Art in the Parks

Drawing on both his past professional experiences, and those of his contemporaries, Rennert composes thought-provoking works through simplified figures and forms. Together, these three monumental bronze sculptures are inspired by artist Jim Rennert’s past experiences in the competitive world of business. Each title works together with the visual image to illustrate the experience, sometimes physical, sometimes psychological and showcase the thoughts and ideas we all deal with in our contemporary society.

Cast in bronze in 2020, this sculpture was originally created by Brooklyn-based artist Noa Bornstein ten years ago out of sisal fiber and burlap in structolite and plaster over an armature of wire mesh and plumbing sections. The sculpture is mounted on a low concrete base inscribed with the word for ‘friend’ in 90 languages—beginning with the six official languages of the UN--all learned or verified with speakers of the languages over the last year. For additional/interactive content please visit peacegorilla.noabornstein.com.

The artists hail from five continents, coming from Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Mexico, Romania, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, and throughout the United States. They bring a range of perspectives, with proposals that touch on colonialism, climate change, human rights, spirituality, and the natural world.

Two out of the 12 shortlisted proposals will be selected as the third and fourth High Line Plinth commissions, to be installed in 2022 and 2024 respectively. Each Plinth commission will be on view for 18 months.

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

Eternity—Male Figure, Statue of Venus Genetrix is a suite of three nearly identical sculptures. Two appear inside the Asia Society Museum galleries, and one is placed on the Park Avenue median adjacent to Asia Society. Each cast is taken from replicas of an eleventh-century male figure from Cambodia that is in the Asia Society Museum Collection and a second-century Roman figure of Venus Genetrix, which is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. The appropriation and replication of these classical statues—deemed to be among the highest benchmarks of Asian and western civilizations, respectively, and included in iconic western collections—address entrenched Eurocentric hierarchies within the art-historical canon and subtly allude to complex issues related to provenance, patrimony, and connoisseurship in the United States, especially in relation to historical collecting practices of premodern, non-western art.

This exhibition is presented by Asia Society and the Fund for Park Avenue.

What does it mean to create space for reflection and visioning? What does it mean to know your past, present and future? What does it mean to know that you are more than enslaved people? Harlem Needle Arts is pleased to present We the People | Disrupting Silence, a public art installation that pays tribute to the ingenuity, creativity and sacrifices of Africans of the Diaspora, who suffered the atrocity of enslavement, marginalization and disenfranchisement. This installation by Alex Reynoso joins Nacinimod Deodee’s A Long Walk to Freedom and Reflection on the opposite side of the park.

This project is presented by Harlem Needle Arts.

This is an artistic tribute to the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, honoring the lives of people from the local community and around the world who have died of COVID-19. The piece is inspired by a range of traditional memorials from around the world, including Day of the Dead altars and New York City street memorials. The title combines the word “COVID” with Vida, meaning “life” in Spanish.

Abigail DeVille’s Light of Freedom reflects the despair and the exultation of a turbulent period of pandemic and protest. DeVille has filled a torch with a timeworn bell, a herald of freedom, and with the arms of mannequins, beseeching viewers. The scaffold, which prevents access physically and metaphorically, recalls a work site, an insistent image on the urban landscape. But the scaffold is golden, summoning the glory of labor and the luminosity in the struggle that can lead to change.   The torch refers to the light of democracy and its foundation in ancient systems of government by citizens. In this project, DeVille conjoins significant crossroads in African-American history in New York to create a sculpture that is inspiring and introspective. She recognizes and hallows the earliest enslaved Africans who were brought to New Amsterdam, critiques the unfulfilled promise of American liberty and justice for all, and summons the current Black Lives Matter movement as a source for the work.

This exhibition is presented by Madison Square Park Conservancy.