Art Hag

Chinatown NYC Street Art

Chinatown Mural Project's Dragon Lion Medley, 140 East Broadway

A quick trip to Manhattan’s Chinatown this week offered the opportunity to check out some great street art.

First off was the Chinatown Mural Project’s exuberant Dragon Lion Medley on the exterior of Chinatown Lumber at 140 East Broadway. A collaboration between community activist Karlin Chan and artist Peach Tao @peacheeblue, the mural features a festive dragon and lion dance amid neighborhood fixtures such as PS 23, Church of the Transfiguration, and Wo Hop and Hop Kee restaurants.

The Chinatown Mural Project was founded earlier this year to install similar charming and “culturally appropriate” murals across the historic lower Manhattan neighborhood that “reflect the cultural and daily lives of residents of Chinatown,” according to the organization’s Facebook page. The initiative aims to attract tourists back to the once bustling neighborhood with Instagram-ready “selfie spots” and help the local businesses that have struggled during the pandemic.

Other Chinatown Mural Project works include Zodiac Dim Sum, the twelve Chinese astrology animals happily dining on dumplings and buns; Mahjong Social, featuring four pigeons playing the tile-based game; and Noodle Shop, starring a scallion-chopping tiger and a white rabbit serving up a bowl of noodles. The murals are filled with detail and whimsy and are sure to delight residents and visitors of all ages. There's a Go Fund Me page to help pay for supplies for Chinatown Mural Project. Click here to contribute.

MADSTEEZ, tribute to Kobe and Gianna Bryant, exterior of Emma Lazarus High School, Eldridge Street

BKFOXX, One Man's Trash (is a mouse's treasure), exterior of Emma Lazarus High School, Eldridge Street

On the wall of Emma Lazarus High School over on Eldridge Street (at the corner of Hester) are two recent murals curated by @eastvillagewalls. Street artist Mark Paul Deren @madsteez painted a touching tribute to the late LA Laker Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna who were killed in a plane crash in January. To the right is BKFOXX’s One Man’s Trash (is a mouse’s treasure), a stunning photorealistic ode to the Year of the Rat featuring a larger-than-life white rodent surveying his collection of golden trinkets.

BKFOXX, The Wrath of God, 69 Eldridge Street

@AdamFu and @SurfaceofBeauty on Hester near corner of Eldridge Street

On the opposite side of Hester Street, one block up, is BKFOXX’s The Wrath of God, an eerie black-and-white image of a mask-wearing skull. Just around the corner on Hester is a soothing collaboration between Adam K. Fujita @adamfu and Natasha May Platt @surfaceofbeauty. The piece features a striking neon violet heart by Fujita surrounding a delicate floral arrangement by Platt.

277 Grand Street

Sidewalk koi on Walker Street

@budha_delight, 7 Allen Street

@budha_delight, 7 Allen Street

Greetings from Chinatown, Allen & Division Streets

The cheerful postcard-like mural, Greetings from Chinatown, welcomes everyone at the intersection of Allen and Division Streets. The proud and loud ode to Chinatown was created in 2014 by artists Victor Ving and Lisa Beggs.

Large-scale letters spelling Chinatown contain landmarks and images found throughout the neighborhood, including a lucky cat, the Manhattan Bridge, the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory mascot, Canal Street "Louis Vuitton" bags, the Fung Wah bus, and Nom Wah Tea Parlor. After completing this eye-catching mural, the couple set out in an RV on a mission to create postcard murals in every state. They’ve completed 44 so far. Learn more at greetingstour.com and @greetingstour.

Take a trip to Chinatown and search for more street art yourself, and remember to support the small businesses while you're there.

Davina Semo: Reverberation | Brooklyn Bridge Park

Davina Semo: Reverberation at Brooklyn Bridge Park

Last week I finally went to check out Davina Semo’s public art piece Reverberation which debuted back in August at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Presented by the Public Art Fund, the installation features five four-foot-tall cast bronze orange bells suspended 14 feet high on Pier 1 overlooking Lower Manhattan.

