2014 Arsenal Gallery Exhibits

December 5, 2014 – January 7, 2014

Wreath Interpretations

NYC Parks celebrates the holiday season with its 32nd annual exhibition of unique, unconventional wreaths. A diverse selection of 56 fine artists, designers, and other spirited contributors enliven this ageless holiday symbol. Sponges, keys, Smarties candy, forged steel and insect specimens are among the many varied materials used to examine diverse themes like drones and damaging debris found in our waterways. This exhibition is sure to be an imaginative and enjoyable experience this year's holiday season.

September 11 – November 13, 2014

George Boorujy, Taxonomy

Taxonomy is a collection of George Boorujy’s dynamic large-scale paintings of North American animals with disarmingly human characteristics, as well as a series of his preliminary clay models and drawings. Inhabitants of New York City and other urban centers often think of themselves as removed from nature, but Boorujy’s hyperrealistic ink-on-paper portraits force us to rethink our relationship with animals and our own place within the environment.

June 26 – August 27, 2014

Tomorrow’s World: The New York World's Fairs and Flushing Meadows Corona Park

In celebration of the 50th and 75th anniversaries of the World’s Fairs, Tomorrow’s World will include never before exhibited vintage images from the Parks Photo Archive and private collections that illustrate the dynamic evolution and conversion of a vast industrial wasteland into New York City’s fourth largest park. Two World’s Fairs propelled this transformation, while serving as defining social and cultural events for two generations. The show will also include memorabilia, as well as two zodiac animals from Paul Manship’s vandalized Armillary Sphere from the second fair.

Download the publication of Tomorrow’s World.

This exhibit is brought to you with the support of Con Ed and Duggal.

May 1 – June 20, 2014

Ruth Marshall, Closely Knit: A Textile Analysis of Animals

Closely Knit: A Textile Analysis of Animals by Ruth Marshall brings attention to illegal wildlife trade and species loss in a way that unites a widened audience of scientists, art enthusiasts and the general public. Her life-size, knitted pelts of tigers, leopards, coral snakes and Australian marsupials exemplify how artisan goods have the potential to have higher commercial value than poached skins on the black market. Her textiles reinforce the ideology that support for conservation and culture is a more sustainable, viable and lucrative endeavor than the illegal wildlife trade. 

She has conducted research at the American Museum of Natural History, Melbourne Museum and the Berlin Zoo. For Closely Knit, Marshall studied Askai, Central Park Zoo’s male snow leopard and created a new knitted work based on his distinctive coat.  The exhibition is staged in the historic Arsenal building, which housed a menagerie of donated animals on the basement level from 1859 to 1871, and was the first home of the American Museum of Natural History from 1869 to 1877 before it moved to its current home on Manhattan’s West Side.

March 6 – April 24, 2014

STRATA: Marie Lorenz, Katy Fischer, Max Warsh

The artists featured in STRATA, Marie Lorenz, Katy Fischer and Max Warsh, collect and arrange artifacts from the urban environment—river flotsam, ceramic shards, and architectural details—through various modes of discovery. They use their collections as source material for multilayered, abstract compositions that reframe our familiar surroundings and challenge the division between man-made and organic in favor of a more seamless view of the material world.

January 23 – February 27, 2014

Arsenal Gallery Black History Month Exhibition: The March

In commemoration of Black History Month, the Arsenal Gallery is pleased to present The March, an exhibition that includes work from seventeen artists. Coordinated by NYC Parks’ Ebony Society, this exhibition reflects on the struggles and victories of the Civil Rights Movement past, present and future, as well as those individuals who have advanced the cause.

Artists include: Mitsuko Brooks, Gladys Carty, Tuwanda Harmon, Bill Howard, Nathaniel Ladson, Olga Matos-Castillo, Dionis Ortiz, Malcolm Pinckney, Ansel Pitcairn, Victor Polanco, Jake Seo, Christopher Spinelli, Dexter G. Stringfellow, Mario Tavarez, Alan J.P. Thompson, Quay Quinn Wolf, and Wayne Young.

December 5, 2013 – January 9, 2014

Wreath Interpretations

NYC Parks celebrates the holiday season with its 31st annual exhibition of unique, unconventional wreaths. A diverse selection of 47 fine artists, horticulturalists, designers, and other spirited contributors enliven this ageless holiday symbol. Neck ties, rat traps, acorns, recycled plastic bags and forged steel are among the many and varied materials used to examine themes as diverse as zombie apocalypses and water conservation. This exhibition is sure to be an imaginative and enjoyable experience this year's holiday season.

Watch Ghosts of Wreaths Past