New York City comes alive with outdoor art installations during the summer months, enticing viewers to visit parts of the City they might not otherwise frequent. In June, we showed you 17 outdoor installations worthy of checking out in person, but July has proven to be equally prolific. Here are 20 you shouldn’t miss:
20. Caesura: a forum (Marcus Garvey Park)
Marcus Garvey Park has been in the news this past year for its efforts toward the restoration of the Harlem Fire Watchtower, which was located at the top of the Acropolis. Inspired by the watchtower, artists Jessica Feldman, Jerome W. Haferd and K. Brandt Knapp created an open-air, steel framed horizontal tower that you can walk through. In the installation, titled Caesura: a forum, an audio component will emit sounds of a bell and voices. The voices are historical: contemporary recordings and live-streaming voices from speeches, rallies and chants.
Caesura: a forum will run until October 31st of this year. The exhibit is co-presented with the Marcus Garvey Park Alliance, Mount Morris Park Community Improvement Association (MMPCIA), and the Harlem Arts Festival.
19. Percent for Art Program 30th Anniversary
New York City’s Percent for Art law requires that one percent of the budget for eligible City-funded construction projects be spent on public artwork. “Growth,” the first project to be completed, was designed by sculpture artist Jorge Luis Rodriguez and placed in the East Harlem Art Park thirty years ago.
On the anniversary of the installation of “Growth” and the Percent for Art program, Rodriguez created five new pieces. Four of them were unveiled on June 20th also in the East Harlem Art Park, and the another piece “The Oracle of the Past, Present and Future”, was unveiled in early June in Tompkins Square Park.
18. The Typewriter Project
The Typewriter Project is a literary interactive installation by The Poetry Society that invites anyone passing by to type their thoughts, read what those before them had to say, and comment on the process. The Typerwriter Project was first installed on Governors Island last year during the New York CityPoetry Festival. Its second installation was at STORY in Chelsea from January to February of this year.
The latest installation is in Tompkins Square Park through July 19th, Monday through Friday from 3 pm to 8pm and on the weekend from Noon to 8pm. The installation will move to Governors Island again this year on July 25-26, during the 2015 Poetry Festival.
17. Water, Gift of Life (Van Cortlandt Park)
You may remember our coverage of the Art Student League’s seven-piece installation at Riverside Park South last month, as part of their M2M program. The final piece, “Water, Gift of Life”, was installed at Van Cortlandt Park. This entire installation in Riverside Park will be on display until June 10, 2016, which means you have plenty of time to check them all out.
16. Long-Tailed Peacock and Short-Tailed Peacock (Bartow-Pell Mansion)
The works, “Long-Tailed Peacock and Short Tailed Peacock” were created by the sculptor Gaston Lachaise in 1920. Commissioned separately, the “Short-Tailed Peacock” was for the Miami home of John Deering. Philip Goodwin commissioned the Long-Tailed Peacock for his mansion on Long Island. The pair of bronze installations will be in the gardens of the fantastic Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum in the Bronx until May 7, 2016.
15. Image Objects at City Hall Park
Seven international artists explore the rapidly evolving relationship between digital technology and our physical space in the installation “Image Objects” in City Hall Park. As more and more of our urban experience becomes technologically mediated both our physical and digital worlds are altered. This installation from the Public Art Fund will be on view until November 20, 2015.
14. Gummer on Broadway
The Broadway Mall Association, NYC Parks and The Morrison Gallery of Kent, Connecticut have nine stainless steel, painted aluminum sculptures on display, created by the artist Don Gummer (the other half of actress Meryl Streep). “Gummer on Broadway” on the Broadway Mall beginning at 64th Street, will be on display through October 2015.
13. Oh Sit!
“Oh Sit! Consider the Chair” is a group exhibition of nine artists who ask the viewer to look at the chair both objectively and subjectively. The nine installations are placed along the esplanade, leading to the newly reopened High Bridge. The exhibit will be on view until November 8, 2015.