In homage to the waterfront park’s maritime past, visitors are encouraged to ring the bells to “enliven the New York City waterfront and contribute to the urban soundscape,” the Park’s website states. Designed in an elongated buoy-like shape, each bell was given a unique name—Dreamer, Listener, Mother, Reflector, and Singer.

Davina Semo: Reverberation

 

Semo drilled holes through the surface of the bells, giving them individual perforated patterns that emit “subtle nuances in their tones when rung” and “create constellations of light in their darkened interiors and staccato patterns on their exterior shells,” according to publicartfund.org. Supported by a hulking frame made of industrial galvanized steel, each bell is painted in a pearlescent bright orange to mimic the “international color of urgent alarm” and draw attention to these “precarious times” marked by social unrest and a deadly pandemic.

“During this turbulent year, auditory interventions have characterized our collective experience, whether through the evening cheers for essential workers or the chanting voices of protesters demanding justice,” notes Public Art Fund curator Daniel S. Palmer. Reverberation welcomes visitors to contribute to and connect with the urban symphony by ringing the bells on “an optimistic note.”

Davina Semo: Reverberation

Davina Semo: Reverberation

Davina Semo: Reverberation

Born in Washington, D.C., Semo received a BA in Visual Arts from Brown University and her MFA from UC San Diego. The artist is currently based in San Francisco. See more of her industrial sculptures—composed with bronze, mirrors, ball bearings, chains, concrete, and more—at artsy.net or davinasemo.net.

Davina Semo: Reverberation
Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 1
On view from August 20, 2020 through April 18, 2021

Gowanus Reflection | Documenting A Changing Neighborhood

Gowanus Reflection: View from Carroll Street bridge, December 2013

The spring-like weather this weekend will be perfect for a Gowanus scavenger hunt! The husband-and-wife filmmaking team behind the documentary Gowanus Current have taken ten stills out of their hundreds of hours of footage and posted them at the original locations throughout the neighborhood where they were shot.

Jamie Courville and Chris Reynolds began filming Gowanus Current in 2013, documenting the rapid transformation of the former industrial district, from the demolition of old factory buildings to the construction of new luxury residences, a Whole Foods, and numerous hotels, bars, and restaurants. At the center of the neighborhood is the Gowanus Canal, a 1.8-mile-long toxic body of water designated a Superfund Site by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2010. With the agency’s cleanup of the polluted waterway finally beginning along with the impending rezoning of Gowanus—which will bring with it thousands of new residents, more commercial space and taller buildings—this once gritty neighborhood will soon become a very different place.

The Brooklyn-based couple were living in Gowanus when they started the film and witnessed firsthand the gentrification of the neighborhood, seeing longtime businesses close and residents move out, they told Brownstoner in 2014. They’ve attended countless city meetings in the neighborhood and documented various local events, like the environmental activist swimming the fetid canal in 2015. They also interviewed community members and even set up a phone line for neighbors to call and leave their personal stories about Gowanus.

Gowanus Reflection: Southeast corner of Union and Nevins, October 2013

Gowanus Reflection: Public Place site, March 2014

View from photo Gowanus Reflection: Public Place site, March 2014

Gowanus Reflection: Burns Brothers coal pockets demolitions, April 2014

When completed Gowanus Current will show “the neighborhood becoming an entertainment destination, losing artists and small manufacturers, and entering an era of increasing community awareness,” the filmmakers state on their website. “Neighborhood icons like the beloved Kentile sign are dismantled, while new landmarks like the 700-unit 365 Bond apartments gradually rise up. In the wake of the transformative rezoning plan, local groups struggle to have their needs addressed. This film will continue to explore the changes to the community as these mounting conflicts finally reach their resolution with the city’s decision on rezoning in the coming months.”

