2015 Arsenal Gallery Exhibits

December 4, 2015 – January 7, 2016

Wreath Interpretations

NYC Parks celebrates the holiday season with its 33rd annual exhibition of unique, unconventional wreaths. A diverse selection of 50 fine artists, designers, and other spirited contributors enliven this ageless holiday symbol. Venetian blinds, surge protectors, Q-tips, forged steel and lost winter gloves are among the many varied materials used to examine diverse themes ranging from jellyfish overpopulation to the upcoming presidential election. This exhibition is an imaginative and enjoyable experience this holiday season.

Ghosts of Wreaths Past

October 7 – November 13, 2015

Swampland: Photographs by Ruth Wetzel

New York artist Ruth Wetzel spends hours trekking through wetlands in waders photographing magnified views of diverse plant life and ecosystems found in New York. She isolates intimate details in the swamps—plumes of sediment, verdant foliage, and colorful reflections—allowing abstract forms to shine. Swampland includes over 30 small and large format photographs of wetlands around her upstate Stone Ridge, New York home, as well as a newly created series of photographs documenting New York City’s Alley Pond Park in Queens, Prospect Park Lake, and Spuyten Duyvil Creek.

June 25 – September 25, 2015

Living Landmarks

Living Landmarks celebrates the nine individually landmarked New York City public parks in honor of the 50th anniversary of the City’s landmarks law. The exhibit showcases their contributions to landscape design and to the dynamism of the city through historical and contemporary photography, renderings, maps, artifacts, and memorabilia. The nine scenic landmarks include Bryant Park, Central Park, Fort Tryon Park, Morningside Park, Prospect Park, Riverside Park, Verdi Square, as well as Eastern and Ocean Parkways.

April 30 – June 18, 2015

Mariella Bisson, Sunlight, Water and Gravity

Mariella Bisson’s large-scale, mixed media paintings of picturesque waterfalls in upstate New York are coupled with her preparatory drawings and watercolors in Sunlight, Water and Gravity. Her paintings, created with hundreds of pieces of layered paper, teeter on the edge of abstraction and representation. The overlapping paper replicates the texture of rushing water and rock strata. Motion, gravity, and the endlessness of geological time are as much the subject of Bisson’s paintings as the actual waterfalls.

March 5 – April 23, 2015

Alan Messer, Conserving Our City of Nature: The Artwork of Alan Messer

Many New Yorkers are unaware of the 350 species of wild birds–almost a third of all bird species in North America–that live in or pass through New York City each year. Artist Alan Messer skillfully captures many, from exquisite migrating Blackburnian Warblers in Central Park’s ramble to a Northern Harrier scanning the vast marshes of Jamaica Bay. Conserving Our City of Nature: The Artwork of Alan Messer, presented by NYC Audubon, reveals over 30 of Messer’s detailed paintings, illustrations, and field sketches of New York City’s avian wildlife and habitats, offering an artist view of NYC Audubon’s conservation mission.

This exhibition is presented by NYC Audubon

January 15 – February 24, 2015

The Migration

In the midst of tremendous upheaval—two world wars and the Great Depression—a vast movement of people, some six million African American descendants of the Antebellum South, fled the racial segregation and discrimination for northern and western U.S. cities. The “Great Migration,“ as it is commonly termed, caused a seismic societal demographic shift and left an indelible mark on the urbanization of America. Twenty-two artists share their interpretations of this historical epoch and its impact.

December 5, 2014 – January 7, 2015

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.