Art in the Parks

The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) commissioned Harlem native A$AP Ferg and curator Set Free Richardson to create this design for the Greg Marius Court at Holcombe Rucker Park, which pays homage to the warrior spirit of the Harlem community and embodies the essence of the many great basketball warriors of the Rucker from the past, present, and future.

This exhibition is presented by the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA).

Chinatown Yarn Circle, led by Tina Lin, Naomi Lawrence, and local organizations, represents an intergenerational community mobilizing to STAND together; SPEAK up for justice; and SHAPE society through civic action and crochet. The flowers are in tribute to AAPI community builders, embodying collaboration, triumph over struggle, and inspiring future generations.

• Flowers with cultural significance and symbolic ties to the Asian community
• Chinese Bamboo symbolizing strength and resilience.
• China – Peony
• Taiwan – Plum Blossom
• Hong Kong – Orchid
• South Korea – Rose of Sharon
• Japan – Chrysanthemum
• India – Lotus
• Singapore – Orchid
• Vietnam – Lotus
• Philippines – Arabian Jasmine
• Thailand – Orchid
• Malaysia - Hibiscus
• Indonesia – Orchid

Stand Speak Shape is made possible in part with funding from OCM, Think Chinatown, Asian Americans for Equality, and Knitty City

Thomas J Price: Witness marks the British sculptor’s first US solo institutional exhibition. Price’s nine-foot bronze figure, The Distance Within (2021), is sited within Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park and depicts a young Black man looking down at his cell phone. With Witness, the artist continues his exploration of blackness and Black masculinity at monumental scales. In The Distance Within, Price asks us to consider what is projected onto Black bodies as they move in the world and in what ways they are made monolithic via broader archetypes and stereotypes, as well as how Black bodies in the ordinary everyday are subject to extraordinary surveillance and spectatorship.

This exhibition is presented by the Studio Museum in Harlem.

This large-scale fiberglass sculpture in the shape of an abstracted drone atop a 25-foot-tall steel pole is the second High Line Plinth commission. With this work, Durant seeks to make visible the intentionally obscured drone warfare perpetuated by the US, and to remind the public that drones and surveillance are a tragic and pervasive presence in the daily lives of many living outside—and within—the United States. At the same time, drones are employed daily for humanitarian purposes, such as delivering supplies and medicine to isolated locations, to survey mine fields, and to tame wild fires that have ravaged landscapes. 

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

This mural is a colorful, subtle tribute to the legacy of Space Jam and iconic Looney Tunes characters that also speaks to the vibrancy of the Harlem neighborhood.

This exhibition is presented by Warner Brothers.

Sitting in the Apple, users will be able to enjoy a 360-degree view of their surroundings at all times. Since the arrival of Covid-19, citizens have taken to the streets and local parks more frequently to get their daily exercise and enjoy a change of scenery. This Apple is BIG on ensuring that distancing measures are maintained while participants enjoy their urban discoveries. Not only is the modern cutout slices design airy, but the space also allows for only one family or couple at a time in the core.

This exhibition is presented by Hudson Yards Hells Kitchen Alliance.

Intimate and low profile to allow visitors to engage at eye level and to gather around it, Renaissance Women honors the women of the Harlem Renaissance. It takes on a decidedly feminine form representing vocalists like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Lena Horne; visual artists like Elizabeth Catlett and Augusta Savage; and writers like Dorothy West and Zora Neale Hurston. It will be the viewer’s choice as to which women they see reflected in the sculpture.

Cecile Chong’s installation is based on the myth of the lost treasure of El Dorado. Over the centuries the story has been told in many ways, often as a metaphor for an ultimate prize that one might spend a lifetime seeking. This installation promotes ideas of transformation, immigration and community. It honors the opportunities that this city offers to newcomers, but most of all, it acknowledges the labor and efforts that immigrants contribute in return. Consisting of 100 metallic and brightly-colored sculptures arranged in a circle on the lawn, the sculptures are modeled after tightly swaddled babies, or “guaguas,” that the artist saw while living in Ecuador. Forty-nine sculptures are gold, referring to the 49% of New Yorkers who speak a language other than English at home. This fifth and final iteration stands on a platform that represents the 17 United Nations sustainability goals.

Diane Arbus (1923-1971) is one of several artists Gillian Wearing counts among her key influences, or “spiritual family.” The celebrated New York photographer, who took many of her best-known images in Central Park, nevertheless remains a surprising choice for a bronze monument. Wearing’s statue draws attention to the fact that few women are represented in this way, and even fewer visual artists. Who gets to be memorialized has become a lively public debate. Diane Arbus, installed temporarily at the entrance to Central Park, is one artist’s tribute to another. The presentation of the sculpture is unconventional: there’s no pedestal, the figure simply stands on the pavement. Like a photograph come to life, Wearing captures Arbus as she might have appeared, holding her distinctive Mamiyaflex camera, gaze fixed on her next subject.

This exhibition is presented by Public Art Fund.

This exhibition is presented by Project Backboard.