Their outdoor photo exhibit, Gowanus Reflection, will be on display from October 29 through November 11. The framed 8 x 11-inch prints, mounted onto sign posts and fences, offer a sneak peek of the in-progress film. “In some cases, they reflect a dramatic remaking of the landscape. In others, the changes are more subtle,” the filmmakers wrote in a Facebook post. The couple welcomes feedback on the photos on their website where you can also find a map of the photo locations. Visit gowanuscurrent.com to learn more.

View from photo Gowanus Reflection: Kentile Floors sign, June 2014

Gowanus Reflection: Gowanus Dredgers boat house, February 2014

View from photo Gowanus Reflection: Gowanus Dredgers boat house, February 2014

Gowanus Reflection
Various locations across Gowanus, Brooklyn
On view through November 11, 2020

Made by Ellie | Hand-Knit Monsters Take A Bite Out of Trump

Ellie d'Eustachio, Eat the Monsters #9, 2020

Over the past few months adults and children alike have delighted in discovering colorful knit creatures devouring Donald Trump across the city. Artist Ellie d’Eustachio began this public art series, Eat the Monsters, to bring some humor and cheer into our lives during a challenging year.

Frustrated with the Trump administration and social injustice, including the separation of families at the border and police violence, d’Eustachio needed a creative release. “It just felt like no matter what I did, nothing would help, but I wanted to express my fury without being super violent so I put up an octopus,” she explained at the opening of her debut exhibit on Saturday. The work featured a knit Trump entangled in the tentacle of a giant pink cephalopod. She followed that with a dinosaur feasting on the president and the series grew to include a menagerie of woolen creatures comically chomping on the Commander in Chief.

“I tried to choose these animals that could potentially be monsters in our eyes but have them not being the monster in the picture—Donald Trump being the monster,” d’Eustachio noted. According to the artist, the series addresses “what we think monsters are and who really is the monster in our lives. It’s not actually about Donald Trump” but about the entire “administration, the patriarchy, and racism…. More than just one person is a monster, and getting rid of Trump is not going to fix the situation.” she noted. “It’s just very easy to knit a Donald Trump.”

Her little orange figures with wispy yellow hair are so arresting that many of the knit presidents have been taken from her public art pieces. “In the last couple of months, people have been stealing just the Donald Trump off of all my art, and even when I go and put another Donald Trump up, they’ll often steal it again,” she said. A work she installed at Grand Army Plaza in August—a pink crab with the president in its claw—had its Trump likeness stolen just weeks later. That piece, Eat the Monsters #3, is included in the current exhibit, complete with a new Trump. “Someone is either a critic or really likes it, I don’t know. Someone might have a shrine of Donald Trump somewhere,” she mused.

Ellie d'Eustachio's Lady, Eat the Monsters #11, Tiger, Eat the Monsters #12, all 2020

Ellie d'Eustachio, Eat the Monsters #10

Ellie d'Eustachio, Eat the Monsters #8

Raised near Washington, DC, d’Eustachio received her BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Always creative, she took up knitting at the age of five. “My mom and my grandmother don’t knit, but my great grandmother was such an incredible knitter that they really wanted someone [in the family] to knit, so my mom learned a very basic knit stitch just to teach me,” she recalled. Today, she sells knitting patterns and has had items produced by an organic children’s clothing company.

She installed her first public art piece in her Flatbush neighborhood two years ago because she felt uneasy walking past the dark yard of a vacant lot late at night. "I knit this huge lion with a smile on its face and flowers and put it on the fence,” she said. “Every night when I walked home at 1am, there was this big lion there. It made it a lot better.”

“I didn’t really think of it as art right away, and I didn’t really think of it as valid street art because it’s not graffiti,” she said of her early works. “I think sometimes [knitting is] not taken as an art form because women do it and you also don’t learn it at an art school, you learn it in your home,” she continued. “It should be an art. Folk art is an art form.”

