Olaf Breuning and the Public Art Fund's "Clouds" in Central Park

Olaf Breuning, in conjunction with the Public Art Fund recently unveiled his art installation called "Clouds" in Central Park at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Sixtieth Street. The installation consists of bright blue aluminum clouds held aloft by 35-foot-tall steel supports. 

Meatpacking District Construction Site Art: "Crystalline Time"

There's a new light projection public art at a construction site in the Meatpacking District across from the Standard Hotel. "Crystalline Time" is a 15-foot tall artwork featuring blue and purple trapezoids stretching more than 100 feet across the façade of 837 Washington Street, a future retail and office building near the High Line. The light projection art is created by Chris Jordan and the marketing agency DBOX. It was selected by developers Thor Equities and Taconic Investment Partners.

Double Doily Sculpture

Jennifer Cecere created a doily-inspired public sculpture in the plaza at Whitehall & Water Streets in Lower Manhattan. The artist's goal is "to create a feeling of handmade craft in the built environment highlighting forgotten traditions. Doilies were invented by industrious women to hide and protect worn & frayed furnishings." It is a unique, beautiful and functional structure in the pedestrian plaza.

Alexandre Arrechea's Elastic Sculptures of Iconic New York City Buildings

Sculptures of iconic New York City buildings are on display along the Park Avenue Malls from 53rd Street to 67th Street in "No Limits," Cuban artist Alexandre Arrechea’s first ever public art exhibition in New York City. The monumental sculptures feature "elastic architecture as a metaphor for the challenges and opportunities of shifting conditions and new realities." The buildings represented in the exhibit include the Chrysler Building, Citicorp Center, Empire State Building, Flatiron Building, Helmsley Building, MetLife Building, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, Seagram Building, Sherry Netherland, and US Courthouse. The exhibit continues through June 9, 2013.

"Survival of Serena" on Display at Petrosino Square

Video by Alvaro Corzo - corzo360.com

Carole Feuerman’s new painted bronze sculpture, "Survival of Serena," measuring 38"h x 84"l x 32"w, was first unveiled in Petrosino Square on May 20, 2012 located at the lively intersection of SoHo, Little Italy, and Chinatown (Lafayette Street, Kenmare Street, Cleveland Pl.). The beautiful piece is displayed in the northern corner of the park facing Spring Street, and will be on view through September 26, 2012. This exhibition was made possible through NYC Parks and Recreation and the sculpture is on loan courtesy of Jim Kempner Fine Art where another Feuerman sculpture has been exhibited (see previous post here.)

"How I Roll" - Rotating Plane Sculpture By Paola Pivi At Doris Freedman Plaza In Central Park

The Public Art Fund is presenting a new sculpture by Paola Pivi called "How I Roll" at the Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park. The piece is a modified six-seat Piper Seneca plane that rotates through 360 degrees while held aloft on its wing tips above the sidewalk. The sculpture is part of a series featuring large machines that have been taken out of their usual context including an upside-down helicopter and an overturned tractor-trailer. The public art installation creates the striking and surreal experience of a familiar object perched in an unexpected location doing a very unfamiliar motion. It looks more dramatic in the presence of cars and horse-drawn carriages on the street right below it, as captured in the photo above. The exhibition continues through August 26, 2012.

Kiki Smith's Stained-Glass Stars Art Installation "Chorus" Pays Tribute to Josephine Baker

CHORUS by Kiki Smith is the latest art installation at The Last Lot project space on 46th Street and 8th Avenue in Manhattan's theatre district. Presented by the Art Production Fund and supported by UBS, CHORUS is comprised of multicolored stained-glass stars clustered throughout the lot. The free standing sculptures range from 18 inches to six feet in height and are a kaleidoscope of hand-blown, translucent, iridized, modeled, and cathedral glass. Among the stars is a figure of Josephine Baker, the American-born French burlesque dancer, singer and actress in the 1920’s. As a tribute to Baker, the rainbow-colored stars evoke the glitz and glamor of Broadway and the Theater District surrounding the installation site. “As the sun shines through and glitters upon the translucent and opaque glass, the stars will contrast with the raw urban lot,” explained Smith. 

