.
Manhattan
Julie Farris and Sarah Wayland-Smith, A Clearing in the Streets
May 22 to October 1, 2009
Collect Pond Park, Manhattan
Image: Julie Farris and Sarah Wayland-Smith, Clearing in the Streets, 2009 Photo courtesy of the Public Art Fund
Description:
A Clearing in the Streets is an urban viewing structure
that provides a glimpse of a natural habitat in a city setting and
demonstrates, in real time, how landscapes evolve. This ten–sided
plywood structure is punctuated with viewing slots that reveal an
idealized meadow of wildflowers growing among a panoramic mural
of a vast blue sky. Starting from seeds and young plants, the meadow
will flourish over the duration of the piece turning into a lush
native habitat.
This is a project of the Public Art Fund.
Richard Baronio, Spotted Leaf
June 2 to September 25, 2009
Fort Tryon Park, Manhattan
Description:
Richard Baronio’s Spotted Leaf is perfectly suited for
its temporary home at the Heather Gardens in Fort Tryon Park. Inspired
by his love for gardening, Baronio’s work pays homage to the beauty
found in nature. Through the technique of addition and subtraction,
Baronio allows his work to grow on its own, never forcing its shape
into any particular form. Made from welded stainless steel, Spotted
Leaf is an improvisational piece created using this process.
John Morton, Central Park Sound Tunnel
June 10 to September 10, 2009
Central Park Zoo, Manhattan
Description:
Avant–garde composer John Morton's rich sonic collage, Central Park Sound Tunnel, resonates in the pedestrian tunnel between the Central Park Zoo and Children's Zoo adjacent to 5th Avenue. Beginning every half–hour with the ringing of the Delacorte chimes, this 20–minute, 6–speaker sound installation incorporates field recordings made in Central Park over the last year. Randomly–generated selections of ambient sounds such as horses clopping, baseball games, sprinklers whirring, and birds are woven together to form complex ever–changing compositions that echo through the cavernous tunnel. The installation runs every day from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Read more and listen to sound samples from the exhibit.
Richard Woods, wall and door and roof
July 2009 to September 2009
City Hall Park, Manhattan
Image: Richard Woods, wall and door and roof
Photo by Seong Kwon, courtesy of Public Art Fund, © Richard Woods, courtesy of the Public Art Fund
Description:
British artist Richard Woods' wall and door and roof whimsically transform various structural elements at City Hall. Cladding the property's two security booths with a printed facade of cartoon–like red bricks, Woods draws on his native vernacular which identifies this design as an inexpensive architectural style. The visually dynamic work dramatically juxtaposes the historic architecture of City Hall with ordinary building materials. Woods' faux renovation continues inside City Hall on a set of lobby doors. Covering the doors in a printed graphic that is a replication of itself, the artist creates an optical illusion. Woods includes all of the ornamental details of the original to produce a heightened and flattened sense of reality.
This is a project of the Public Art Fund.
Jessica Stockholder, Flooded Chambers Maid
May 1 to August 15, 2009
Madison Square Park, Manhattan
Image: Jessica Stockholder, Flooded Chambers Maid
Description:
The Flooded Chambers Maid is anchored by a 1300 square
foot arrow-shaped platform sprawling across the northern end of
the park's Oval Lawn. The platform—a wildly colorful and intricately–patterned
combination of custom cut and colored industrial steel and molded
fiberglass grating—emerges from a shock of colored rubber
mulch to spread itself across the lawn, enveloping a tree and stretching
to reach the pathway surrounding the Oval Lawn.
The platform's dynamic pop colors spill from the edge of the platform and Oval Lawn across the bordering pathway, leading to an equally colorful staircase and viewing platform installed on one of the smaller adjacent lawns. From this elevated perspective, visitors are invited to view the installation’s garden: swaths of bright flowers and boldly colored plastic bins and buckets that sweep across the small adjoining lawn.
This project is organized and sponsored by the Madison Square Park Conservancy.
Nathalie Pham & Avani Patel, America's Chinatown
Voices
May 9 to August 8, 2009
Columbus Park, Manhattan
Image: Nathalie Pham & Avani Patel, America's Chinatown Voices
Description:
America's Chinatown Voices consists of 80 panels mounted
on the fence encircling Columbus Park. Local voices, ideas, stories,
images, and statements will be painted by the artists on these wood
panels. Every weekend throughout the summer, the artists and volunteers
will come to repaint many of the panels with new comments and thoughts,
renewing each artwork.
To rouse community support and participation, the slogan 
has been created, which means “A Gathering of the Arts in
Chinatown”, or “yi wei tang ren jie.” This is
a rare opportunity for the community to see and hear itself, to
create images to reflect itself, and to rally the community to come
together and express what is important to them.
To add stories or images to this rotating exhibition please log on to the America's Chinatown website.
This project is organized and sponsored by the Asian American Arts Centre.
James Surls on Park Avenue
March 14 to July 24, 2009
Park Avenue Malls, Manhattan
Image: Big Bronze Walking Eye Flower, 2009
Description:
James Surls is an internationally renowned artist known for creating
monumental wood and metal sculptures. Based on natural forms, Surls’
constructions are created using his own iconic imagery of diamonds,
vortexes, needles, and flowers. The New York City Parks Public Art
Program is pleased to present an exhibition of seven large-scale
bronze and stainless steel sculptures that will line the Park Avenue
Malls from 50th Street to 57th Street.
