Court Square Park

NYC Parks Announces Wendy Klemperer As 2015 Clare Weiss Emerging Artist Award Recipient

NYC PARKS ANNOUNCES WENDY KLEMPERER AS 2015 CLARE WEISS EMERGING ARTIST AWARD RECIPIENT

NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program is proud to announce Wendy Klemperer as the 2015 recipient of the Clare Weiss Emerging Artist Award. Shadow Migration is a site specific installation of 13 steel animals including deer, fox, bear, wolf and others. The exhibition is on view in Court Square Park, Queens through November 2016. The $10,000 award is granted annually in memory of Clare Weiss, Parks’ Curator of Public Art from 2005 to 2009.

Shadow Migration exhibits animal silhouettes cut from steel plates and installed throughout the park. Klemperer investigates animal populations that were threatened in the 20th century, but are now rebounding and showing up in “our backyard.” Wild animals are finding their way into suburban and urban environments as human populations sprawl into their natural habitats. While many species have been devastated, some are adapting and thriving on the largesse of urban life. Hawks dive from high rise cornices to feast on the rich urban population of pigeons and rats; bears walk through New Jersey neighborhoods; and just several blocks from Court Square Park, a coyote found its way to a rooftop in Long Island City.

Klemperer’s animal silhouettes are shadows, essences of their worldly form that appear fleeting and at times fleeing. Migration is inherent to both humans and animals, as natural and manmade changes force movement to more hospitable regions. The steel forms are punctuated with cutouts in the shape of countries from around the world. Each animal is a melting pot, bearing countries on its body that are also represented in Queens’ population—the most diverse community in the world. The nations are also a record of where that animal once thrived. Shadow Migration invites contemplation of nature in an urban setting and of the circumstances of natural diversity in a modern world.

Wendy Klemperer received her BA Biochemistry from Harvard-Radcliffe College, Cambridge, MA (1980); her BFA in Painting and Sculpture from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY (1983); and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, ME (1984). ). This installation incorporates silhouettes of some of Klemperer’s previous sculptural work. She has exhibited at Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY; Bridgewater-Lustberg Gallery, New York, NY; Pratt Institute Sculpture Park, Brooklyn, NY; DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA; Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, VT; UNH Museum, Durham, NH; and with June LaCombe SCULPTURE in Maine. Klemperer lives in Brooklyn, NY and Nelson, NH.

This exhibition was made possible through generous support by the friends of Clare Weiss. Klemperer’s work was selected from over 50 entries by a jury comprised of curator and art critic Karen Wilkin, sculptor Willard Boepple, Chairman of Queens Community Board 2 Arts & Cultural Affairs Committee Stephen Cooper and Parks’ Public Art Coordinator Jennifer Lantzas. To help sustain the Clare Weiss Emerging Artist Fund, please contact Parks’ Office of Public Art at (212) 360-8163 for information on contributing.

Clare Weiss (1966-2010) was the former Public Art Curator for Parks. During her tenure she curated more than 100 outdoor public art installations throughout the city and organized complex, thought-provoking, and visually compelling thematic exhibitions for the Arsenal Gallery. Clare’s passion, humanity, energy, courage, and collaborative zeal were valued by all who knew her. The Clare Weiss Emerging Artist Award is granted annually to one emerging artist. The location changes annually, and is determined based on the site’s visibility and location within a neighborhood historically underserved by public art. Started in 2011, former recipients include Ruth McKerrell at Ft. Greene Park, Brooklyn (2011), Katherine Daniels at Joyce Kilmer Park, the Bronx (2012), Karlis Rekevics at Tappen Park, Staten Island (2013), and Jarrod Beck in Sara D. Roosevelt Park, Manhattan (2014).

NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program has consistently fostered the creation and installation of temporary public art in parks throughout the five boroughs. Since 1967, collaborations with arts organizations and artists have produced hundreds of public art projects in New York City parks. For more information visit www.nyc.gov/parks/art.