While there are still a few weeks of summer left, NYC is starting to catch glimpses of the fall. Those crisp autumn days are perfect for heading outside and visiting new art installations. This month, New Yorkers have so many opportunities to engage with public works of art, from a massive new sculpture coming to Central Park to a parade of illuminated lanterns in Upper Manhattan. Check out all of the art coming in September!
1. Parabolic Light by Fred Eversley
Science and craft converge in Fred Eversley’s first public sculpture to be presented in New York, titled Parabolic Light. Starting September 7, at the southeast entrance of Central Park and the Doris C. Freedman Plaza, you can walk among the largest segment of Eversley’s Cylindrical Lens series. The artist, in collaboration with the Public Art Fund, has installed a striking, 12-foot-tall lens made of magenta-tinted cast polyurethane. The presentation represents a continuation of the lens series that Eversley envisioned in 1970 but didn’t start implementing until 2022. It serves as an outdoor focal point, a place where people may instinctively be prompted to pause and engage with a rare object of grandeur.
Untapped Central Park Walking Tour
Fred Eversley’s notoriety skyrocketed in the early 1970s, and his reputation solidified as a pioneer of the West Coast Light and Space art movements. His scientific background as an aerospace engineer and electrical engineering graduate has been at the forefront of all his kinetic art, most commonly his sculptures that center on the parabola—the only shape that concentrates all forms of energy, like light, sound, and heat. Parabolic Light is also the first outdoor placement of Eversley’s parabolic silhouette forms to date and will be on display until August 2024.