Josephine Baker was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture. She was also the quintessential entertainer of her era. Baker is also known for her support of the Civil Rights Movement and for her family of adopted children from all over the world, whom she called “The Rainbow Tribe.” Baker served as a muse to several influential artists based in Paris at the time such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Pablo Picasso. Smith, whose work often explores feminist themes through depictions of the female body and women from history and mythology, is drawn to the complexity of Baker’s career as an erotic and primitivist performer/showgirl, and a social and political activist. The Last Lot is a generous short-term donation to Art Production Fund from The Shubert Organization, and is part of the Times Square Alliance’s public art program that works to bring cutting-edge art to Times Square. The display continues through September 4, 2012. (information obtained from the Times Square Alliance website).

Stained Glass Art On Elevated Subway Stations In the Bronx

A series of colored-glass panels on the elevated subway stations in the Bronx has been acclaimed as an exemplary work of public art. The artworks are made of pieces of faceted glass, which are about an inch thick and are held together by epoxy, for durability in harsh outdoor environments. Pictured above are two artworks installed on the Nereid Avenue station.

"Desert Rooftops", A Sculpture Installation at an Empty Lot in Times Square by David Brooks

The Art Production Fund is presenting an art installation by David Brooks called “Desert Rooftops” at 46th Street and Eighth Avenue. The installation is worth noting not only for its size and unusual look but also for the fact that it’s built on top of the last empty lot in one of the densest neighborhoods in all of Manhattan. The installation uses asphalt-shingled rooftops to create a vision of an overdeveloped land in a dynamic composition reminiscent of a rolling, dune-like landscape. The sculpture is picturesque and familiar, offering a much-needed sense of humor to help digest the somber environmental issues we face today. Brooks' sculpture references art history, giving a nod to artist Robert Smithson's earthworks and artist Gordon Matta-Clark's building cuts. The installation will be up until February 5, 2012. David Brooks is an American sculptor and installation artist whose work considers the relationship between the individual and the built and natural environment. He obtained his BFA from the Cooper Union and his MFA from Columbia University. 

TORNADO By Michael Sailstorfer

This is the new art installation at the Doris Freedman Plaza in Central Park near The Plaza. "Tornado" is the first public commission in the United States by Berlin-based artist Michael Sailstorfer. It is a powerful response to the attributes of the site, for which it was conceived, and to the epic scale of New York City.

Rising more than 30 feet to meet the treetops of Central Park, Tornado brings together a series of opposite terms. It combines lightness and weight, with looming black “clouds” made from inflated truck tire inner tubes that gently shift in the breeze. Its muscular steel armature zigzags from top to bottom while the ballooning rubber forms that hang in bunches from its spiraling arms are knotted together in bulging clusters. Like a tornado, which is violently powerful but also literally made of air, Sailstorfer’s towering work provides a visceral experience of sculptural form and materials in tension, massive but also vulnerable.

Tornado is the largest in a series of the artist’s sculptures that draw on rubber tires, inner tubes, and ideas of movement and velocity. Much of his work engages with natural forces and the way we perceive them through form and physical space. At the same time, there is often a hint of whimsy in Sailstorfer’s art, conjuring a sense of playfulness, backyard experimentation, and visual wit. The exhibit runs through February 19, 2012. (Information from the Art in the Parks website.) 

Meeting Bowls: Urban Furniture in Times Square

Video showing a meeting bowl in gentle rocking motion

Meeting Bowls are temporary and playful urban furniture recently installed in Times Square at Broadway and 46th Street. The public furniture is designed for meeting and getting to know people, group discussions and friendly dialogue between strangers in a close yet pleasant space in the "crossroads of the world." Looking more like baskets, the fixtures are part of a month long outdoor art experiment on urban furniture. Each of the three Meeting Bowls are made from CNC cut fiber board. Spanish artists designed and constructed a prototype in Spain and sent the digital drawings to a fabricator in New Jersey who produced the final pieces. Each bowl seats up to 8 persons. The installation is a creation of mmmm..., a collaboration of Alberto Alarcon, Emilio Alarcon, Ciro Marquez and Eva Salmeron from Madrid, Spain. The public art project continues through September 16.