“I’m realizing more and more that I want to stand up for knitting as an art form because I think it goes hand-in-hand with protest art,” she continued. “It’s a very feminine craft and because of that it’s also a great way to kind of stand up to the man with it. It’s a great protest form because it comes from the home, so it’s an art form of the people.”

Ellie d'Eustachio, Eat the Monsters #11, 2020

Ellie d'Eustachio, Eat the Monsters #12, 2020

Photo of Ellie d'Eustachio's wolf on Union Street taken Jan. 29, 2020.

After debuting her cheerful lion in Flatbush, d’Eustachio began hanging various inspirational messages and charming critters throughout the city, including a wolf, whose gaping mouth is about to swallow the diamond-shaped window of a construction barrier. “I really like site-specific art,” she said. “Through the window you could see the skyline…. I walked by it for a whole month before I made the wolf. I was like it needs something eating it!” The wolf hung at the site of a former gas station on Union Street for weeks until one day it disappeared. “Every single staple was carefully picked out and the wolf was gone,” d’Eustachio said. “Someone came and adopted it, I guess.”

The artist takes the disappearance of her works in stride. “You make public art and you put it out into the world. I feel you can’t get too grumpy about people taking it,” she said. “I’d rather it get stolen and enjoyed, maybe not immediately, but a couple of weeks in. If someone steals it then it’s going to live in a good home,” she said, adding that after a few months the works begin to get worn by the elements anyway.

For her current show, the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club gave d’Eustachio a hand in installing an eight-foot-long pink alligator “victoriously devouring Donald Trump” along the Carroll Street Bridge, not far from the Dredgers' boathouse where the exhibit is on view. As a small team in a canoe installed the piece, a woman passing “just burst into laughter,” d’Eustachio said. “This is why public art is so important, especially during the pandemic.”

She hopes all of the works in her exhibit evoke a similar response and inspire people to take action. “I think laughter is really important right now,” d’Eustachio said. “I also think anyone can eat the monsters…. Speaking out right now is incredibly important.... I think the takeaway message would be that everyone can go home and eat the monsters in their lives.”

Ellie d'Eustachio's 8-foot pink alligator takes a bite of Trump by the Carroll Street Bridge, Gowanus

Drawings by Ellie d'Eustachio on view at the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club Boathouse

Ellie d'Eustachio stands beside her knit artworks Eat the Monsters #7, #3, and #6 during the opening reception for her exhibit Made by Ellie. The center work was originally installed at Grand Army Plaza across from Prospect Park.

Made by Ellie
Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club Boathouse, 165 2nd Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn
On view from Oct. 24 through Nov. 29, 2020 (see gowanusdredgers.org for hours)

A series of programs will accompany the Made by Ellie exhibit in the coming weeks. If you missed the opening reception on Saturday, check out the Dia de los Muertos celebration happening this Friday (Oct. 30) where d’Eustachio will collaborate on a community ofrenda. More info here.

Tamara Staples | New Video Portraits Explore Light And Memory

Photographer Tamara Staples debuted a new four-channel video work during the Arts Gowanus on Atlantic Ave opening over the weekend. A stack of four televisions display her intimate “moving portraits,” examining the power of lighting and questioning our sense of memory.

“Time and memory are at the heart of this work,” according to the artist. “The video captures the ever-changing content of our faces and demands the viewer to mistrust any static images ever experienced. In a sense, it proves the uncertainty of all our judgements.”

“I’ve always been fascinated by how lighting can really create a personality and change how quickly we see…or just make generalizations about [people], from making them look more feminine or more masculine, younger or older…the lighting is everything,” Staples said on Saturday.

The project—three years in the making—began with Staples designing a special crank-operated light which a friend in the film industry built for her. Staples filmed her models for about two minutes each, hand-cranking the light to make it circle around each subjects’ head. As the light revolves, it increases the brightness or casts shadows on each models’ face, seeming to instantly transform their expressions, dispositions, and features. The mesmerizing effects may make some viewers wonder at times if they are still looking at the same person! See an excerpt at the artist's website. 

