2018 Arsenal Gallery Exhibits

January 18 – February 23, 2018

Identity

Identity showcases works in fiber that explore imagery of people of the African Diaspora. Curated by Michelle Bishop of Harlem Needle Arts, the exhibition features pieces by nine artists who use a variety of media including embroidery, soft sculpture, quilt, and mixed media. With elements of swag, spirituality, icons, music, and social justice, the works illustrate self-awareness, identify, motivation, and varying backgrounds and traditions that govern the artists’ lives.

This exhibition is presented with the NYC Parks Ebony Society. The Society has helped organize the annual Black History Month exhibition in the Arsenal Gallery since 1991.

Image Credit: Shimoda Donna Emanuel, Goddess 3, mixed media

March 8 – April 26, 2018

Natural Impact

The tension between mankind and Mother Nature has long been a disturbing battleground. There is a tendency to level the ground and bulldoze over anything in our way—often realizing after the fact that we built too big, too bold, and too quickly. In “Natural Impact,” the new exhibit on view at NYC Parks’ Arsenal Gallery in Central Park, visual artists highlight the ingenuity and absurdity of this cycle through their work. Artists look at how nature sneaks back into our precisely constructed world and either softens the edges, or abruptly overwhelms them. Curated by D. Dominick Lombardi, “Natural Impact” features a variety of mediums including painting, screenprints, and sculpture, from artists Tim Daly, Lina Puerta, Brant Moorefield, Cecilia Whittaker Doe, Dominick Rapone, and Jodie Mim Goodnough.

Image Credit: Dominick Rapone, Eternal Sleep 1, 2008, silkscreen, private collection

May 3 – June 14, 2018*

1978: The NYC Parks/New York Times Photo Project

During the New York City newspaper strike from August to November 1978, the Parks Department hired eight New York Times photographers to document the City’s parks. This exhibit features highlights of their 3,000 images. Curated by Jonathan Kuhn. 

By popular demand, the Arsenal Gallery will open on Saturday, June 9 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Image Credit: Photographer Unidentified, Fiesta Folklorica, Bethesda Fountain, Central Park, 1978, NYC Parks

 

June 21 – August 30, 2018

Naima Green, A Collective Utterance

A Collective Utterance is a solo exhibition of photographs by the artist Naima Green, presenting a selection of images culled from her ongoing series “Jewels from The Hinterland” (2013–present). With black and brown artists, writers, culture workers, and thinkers positioned centrally in each image, the exhibition spans green spaces throughout New York City—such as Riverside Park, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and Central Park—as well as select sites across the United States.

With each photograph, Green offers a statement of quietude, solace, insistence, and strength, making visible a community purportedly relegated to the margins, yet who critically inform dominant tastes and trends. These gentle, nuanced compositions are particularly urgent within the context of seemingly interminable sociopolitical crisis, where black and brown bodies are continually imaged as sites of violence and trauma. Within the framework of A Collective Utterance, each individual is left to be—in all of their tenderness, complexities, and intricacies.

A Collective Utterance is organized by Oluremi C. Onabanjo.

Image credit: Jason, Central Park North, from “Jewels from the Hinterland,” 2015. Courtesy of the artist.

September 13 – November 23, 2018

City as Ecosystem: NYC Urban Field Station Artists Residency

The New York City Urban Field Station brings art and science together with their Artists in Residence program to foster new ideas and programs about urban conservation, environmental stewardship, land management, and community resilience. By engaging artists in thinking about social-ecological systems and natural resource management, the program applies creative approaches to make complex systems and concepts more accessible. This exhibition highlights projects explored in a variety of media by UFS resident artists Katie Holten, Matthew Jensen, Mary Mattingly, Lize Mogel, Heidi Neilson, and Adam Stoltman. The NYC UFS is a partnership between The USDA Forest Service, NYC Parks, and the Natural Areas Conservancy.

Image Credit: Adam Stoltman, Alley Pond Park, Queens, 2015, from the project Parks and People, courtesy of the artist 

December 6 – January 3, 2019

36th Annual Wreath Interpretations Exhibition

NYC Parks is pleased to announce the 36th annual Wreath Interpretations exhibition, bringing in the holiday season with an array of imaginative and unusual wreaths. Employing an array of unconventional materials like Jordan almonds, piano keys, foam ears, and plastic bottles, nearly 40 participating fine artists, designers, and creative individuals of all ages celebrate and reinvent a familiar holiday symbol. This year’s wreaths draw inspiration from themes ranging from Edgar Allan Poe to traditional toys. Experience the holiday season through this fun and whimsical exhibition.

Image Credit: Randall’s Island Park Alliance, The Movement of Water, seeds & pods from Cercis Canadensis (eastern redbud), Albizia julibrissin (silk tree), Chamaecrista fasciculata (partridge pea), Catalpa speciosa (catalpa), Rubeckia subtomentosa (sweet coneflower), image courtesy of Randall’s Island Park Alliance