Art in the Parks

Suprina’s installation titled In Someone Else’s Shoes is a 5’ high shoe that one can sit in, on, or under and imagine what it’s like to literally and figuratively be in someone else’s shoes. The surface of the shoe is a mosaic of objects that any of us might toss away but also binds us together. Viewers and sitters are encouraged to explore the surface with sight and touch to find objects with which they or a fellow sitter might personally relate.  

The New Bench is a series of public art projects in which three artists reinvent the park bench to challenge ideas around parks, communal places and how communities coexist within these spaces. The artists play with materials and structure to encourage conversation across ages and cultures and create a dialogue with the natural and urban environments. 

This exhibition is presented by the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance  and the Art in FLUX.

Located on the High Line at 13th Street, New York-based artist Darren Bader’s chess: relatives consists of a large-scale chessboard designed by the artist. Visitors are invited to take part in chess games during open park hours in which they take the place of chess pieces, their positions determined by their familial relationships to others. In order to play, visitors bring a group of 32 people together, who will be “played” by two additional people. Visitors are encouraged to assemble teams with their own friends or family, or to branch out and recruit strangers also visiting the High Line. Referring to the onsite instructions, the group self-organizes according to chess: relatives rules.

Once the group is organized into the pieces they fit into, the two players play the game, moving the human “pieces” as in a standard game of chess. Once the game begins, the players are no longer allowed to ask for clarification on what kind of piece each person represents. As one of the most interactive artworks exhibited on the High Line, chess: relatives will spark new connections, conversations, and debate amongst visitors. The piece also gives visitors the chance to become a part of an artwork that aims to ask more questions about art than it can answer.

This exhibition is presented by the Friends of the High Line

With a background in architecture and design, William Logan has focused on large scale public sculpture for the past 15 years. Drawing and model-making have been constant endeavors while his experience in engineering and boat-building has given him an intuitive feel for structure. Flame is the result of experimental work with carbon fiber and lightweight structures. The intricate surface texture reflects the laborious effort that went into the fabrication of the piece by hand and allows the piece to catch the light in unexpected ways. The open lattice of the upper element lends the work a diaphanous quality, while its construction in aluminum gives it structure.

Mutations is an open-air group exhibition that explores the relationship between man and nature, looking at how the boundaries between the natural world and culture are defined, crossed, and obliterated. The exhibition is inspired by the High Line as a controlled environment that encapsulates, on the one hand, the modern dream of humans taming nature, and on the other, the promise of nature reclaiming its control.

Artists who are part of this exhibition include Larry Bamburg, Alisa Baremboym, Sascha Bruanig, Dora Budor, Radamés Juni Figueroa, Guan Xiao, Marguerite Humeau, Veit Laurent Kurz, Joanna Malinowska, Jumana Manna, Jon Rafman, and Max Hooper Schneider.

This exhibition is presented by the Friends of the High Line

For over 50 years, American artist Sheila Hicks has redefined the boundaries of fiber as a medium, creating a distinctive body of work that falls between the fields of fine art, craft, design, and architecture. For her High Line Commission, Hicks draws inspiration from the many kinetic elements that dance around the High Line: the ballet of construction vehicles at the Rail Yards; the multitudinous interwoven layers of construction mesh that cover buildings, scaffolding, and streetscapes; unfinished architectural lattices; and lace of hanging crane cables. Her vibrant installation comprised of twisting tubes of various types of colored fiber will crawl along the rails at the Western Rail Yards, surprising and delighting passersby.

This exhibition is presented by the Friends of the High Line.

Henry Taylor is a painter known for his intimate depictions of people, capturing a wide range of subjects that span from his close friends and family, to strangers whose appearances strike him, to celebrities within the African American community. His color–blocked compositions evoke compassion and a sense of shared space, setting the viewer in close conversation with those pictured.

For the High Line, Taylor presents a new version of a self-portrait adapted specifically for its setting on the side of a building at West 22nd Street. The work depicts the artist and a friend “blissed out,” relaxing in a swimming pool at a friend’s house in Palm Springs. Reminiscent of David Hockney’s paintings of Los Angeles swimming pools from the 1960s, the floaters, a title which references the eponymous Detroit R&B group, portrays the artist in a moment of pure, leisurely happiness.

This exhibition is presented by High Line Art.

The Broadway Mall Association celebrates its 30th anniversary with Joy Brown on Broadway, a sculpture exhibition of nine bronze works on the green malls at the center of Broadway from 72nd Street to 166th Street. The exhibition is the 10th sculpture show that the Broadway Mall Association has presented on the malls since 2005. Brown’s rounded forms and use of bronze convey the heavy gravity of stone. The playful expressions and gestures of her figures transcend that weight, suggesting warmth and lightness of being. Simplicity of form and earth-toned patina evoke a feeling of stillness and peace. The influence of the Japanese aesthetic on Brown’s sculpture springs from her childhood in Japan and apprenticeship in traditional Japanese ceramics.

This exhibition is presented by Broadway Mall Association and Morrison Gallery.

Ai Weiwei often visited Washington Square Park when he lived nearby in the 1980s, drawn to its vitality as a hub for creative and political expression. His 37-foot-tall steel cage echoes the iconic form of the marble arch, which commemorates George Washington leading the nation toward democracy. While seeming to create an obstruction, Ai opens a passageway through its center in the silhouette of two united figures. Visitors are able to pass through, reflected in an undulating ribbon of polished stainless steel.

This work is part of the citywide exhibition Good Fences Make Good Neighbors. Ai Weiwei conceived this multi-site, multi-media exhibition for public spaces, monuments, buildings, transportation sites, and advertising platforms throughout New York City. Collectively, these elements comprise a passionate response to the global migration crisis and a reflection on the profound social and political impulse to divide people from each other. Visitors will discover that Ai’s “good fences” are not impenetrable barriers but powerful, immersive, and resonant additions to the fabric of the city.

This exhibition is presented by Public Art Fund.