Art in the Parks

The Audubon Mural Project enlists artists to paint climate-threatened birds, such as the Chestnut-sided Warbler, Veery, and Wood Thrush shown here in Cern’s mural Yearly Sanctuary. The bird species featured in the Audubon Mural Project are among the more than half of North American birds identified as climate-threatened by Audubon scientists in the 2014 Birds and Climate Change Report.

This project is presented by The Audubon Mural Project, a collaboration between the National Audubon Society and the Gitler Gallery, with support from the Forest Park Trust and the Dr. E. Lawrence Deckinger Family Foundation.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is the NYC Commission on Human Rights’ Public Artist in Residence (PAIR).  A program administered with the Department of Cultural Affairs, PAIR embeds artists within city agencies to address pressing civic issues through creative practice. Fazlalizadeh’s mural features the images of several faces, inspired by local Queens-based women she has met within community conversations, and text capturing the experiences of community members facing the daily indignities of anti-Black racism and sexism. The mural is intended to place, front and center, the voices and images of women of color and challenge societal norms that allow sexism and racism to persist.

This exhibition is presented by the NYC Commission on Human Rights and the Department of Cultural Affairs.

Jose Carlos Casado’s installation reflects typical protest posters that people make for different public manifestations. Where protest signs normally reflect someone’s opinion on a matter, Jose's sculptures become unique portraits of people from within the community. Jose worked with 10 volunteers from the community, capturing images of their palms and running these photos through 3D imaging software, creating an abstraction of the hand. As no two palms are alike, these photos capture the uniqueness of a person. The rear side of each structure also reflects the volunteers; they are painted in the pantone color matching that person’s skin tone and include text about the person it represents.

Participation is a key theme throughout Jose public artwork. The volunteers he worked with became an important part of this piece and he plans on donating the individual artworks back to the volunteers once the work is removed from the park. This work also allows a viewer to connect with it through an interactive augmented reality app that Jose designed.

This project is part of Queens Council on the Arts' public art program ArtSite.

Each fall Socrates presents an exhibition of new commissions made by artists awarded the Park’s Socrates Annual Fellowship. Produced on-site in our outdoor studio over the course of the summer, these artworks engage the Park’s unique history, landscape, and surrounding community. For the 2019 exhibition, projects range from a soundscape conflating the sounds of animals and man-made objects to a monument to the invasive Ailanthus plant. Approaches vary among collaborative investigations of authorship and visibility, the re-contextualization of domestic motifs, and the examination of biological material, among many others. Ranging from fantastical to anecdotal to pedagogical, this year’s artists use a variety of narrative strategies. Several artist projects examine storytelling’s many material manifestations, from an homage to a Native American myth in which North America exists on a turtle’s back to a suggestion that a giant has fallen asleep under the Park’s blanket of grass, its exposed nose becoming refuge for a wandering monitor lizard.

Participating artists are recipients of ‘The 2019 Socrates Annual Fellowship’ and were selected by Socrates’ Curator & Director of Exhibitions, Jess Wilcox, and the Park’s 2019 Curatorial Advisors – Rosario Güiraldes, Assistant Curator at The Drawing Center and Jennie Lamensdorf, Bay Area Lead at Facebook’s Art Department.The 2019 Socrates Annual artists are Jesus Benavente, Tecumseh Ceaser (NativeTec), Martina Onyemeachi Crouch-Anyarogbu (MOCA), Rachelle Dang, Chris Domenick, Hadi Fallahpisheh, Jes Fan, Hadrien Gérenton & Loup Sarion, Paul Kopkau, Alva Mooses, Marius Ritiu, Martin Roth, Gabriela Salazar, Lucia Thomé, and Workers Art Coalition (WAC).

This exhibition is presented by Socrates Sculpture Park.

This mural, depicting waves, mountains and stars, is a companion artwork to the  expansive fence installation above it. Together, the mural and the fence installation are a tribute to the immigrant communities of all times and an homage to New York Harbor. The fence installation is the result of a Residency Program with artist Lina Montoya and Sundog Theatre at P.S 39, a public school directly adjacent to this playground. The residency’s theme was cultural immigration and Ellis Island history, and the resulting design was inspired by the Staten Island Ferry and the boats that came to Ellis Island full of people.

Supported by Council Member Steven Matteo through the Cultural Immigrant Initiative grant awarded to Sundog Theatre, Inc. for artist Lina Montoya and PS 39 students.

This expansive fence installation is the result of a Residency Program with artist Lina Montoya and Sundog Theatre at P.S 39, a public school directly adjacent to this playground. The residency’s theme was cultural immigration and Ellis Island history, and the resulting design was inspired by the Staten Island Ferry and the boats that came to Ellis Island full of people. The central image is a large boat full of butterflies. The iconic Statue of Liberty is included in the design, as well as an airplane and a square figure in the lower right corner that references the southern border, an "open wall." This piece is a tribute to the immigrant communities of all times and an homage to New York Harbor.

Supported by Council Member Steven Matteo through the Cultural Immigrant Initiative grant awarded to Sundog Theatre, Inc. for artist Lina Montoya and PS 39 students.