Public Art Fund 2 Orchids Untapped Cities AFineLyne copy

At an entrance to Central Park on 60th Street and 5th Avenue, you can always count on a great art installation by the Public Art Fund. Most recently, an old-school vintage looking street clock was running backwards – a piece by Alicja Kwade installed in October 2015. Installed yesterday on the Doris C. Freedman Plaza, is Two Orchids by German artist Isa Genzken. Genzken was the subject of a retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art in 2013.

The work here, featuring two enormous orchid flowers at 28 feet and 34 feet tall, is a commentary on the ubiquity of the once-rare and exotic flowers. The Public Art Fund describes as an “idealized, colossal version of the familiar plant: a civic monument to the perfect orchid, now the chosen ornament of contemporary culture…the mass-produced white orchid has become the quintessential flower of our age: global, accessible, and open to interpretation” 


Isa Genzken Two Orchids Untapped Cities AFineLyne
Doris C. Freedman Two Orchids Untapped Cities AFineLyne

Isa Genzken Two Orchids Public Art Fund Untapped Cities AFineLyne copy

The two flowers come replete with the mass produced bands that keep the orchids growing tall, and make a nice contrast both to the naturalistic, yet also man-made landscape of Central Park, and the landmarked Plaza Hotel.

Next, check out more art installations not to miss in NYC this month.