11. An Exhibition About a Prolific NYC Public Artist
The Family. Beach Channel High School, 1974. 100-00 Beach Channel Drive, Queens, NY. Photo by Lea Bertucci. Courtesy of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture Archive, The Cooper Union.
You may not know the name of Italian sculptor Costantino Nivola off the top of your head, but New York City is home to the largest collection of his sculpture in the world. He was responsible for 21 commissions here, often in public buildings like schools and police stations, of which 17 still exist in places like William E. Grady High School on Coney Island and Beach Channel High School in Queens. Now, a new exhibition, Nivola in New York: Figure in Field, at the Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery at The Cooper Union has just opened that highlights his New York City works.
The exhibition focuses on four of his New York City works: Nivola’s first New York City commission — a 76-foot long wall relief in the Olivetti showroom, the “Apple store of its time,” a 1953 sandcast basrelief cartouche on the south façade of Coney Island’s William E. Grady High School, a collection of sculptures and bas relief works in the Stephen Wise Recreation Area on the Upper West Side, and bronze statuettes and plaques on the 19th Precinct Combined Police and Fire Facilities on the Upper East Side.
We will be hosting a free walking tour of Nivola’s works in conjunction with the exhibition on March 9th. The exhibition will be up until March 15, 2020.
