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AccessibilityArt in the Parks: UNIQLO Park Expressions Grant Art Exhibit: 2018 - 2019
Announced September 2016, the Art in the Parks: UNIQLO Park Expressions Grant builds on NYC Parks’ equity initiatives by bringing public art exhibits to parks in need of cultural programming. Take a look at our 2018-2019 winners!
Bronx
Dionisio Cortes Ortega, Sitting Together
Joyce Kilmer Park
Inspired by the neighboring Bronx Supreme Courthouse, Sitting Together critiques the established proceedings of courtroom cases. The sculptures will place the plaintiff and defendant within modified witness stands to encourage empathy and understanding, and redefine how we think of conflict resolution. Color and seating direction in each sculpture address the severity of the conflicts. July 2, 2018 to July 1, 2019.
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Artist Bios
Dionisio Cortes Ortega received his Bachelor of Architecture from The Cooper Union before co-founding the firm Reform Architecture, which engages the public with conceptual, theoretical, and artistic projects, in addition to professional services. Originally from Mexico, Cortes Ortega currently lives and works in New York.
Cara Lynch, I’m So Happy You’re Here
Virginia Park
Cara Lynch explores the tension between high and low, and private and public space in I’m So Happy You’re Here. Its patterns reference traditional parquet flooring, typically found in homes of the wealthy as a symbol of status and importance. By recontextualizing these patterns in a public mural, the work challenges notions of value and accessibility, as well as destination and origin. July 18, 2018 to July 19, 2019.
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Artist Bio
Cara Lynch’s public work explores tensions at the intersection of art and craft, as well as sentiment and spectacle. She has completed a number of large-scale public projects in New York, including a permanent commission with the Metropolitan Transit Authority.
Brooklyn
Tanda Francis, Adorn Me
Fort Greene Park
Tanda Francis’ work examines the African presence in public space as a powerful force of beauty and cultural relevance. Inspired by African sculptural tradition, including Ife portraiture, Francis also incorporates Victorian and colonial ornamentation into her work. Adorn Me will address the underrepresentation of this demographic in public artworks, and provide a healing message during a time of heated debate over monuments erected as symbols of oppression and control. July 17, 2018 to July17, 2019.
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Artist Bio
Tanda Francis is a Brooklyn-based artist with a primary focus on monumental African female heads and masks and ancient customs and rituals. Positive images of and by people of African descent go underrepresented in our society, and Francis works to find a balance by setting her massive, bold sculptures in public spaces that cannot be overlooked. Francis has created several monumental public artworks in New York City.
Roberto Visani, (x) of many children
Herbert Von King
Roberto Visani’s piece is inspired by the indigenous figurative sculptures of the Senufo people of West Africa as well as the forced migration and relocation of African people and culture in the Americas. Abstracted with 3D modeling software, the two figures will lean against one another as a symbol of togetherness and support. October 6, 2018 to October 5, 2019.
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Artist Bio
Roberto Visani is a multi-media artist residing in Brooklyn. He has exhibited his work widely in the U.S., London, and Ghana. He is a former NYFA Artist Fellow in Sculpture and Fulbright fellow to Ghana. Visani is an associate professor at the City University of New York where he has taught since 2004.
Manhattan
Karla & James Murray, Mom-and-Pops of the L.E.S.
Seward Park
Karla and James Murray’s wood-framed sculpture consists of near life-size photographs of four mom-and-pop neighborhood stores of the Lower East Side, which are no longer in business and have disappeared from the streetscape. Images of a bodega, a coffee shop/luncheonette, a vintage store, and a newsstand recognize the unique and irreplaceable contribution made to New York by small, often family-owned businesses. June 20, 2018 to June 19, 2018.
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Artist Bio
Karla and James Murray are wife-and-husband, New York-based photographers, mixed media artists and authors. For over twenty years they have photographed portraits of storefronts and shop owners, striving to capture the spirit, energy, and cultural diversity of individual neighborhoods.
