Highland Park

NYC PARKS HOSTS FIRST-EVER PUBLIC ART EXHIBITION IN HIGHLAND PARK

NYC Parks is delighted to announce the exhibition of Daniele Frazier’s “The Giant Flowers,” Highland Park’s first-ever temporary public artwork. Celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year, Parks’ Art in the Parks program is pleased to expand its reach and bring the playful installation to this unique park that straddles Queens and Brooklyn.

Daniele Frazier’s exhibition “The Giant Flowers” consists of five giant flowers made of rip-stop nylon fabric that inflate and move hypnotically in the wind. Each twelve-foot-long brightly colored flower is a unique design hand-sewn by Frazier and towers above the park twenty feet off the ground. Not only are these joyous flowers an unexpected sight, but they provide park-goers with a real-life illustration of the changes in wind from minute to minute or day to day, which affect the position of the flowers. Frazier was inspired by artist Ree Morton's flag series, the inflatable work by collective Ant Farm, and the toy designs of Libuše Niklová.

“Fifty years on, our celebrated Art in the Parks program is still breaking boundaries – this time in Highland Park,” said NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP. “’The Giant Flowers’ brings eye-catching colors and welcome whimsy to this beloved open space. Art brings people together, and it is our mission to make sure it is accessible to all of New York City’s vibrant communities.”

Daniele Frazier is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Originally from Mill Valley, California, she graduated from the Cooper Union School of Art in 2007, where she received the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust Award. Her work has been shown at Guild & Greyshkul, Museum 52, Rivington Arms, Ritter Zamet, Socrates Sculpture Park, and Gavin Brown’s Passerby, among others. She works primarily in sculpture and drawing, but has performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and often cameos in other artists’ performances and videos.

In 2017 NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program celebrates 50 years of bringing contemporary public artworks to the city’s parks, making New York City one of the world’s largest open-air galleries. The agency has consistently fostered the creation and installation of temporary public art in parks throughout the five boroughs. Since 1967, NYC Parks has collaborated with arts organizations and artists to produce over 2,000 public artworks by 1,300 notable and emerging artists in over 200 parks. For more information about the program visit www.nyc.gov/parks/art.