Art in the Parks

Reflections is a grouping of three interactive public sculptures that utilize the collective ideas of art and yoga as platforms for healing, harmony, and reflection while simultaneously encouraging inclusivity and diversity in two practices that are historically non-diverse. The sculptures utilize readily-available materials such as PVC pipes and Mylar flag canopies to create environments for contemplation and reflection. Each of the three canopies has circular openings that reveal a view of the sky above. A non-profit community partner, Three and A Half Acres Yoga, will present free introductory community yoga classes around the structures on the second Saturday of each month throughout the exhibition.

Reflections is presented by his exhibition is presented by Art in FLUX , FLUX Art Fair , and Three and a Half Acres Yoga, with public funds from Creative Engagement / Creative Learning, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

“Hippo Ballerina,” a copper tutu-clad bronze sculpture standing over 15 feet tall, by Danish artist Bjørn Skaarup plants her sizable slippered feet across from Lincoln Center. Inspired by Degas’ “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” and the dancing hippos of Walt Disney’s “Fantasia,” “Hippo Ballerina” vividly illustrates the artist’s ability to reinterpret subjects and themes found in ancient myths, art history, modern animation, and contemporary popular culture in playful ways that engage the viewer. This is Skaarup’s first US public art installation.

This exhibition is presented by Cavalier Galleries.

This work by Hoboken–based artist Martin Ramone Delossantos is an abstraction of an oil well. Consisting of a four–part lower portion made of thick steel tubes, the sculpture is topped by two bicycle wheels that give it a kinetic quality. Delossantos is a sculptor, painter, and artisan who creates whimsical sculptures out of metal and found metal objects that interact with space. His sculptures represent rhythm, feelings, and emotions. The artist hopes that this work will bring attention to the vibrant arts community in his hometown of Hoboken across the Hudson River. This is only the second exhibit ever placed in Ahearn Park, on New York’s Lower East Side.

For the 2017 season of Paths to Pier 42, Combo Colab collaborated with Oficina – Social Impact Design to transform the fence along the north side of Pier 42 (along the bikeway) with a graphically bold zig-zag gesture that draws inspiration from the way sailboats tack into the wind. The installation visually defines the temporary park, attracting visitors and bringing a dynamic visual sensibility to the overall site.

Pier 42 is a new park space that opened in the summer of 2013. Paths to Pier 42 brings neighborhood residents, artists, designers and community organizations together to activate this park space on the Lower East Side Waterfront with collaborative installations and public events. The project builds on neighborhood advocacy to create more accessible green, open space on the waterfront, by increasing access and creating public uses of Pier 42 while it awaits permanent transformation over the next several years.

Paths to Pier 42 is a project of Good Old Lower East Side, Hester Street Collaborative, Lower East Side Ecology Center, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and Two Bridges Neighborhood Council in partnership with NY State Senator Daniel Squadron, and NYC Parks.

Open House transforms Doris C. Freedman Plaza into an open air ballroom where only scattered furniture and arches remain eight blocks south from the original mansion. It references one of the grandest Fifth Avenue interiors designed by Gilded Age architect Stanford White: the now–demolished William C. Whitney Ballroom.Glynn’s lavish Louis XIV sofas, chairs, and footstools evoke the historic home, but with a twist–these objects feature sculpted additions and are cast in concrete, a populist material more commonly seen in modern architecture. With this revision, the artist invites the public to enjoy a previously exclusive interior space that is now open and accessible to all.

This exhibition is presented by Public Art Fund.

Adam Frezza & Terri Chiao are an American artist duo whose work explores play and craft across a range of media, including painted sculpture, installation, collage and photography.
Sea Paddles, is a continued experimentation with exterior-grade levels of construction, painting, and finishing on large paper-pulp sculptures.

Sea Paddles is part of the gallery exhibition Plant Patterns, which features the work of Adam Frezza & Terri Chiao, Adrienne Elise Tarver, Karin Haas, Liesl Pfeffer and Nick Wildermuth. The artists use plants’ impressive natural characteristics as a means to explore various themes in their graphic works. Domestic and wild flora have provided artists with inspiration for centuries. The diversity and multitude of plant colors, shapes, and repetitive forms, which evolved to lure pollinators, caution predators, and promote regeneration, are naturally appealing to artists’ sensibilities.

This exhibition is in conjunction with Plant Patterns on view in the Arsenal Gallery.

Tripod is made up of a trio of casts from a found piece of rotting wood. Remade in a ghostly white, matte cement, it makes reference to to death masks and pays homage to the object’s prior life. The wood is elevated to a place of honor generally reserved for well known, and/or well-regarded, human subjects.

This exhibition is presented by the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum and the Historic House Trust.

Hamptons-based artist Phyllis Hammond has created five new sculptures for Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, entitled Tempo, Alien, Flying, Gateway, and Sign of Freedom. Exhibited together under the title Beyond the Edge, the steel and aluminum sculptures feature narrow stem-like bases topped by whimsical, kinetic elements that rotate in the wind. Hammond uses an improvisational method to create her colorful, large-scale sculptures. The metal cutouts are based on playful, looping doodles on paper that she scans and modifies using a computer program. Once the drawings have been refined digitally, the designs are cut from sheets of metal using a water jet machine. After the metal shapes are hammered, bent and welded into curved shapes, they are powder-coated with brightly colored paint.

Japanese artist Yasumitsu Morito designed Spirit of New York City to harmonize with the setting of Carl Schurz Park. The work sits just above the Hoop Garden, surrounded by trees lining the pathway to the promenade along the East River. Yasumitsu’s work addresses the human form within space, what it is to be human, and how the human spirit responds to social, political, and religious circumstances. For this installation, he considered both the practical and aesthetic experiences of the viewer. The sculpture conveys a sense of spiritual presence and prompts park visitors to contemplate the past, present, and future of sculpture in tandem with that of the park. Sitting on a vessel symbolizing the melting pot, the human figure represents a moment of serene contemplation amidst the commotion of the city.

Morpho’s Nest in the Cadmium House is a site-specific installation of five double-sided paintings on carved Catalonian sandstone by New York-based Spanish artist Lluis Lleó. The 13-foot, 7,000-pound paintings are Lleó’s first public art exhibition in New York.

For Lleó, the paintings are an encounter between tradition and modernity, a merger of Catalan Romanesque frescoes and the work of modern American masters such as Mark Rothko, Ellsworth Kelly, and Agnes Martin. With poetic finesse, Lleó carves into the thick and dense sandstone, which he combines with ancestral fresco painting to create a tension between color and form. The title of the work references the morpho butterfly, a beautiful and fragile species found in Mexico and Central and South America.

This exhibition is presented with the Fund for Park Avenue.