Art in the Parks

This project is part of NYC Parks GreenThumb’s Art in the Gardens - Shed Murals project, an initiative that provides local artists with the opportunity to collaborate with community gardens as a platform to create and display their art.

Brooklyn Utopias: 2020 addresses Brooklyn’s past, present and future by inviting artists to consider differing visions of an ideal Brooklyn. Participating artists also explore how Brooklyn has continued to change over the past decade, and if/how it can serve as a model for urban and American living on a national scale as we navigate a global pandemic in a time of unprecedented social, political and environmental turmoil. Brooklyn Utopias also implies the possibilities (or limitations) of art in creating a better world. Together, these and other artworks investigate complex topics such as gentrification and environmental justice and experiment with creative ways to engage with and care for local communities, even with current social distancing measures. Many of the projects include online or outdoor components that can be experienced by a wide audience.

Public artworks by Tamara Gayer, Human Impacts Institute, Anna Lise Jensen, Robin Michals and Lynn Neuman, and Iviva Olenick are displayed on the grounds in Washington Park.

This exhibition is presented by the Old Stone House.

Romanian artist Leonard Ursachi’s “Bunker Head” is a large, stylized human head – evocative of bunker embrasures- covered in stainless steel mirrors. .The sculpture “bandaged” in gauze, evokes not only the wounded, but also the healing. The highly stylized nature of its “face” will reference iconic heads from countless cultures, from shaman to soldier, from poet to prophet. The artist carved the sculpture in rigid foam and covered it with Styrocrete, a cement-like material that is used on top of foam in building construction. The “openings” will be shallow recesses covered with stainless steel mirrors.

Under the Sun is one of a series of sculptures by Brooklyn-based artist Bill Soltis about experimentation with the human form, positive and negative relationships and the interplay between the figure and a sculptural environment. The final piece is a marriage of these elements and the environment in which the sculpture rests. In his art, Soltis experiments with shapes, images, patterns, and lines, allowing the construction process to create the idea, rather than forcing a completely formed idea into becoming an object. As a subject, the human figure lends itself well to this open process. It can be left representational or made abstract. Its form can be smooth, angular, sharp, or curved, with active, passive, or emotive gestures. He often works with welded metal due to its versatility, permanence, and strength and ability to survive indoor, outdoors, in gardens, or urban settings equally well.

This exhibition is presented in partnership with North Flatbush Business Improvement District.

This exhibition repurposes six concrete pillars situated along the park’s pathways from the Chauncey Street entrance, which were recently scraped, cleaned, and repainted during an It's My Park project organized by the Marion Street Park Block Association, a local community organization. Local artist Patrice Payne has created six 20 by 20 inch mini-murals on the tops of each of the pillars, each depicting familiar neighborhood scenes or local floral and fauna. Nothin’ But Net depicts a group of basketball players who use the adjacent courts, while The Many Faces of Brooklyn show the diversity of the surrounding neighborhood. A colorful water hydrant in Brooklyn Summers evokes warmer weather, as does the shade of a tree in A Mulberry Tree Grows in Ocean Hill. The park’s unofficial bird can be seen in House Sparrow, and the ubiquitous Scarlet Runner Bean makes an appearance atop another pillar.

Funding for this exhibition has been provided by the Citizens Committee for New York City and Marion Street Park Block Association.

Mark Paul Deren, aka MADSTEEZ is known for his vivid, large-scale, multi-layered paintings, where strange and familiar figures are integrated into abstract landscapes. His artistic approach is influenced by being almost blind in one eye, where he sees only abstractions and lines of colors, most notably reds, purples, and oranges, which appear frequently in his work.

This exhibition is presented by EA Sports.

This exhibition is presented by the DUMBO BID.

This exhibition is presented by the DUMBO BID.