East Texas born James Surls has been based in Colorado since 1998. His artwork has appeared in numerous international and national solo and group exhibitions. Surls was given the Living Legend Award by the Dallas Visual Art Center in 1993 and is currently represented by the Charles Cowles Galley, the Gerald Peters Gallery, and the Barbara Davis Gallery.
Robert Melee
December 19, 2008 to June 2009
City Hall Park, Manhattan
Image: Robert Melee, Her Leaving, 2008
Photo by Seong Kwon, courtesy of Public Art Fund
Description:
The current exhibit by Robert Melee features immense forms that
while amorphous and featureless, seem familiar in their generalized
characteristics and poses–slouching, sitting, pointing, standing
upright–but also retain a haunting sense of disguise and alluring
somberness. Melee began creating figurative sculpture in 2005, and
these four outdoor bronze sculptures, presented together for the
first time, represent some of his most recent work.
To construct these forms, Melee starts with mannequins to establish the basic human figure, and then works to blur recognizable details with abstract forms by adding built armatures and covering most of the features with canvas and plaster. He then casts the sculptures in bronze and drips and splatters the sculptures with brightly colored enamel paint. The results are works of art that unite formal characteristics of painting and sculpture: three-dimensional objects with a surface-area that underscores the materiality of the paint.
This is a project of the Public Art Fund.
Kyu Seok Oh, Renka
May 16 to June 8, 2009
Montefiore Park, Manhattan
Image: Kyu Seok Oh, Renka.
Description:
Renka is a massive reclining figure created from hundreds of strips
of wood. Inspired by his mother, Kyu Seok Oh created this piece
as a symbol to all women. This installation is a collaboration between
the Harlem School of the Arts, the West Harlem Art Fund, and the
artist Mr. Oh.
Christian Jankowski, Living Sculptures
November 24, 2008 to May 27, 2009
Doris Freedman Plaza, Central Park, Manhattan
Image: Christian Jankowski, Dali Woman, 2006-2007.
Photo by Seong Kwon, courtesy of Public Art Fund. Courtesy Regan
Projects, Los Angeles; Galerie Martin Klosterfelde, Berlin, and
Lisson Gallery, London.
Description:
Christian Jankowski's Living Sculptures consists of
three bronze sculptures inspired by the tradition of professional
street performers who pose motionless as historical or fantastical
figures for spectators to photograph. Specifically these works draw
inspiration from three street performers Jankowski observed and
selected from a public thoroughfare in Barcelona, that regularly
present themselves as the likenesses of a Roman legionnaire who
refers to himself as “Caesar,” the revolutionary leader
Che Guevara, and an enigmatic woman inspired by a figure known as
“The Anthropomorphic Cabinet Woman,” created by artist
Salvador Dali.
Jankowski's sculptures are, in essence, statues of people performing as statues. Representing modern day figures, both real and imagined, they are exceptionally life–like, though solid bronze in their composition. Their human scale and figurative representation beckon viewers to come close, consider whether they are real people, pose next to them for photos, and perhaps even leave a few coins in appreciation.
This is a project of the Public Art Fund.
Shannon Plumb, The Park
March 19 to April 23, 2009
Madison Square Park, Manhattan
Image: Shannon Plumb, The Park
Description:
In The Park, Shannon Plumb inserts a variety of characters into the Madison Square Park’s everyday moments. Plumb, known for using handmade props and costumes in order to inhabit vaudevillian inspired characters in her videos, has made many visits to Madison Square Park in 2008 to film 8mm footage during each different season to use as backdrops for these videos. The resulting 12 works track the comedy and, at times, tragedy that comes with living our private lives out-of-doors.
The Park is screened daily from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on four outdoor video screens on the grounds of the Shake Shack.
This project is organized and sponsored by the Madison Square Park Conservancy.
Eleanora Kupencow, The Arrows of Time
July to March 2009
Dag Hammarsjold Plaza, Manhattan
Image: Eleanora Kupencow, The Arrows of Time
Description:
Eleanora Kupencow’s colorful figures are made from cut, painted
steel. For the title, the artist borrowed a term from natural science.
Coined in 1927 by British astronomer Arthur Eddington, an “arrow
of time” specifies the direction of time on a four-dimensional relativistic
map of world.
Queens
Ethan Long, Dirt Sculpture, DDP 2.0
May to October 2009
Rockaway Beach & Boardwalk at Beach 30th Street, Queens
Description:
Far Rockaway resident Ethan Long has created a rammed-earth sculpture
along the Rockaway Beach Boardwalk. This large-scale earthwork resembles
a minimal cube during the day, but as night falls a series of fiber-optic
lights dotting the structure’s surface are revealed. These lights
glint like stars against the dirt structure adding a cyberelectric
dimension to this powerful tribute of the dexterity of environmental
elements.
State Fair
May 10 to August 2, 2009
Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens
Image: Arbol de la Vida--, John Deere Model–790,
Margarita Cabrera
Photo by Jonathan Kuhn
Description:
Curated by Alyson Baker, Mark Dion, and Marichris Ty, State Fair
is a group exhibition themed around American rural life and uses
the platform of the state fair as a means to examine topics such
as animal husbandry, specialized horticulture, small scale farming,
culinary arts, and the pageantry within these fields that occurs
at fairgrounds across the country. The show will also incorporate
work that references traditional craft, and the myriad of amusements,
rides, competitions, and entertainment that are presented as part
of state fairs. Featured artists include Margarita Cabrera, Jennifer
Cecere, Emily Feinstein, Charles Gute, Jeanine Oleson, Risa Puno,
Dana Sherwood & The Black Forest Fancies, Stephen Shore, Jason Simon,
William Stone, and Bernard Williams.