With spring just around the corner, now is the perfect time to head outside and enjoy some of New York City’s latest public art installations. From the New York Botanical Garden’s yearly Orchid Show to Rockefeller Center’s #solotogether exhibition tackling the environmental crisis, there is something for everyone to enjoy and find inspiration in. This March, be sure to check out Times Square Arts’ latest edition of its Midnight Moments series or spot one of Aïda Muluneh’s photographs on a JCDecaux bus shelter. Here are the best public art installations to see in March 2023.
1. #solotogether at the Rockefeller Center
Beginning March 2nd, visitors to Rockefeller Center can view #solotogether, a two-part public art installation by Paula Crown. The first segment of the installation will feature the bronze sculpture Resilience. This sculpture alludes to the impact of single-use plastics on the environment. Standing at the start of the Channel Gardens, Resilience memorializes the collective suffering experienced under the COVID-19 pandemic in its reminder of humanity’s resilience even during the darkest of times.
The second segment of the installation, entitled Solo Together, will include an investigation into crushed solo cups through a cast sculpture floor installation, a new suite of photographs, recorded audio, and a site-specific wall piece—all displayed in the Rink Level Gallery. Through this portion of the exhibition, visitors will gain deeper insight into Crown’s meditations on the everyday object. Curated by Craig Drennen, #solotogether can be viewed through May 21, 2023.
2. This is where I am
From March 1st through May 21, 2023, the Public Art Fund will present This is where I am, a series of twelve photographs by Aïda Muluneh, an Ethiopian artist whose work utilizes her cultural heritage as a means to explore themes of history, politics, sense of place, and the climate crisis. For each photograph, Muluneh drew inspiration from Ethiopian poet Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin’s poem, “This is where I am,” produced in 1974—the same year Mulneh was born and the Ethiopian Revolution began. As a result, the photographs on display hold a deep personal connection to Muluneh and her heritage.
Through exploring Muluneh’s experiences as an immigrant and Ethiopian woman, This is where I am bridges the gap between the past and present in its reflection on Ethiopia’s various political regimes and usage of religious iconography. The photographs will be displayed across 330 JCDecaux bus shelters in New York City, Boston, Chicago, and Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire—marking the Public Art Fund’s first presentation of artwork on the African continent.
3. New York Botanical Garden Orchid Show
Through April 23, 2023, the New York Botanical Garden is hosting the 20th annual Orchid Show: Natural Heritage, celebrating the beauty and diversity of orchids in a grand thematic garden exhibition. This year’s design, created by artist Lily Kwong, is vibrant and meditative. Inspired by the artist’s ancestral connections to the natural world, the Orchid Show comes alive in the style of a 13th-century Chinese landscape painting. In turn, the Orchid Show allows its viewers to form their own connection to nature as they bask in the innate wonder of the surrounding flora.
Sponsoring the Orchid Show for the second year in a row is the French luxury beauty brand Guerlain, who alongside the New York Botanical Garden’s team of horticulturists curated an immersive array of orchids, enfolded into rolling mountains throughout the Enid A Haupt Conservatory. On select nights, adults 21 years or older can participate in Orchid Nights, featuring music, cash bars, and food for purchase.
4. We are Art at Chelsea Market
Head to the main concourse of Chelsea Market before March 15th to check out We Are Art, an exhibition featuring a collection of street art, fashion, and modern art that represents the ideas and philosophies of Chelsea Market. Curated by creative director Zaire Baptiste, We Are Art hosts work from Uncutt Art, the creator of the Protect Yo Heart movement, which seeks to inspire people to prioritize self-care and look after the condition of their heart from a spiritual standpoint. Alongside American Couture, Uncutt Art designed bespoke apparel and artwork derived from Afro-futurism and the Protect Yo Heart street-art aesthetic for the exhibition.
Other works in We are Art come from the latest collaboration between the Miles Davis estate and the Renaissance artist Voodoo Fe’. In addition, Brooklyn artist Camille Clavery’s fantasy collage work—combining historic, futuristic, and impactful images exploring the intersection between Black life, meaning, and opulence—will be on display.
5. Midnight Moment in Times Square
Times Square Arts presents the latest edition of its monthly art installation, Midnight Moment. This new iteration features a collection of digital paintings entitled Magic Move 4. Created by artist and software designer Katherine Frazer, Magic Move 4 depicts digitally manipulated presentation slides, sequenced via a default setting in Keynote known as “Magic Move.” Pulling images from the artist’s archive, the installation subverts the presentation software and productivity applications designed by Frazer to create layers that extend, cascade, rotate, and dance around the frame in a never-ending loop.
Much of Frazer’s work is inspired by Ikebana—a process-oriented style of Japanese floral arrangements—which can be seen in the 3D scans of floral bouquets used throughout the three-minute video. Through her new digital arrangements, Frazer presents audiences with snippets of the physical world, merging the boundaries between digital and material mediums. Accompanying Magic Move 4 is a musical score embodying the ambiance of a slow peaceful afternoon, curated by Estle, an electronic music project created by Keegan Gomm, a Toronto-based artist.
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