Studio in the Park’s ‘Chance Ecologies’ Takes an In-Depth Look at NYC’s Flushing River

For years, New York City parks and green spaces have featured artwork and exhibitions for public consumption. Some examples of this are The Art Students League Model to Monument series in Riverside Park and Isa Genzken’s Two Flowers statues in Central Park. On July 2nd, the Queens Museum in partnership with ArtBuilt Mobile Studios and NYC Parks announced the return of the Studio in the Park series with the exhibit Chance Ecologies: Flushing River. The exhibit which opened in July and will have a six-week residency in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

Photo via Queens Museum

Chance Ecologies: Flushing River is the third event curated by Catherine Grau and Nathan Kensinger, who have worked on two other iterations of the exhibit in the past. Grau is a Queens-based artist who works with public and participatory art and Kensinger is a Brooklyn-based photographer, filmmaker and installation artist. According to the Queens Museum website, the purpose of Chance Ecologies is to “create an in-depth exploration of the entirety of the Flushing River” including its long industrial history and the manmade ecosystems in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

The exhibit features a group of artists who will take turns displaying their “artistic gestures and research projects” both inside and outside of the 150-square-foot mobile studio. Some of the featured artists, who will have weeklong “mini residencies” in the studio are Joiann Bittle, Christopher Kennedy, Nate Dorr and Maya Edelman. The works created by these artists include performative pieces, ecological field trips, and historical and scientific investigations that link the history of the river to the art itself. The events from the past two weeks of the exhibition included a Willow Lake walk along a manmade part of the Flushing River and a photo walk from the Studio in the Park to the mouth of the river.

Chance Ecologies will end its six-week long residency on August 15. For more information on the upcoming events, visit the Chance Ecology and the Queens Museum website. Chance Ecologies: Flushing River is free and open to the public.

Next, check out 13 NYC Art Installations and Exhibits Not to Miss in July and an NYC Mural by Graffiti Artist Unveiled at Ascenzi Square in Williamsburg. Connect with the author @jen_bagcal.