12. HeartSeat in Fort Greene Park
HeartSeat was originally commissioned for the juried Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition (known then as HeartBeat) by the Times Square Alliance and The Architectural League of New York. Stereotank, Neil Nisbet and Diego Rioja used drums, pipes and xylophone keys to build a custom-built musical instrument, making public art musical for this year’s Make Music New York festival. Converted into a park bench, HeartSeat will be on display until October 30, 2015.
11. Sky Feather in Riverside Park Bird Sanctuary
You might remember Sky Feather from its installation on 124th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem last year. Petros Chrisostomou‘s Sky Feather is now installed at the Riverside Park Bird Sanctuary as part of the Riverside Park Conservancy International Studio and Curatorial Program. The Bird Sanctuary runs from 116th Street to 124th Street inside Riverside Park. Sky Feather will be on view in the park through June 2016.
10. A Bench for the Night at MoMA PS1
Fanny Allie is known in New York CIty for her thoughtful life-size steel silhouette of the much loved Tompkins Square Park homeless man, Christopher Gamble. Her latest piece, A Bench for the Night, will be on display at MoMA PS1 in Queens until November 15, 2015.
9. Santiago Calatrava Sculptures on the Park Avenue Mall
Santiago Calatrava has seven of his sculptures on the Park Avenue Mall beginning at 52nd Street. These painted aluminum sculptures are sponsored by the NYC Parks, the Fund for Park Avenue and the Marlborough Gallery. The installation will be on view until November 15, 2015. See photos of all seven here.
8. The Living Pyramid
“The Living Pyramid” by artist Agnes Denes at Socrates Sculpture Park spans thirty feet at the base and ascends thirty feet high. It was created with several tons of soil and planted grasses. Socrates Sculpture Park also has four other artists with major installations on view until August 30, 2015, including Vera Lutter, whose recent exhibition at Gagosian Gallery showed a New York City inverted.
7. Fata Morgana at Madison Square Park
A 500-foot canopy of mirrored disks rises above the pathways around Madison Square Park in an installation by artist Teresita Fernandez. The installation named “Fata Morgana” acts as a reflective canopy and will mirror the different seasons between now and January 10, 2016.
6. Panorama on The High Line
Eleven artists are participating in The High Line’s current exhibit Panorama. This installation will take you from the newest High Line section bordering Hudson Yards to the home of the new Whitney Museum. The installation will be on view through March 2016. In addition, Olafur Eliasson’s interactive Lego-like installation “The Collectivity Project” will be on view until September 30, 2015.
5. Pierre Huyghe’s Roof Garden Commission at the Met Museum
The roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is an incredible palette for any artist. The current installation is a site-specific commission by French artist Pierre Huyghe, with a deconstruction of the roof floor. The Roof Garden Commission will be on view until November 1, 2015.
4. Fat Boy in Prospect Park
Leonard Ursachi‘s “Fat Boy” is carved from styrofoam and covered in cement-like material. It measures roughly 9.5 feet tall and 8.5 feet wide and will grace the lawn in Prospect Park until November 10, 2015. A companion piece – ‘Behind Fat Boy’ – will be hosted by Brooklyn Public Library until September 25, 2015.
3. Head of Goliath in Tribeca Park
Brooklyn based artist Nicholas Holiber’s four-foot long, colorful Head of Goliath was created completely out of trash. This installation will remain in Tribeca Park until September 2015.
2. Hello Kitty Time After Time Capsule
The Hello Kitty Time After Time Capsule is a work by Japanese artist Sebastian Masuda. The sculpture is among several that will be placed in cities around the world within the next five years, collecting items and mementos to be displayed in a single large-scale exhibition at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
The installation is located in the Dag Hammerskjold Plaza, and will be available for your donations until September 13, 2015.
1. Borrowed Light in Sunset Park
Borrowed Light by artist Sari Carel is a series of wooden sculptures arranged throughout Sunset Park in Brooklyn, with house speakers that amplify the surrounding natural soundscape. This installation will be on view until October 5, 2015.
You can read more about many of these installations in our June Guide to Outdoort Art. Contact the author at AFineLyne.