Harumi Ori, I am Here@Thomas Jefferson Park, 113 Street and 1st Ave, Manhattan, NY
Thomas Jefferson Park
Using photographs that she will take of parkgoers as inspiration, Harumi Ori will fold and sew industrial mesh in orange, a sacred color in Japan, to create three dimensional snapshots of the public park. Layered folds convincingly render the shape and volume of people and their surroundings. The installation will both document and celebrate the surrounding community’s diversity. July 10, 2018 to July 9, 2019.
View I am Here@Thomas Jefferson Park, 113 Street and 1st Ave, Manhattan, NY on the map
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Artist Bio
Harumi Ori has been working on her “I am Here” sculpture series for 15 years. The works reproduce the space and time of a single moment. She has exhibited widely in New York City, including a public art commission with the Department of Transportation.
Queens
Zaq Landsberg, Islands of the Unisphere
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Landsberg will recreate several of the Unisphere’s islands from various continents at scale and place them together to form a global archipelago. The collection of islands will act as seating, stages, and meeting places, and reflect the diversity Queens. These continents, figuratively stitched together, will be recognizable by their shapes, but will have neither labels nor borders. July 11, 2018 to July 10, 2019.
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Artist Bio
Zaq Landsberg specializes in large scale, site-specific sculptures, absurd objects and potentially treasonous conceptual projects. Originally from Los Angeles, CA, he received a BFA from NYU and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Rose DeSiano, Absent Monuments
Rufus King Park
Absent Monuments consists of several mirrored obelisks. The viewer’s mirrored reflection both celebrates them and subtly brings them into Jamaica, Queens’ complex history of colonization, war, abolitionism, immigration and rural urbanization. The obelisks’ stone plinths feature blue and white Dutch Delft photographic tiles that display the history of Rufus King Park and are surrounded by floral tiles inspired by Native American pattern work. Through these motifs, the obelisks honor the complex history of the Native American people, while also acknowledging the various periods of cultural displacements that have occurred in Queens. July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019.
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Artist Bio
Rose DeSiano received her M.F.A from the Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles and her B.F.A from NYU-Tisch School of the Arts. DeSiano has exhibited widely across the United States as well as internationally, including the Netherlands, China and, Spain. Rose DeSiano lives in Brooklyn and is a Professor of Fine Arts-Photography at Kutztown University, PA.
Staten Island
Jackie Mock, The Pencil Museum
Faber Park
The Pencil Museum is a series of handmade vitrines containing antique pencils and writing instruments that illustrate the significance of the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company. The only pencil factory in America at its inception, it created one of the most commonly used products manufactured in NYC. Faber Park is the former site of the Faber Mansion, home of the “Pencil King of Staten Island” Johann Eberhard Faber. This exhibition will tell the story of this often overlooked portion of New York City history and the entrepreneur who chose to call Staten Island home. July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019.
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Artist Bio
Jackie Mock transforms ordinary found objects into something monumental and sacred. She tells the overlooked or forgotten stories of people and places throughout American history while engaging the viewer with a touch of wit and humor. Jackie lives and works in New York City. She frequently exhibits in and around the New York area.
Adam Frezza & Terri Chiao, Stick Stump & The Lawn Lumps
Tappen Park
Stick Stump & The Lawn Lumps, a grouping of five unique sculptures, create a playful forum for reading, recreation, performance, and public interaction. Like hopping along a series of rocks in the landscape or finding that perfectly shaped stone to rest and take a seat, Frezza and Chiao aim for the works to invite viewers to engage with the art as they might engage with nature. July 30, 2018 to July 29, 2019.
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Artist Bio
Adam Frezza and Terri Chiao are collaborative artists based in New York City. Since 2011, the duo’s work has explored play and craft across a range of mediums. In 2017 they installed 32 large-scale works over an acre at the Coachella Arts & Music Festival in Indio, CA.
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