“As I started to crank, it’s as if everything disappears the moment the light moves away from [a face],” Staples said. Seeing these rapid transitions led her to think about identity and “how we are often wrong when we think we can identify someone.” She began to question our ability to remember someone’s appearance based on “little snippets” or quick glimpses. Our brains are “geared to short-term thinking and we’re not really able to recognize people the way we think we are,” she argues.

Staples shot more than 20 models of diverse ages and backgrounds. She experimented with various expressions, tried adding movement, and tried shooting some in black and white. Approximately a dozen models are featured in the final work which runs on a 22-minute loop on four unsynchronized television screens.

Staples worked with an editor over the summer to cut the hours of footage, capturing the “best frames, the best lighting, or the expression for that moment.” She also manipulated the speed of the videos during the editing stage. “Some are slowed down…because some people are maybe moving a little quickly and it’s disconcerting. I wanted it all to be much slower so that you’re really getting the nooks and crannies of their faces.”

Staples studied photography at the University of Florida and lived in Chicago before moving to Brooklyn in 1999. Based in South Slope, she has participated in five Gowanus Open Studios. “I love having that stream of people…. As an artist it’s great to have that rotating crop of enthusiastic art lovers because we can talk about the work,” she said. “As an artist you kind of know what you’re doing, but you’re not quite sure, you have to talk it out.” She thinks this year’s alternate event—the socially-distanced art walk—is “brilliant,” noting “people are really coming down, they’re dying to see artwork. We’re all missing that, so I am thrilled.”

Tamara Staples' video installation on view at Out Of The Closet, 475 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Tamara Staples’ video portraits are on view at Out Of The Closet, 475 Atlantic Avenue, until November 1, 2020 as part of the Arts Gowanus on Atlantic Ave Art Walk. Learn more about the event at artsgowanus.org. Go to tamarastaplesfineartphotography.com for more about the artist.
[Note: Due to the sun, the best time to see Staples’ installation is after 4pm.]

Eye Smile You Smile | Public Art Spreads Joy on Atlantic Ave

Artist Miguel Ayuso with his wife Beth and their daughters Max and Lola.

Dozens of smiling faces greet passersby from a construction barricade on the northwest corner of Atlantic Avenue and Hoyt Street where artist Miguel Ayuso has installed his public art piece, Eye Smile You Smile. Inspired by the face coverings worn to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Ayuso has exhibited a series of side-by-side portraits of participating New Yorkers—one with a face covering and one without—to reveal their hidden smiles.

“Now that we are in quarantine, we are wearing these masks [for] the purpose of caring for ourselves but also for each other,” explained Ayuso on Saturday during the opening of Arts Gowanus on Atlantic Ave. “All in a sudden [the masks] became something more aesthetic, like an art statement or a fashion statement… What we’re missing are the smiles which, when we care for somebody, are something we wish to see. My idea with this installation is to show that those smiles are still there.”

Ayuso first requested two photos from volunteers—with mask and without—in late April. Participants were asked to smile in both images. He debuted Eye Smile You Smile in May in the window of his gallery La Bodega. Johnny Thornton, the Executive Director of Arts Gowanus, invited Ayuso to recreate the installation for the Arts Gowanus on Atlantic Ave event. “I think it was a good idea because when I did it at La Bodega, it was the very beginning of the pandemic, and even though it was accessible to the public, not a lot of people were going out, so this is a better opportunity to show it again, now that we are a little bit more relaxed,” Ayuso said. The artist also enjoyed revisiting the project because this time around he was able to work on a larger scale, creating 11 x 17 inch portraits instead of the 4 x 7 inch images he previously displayed. 

Thornton was formerly the Gallery Director at La Bodega, a beloved art gallery and community space in South Slope. Due to the pandemic, Ayuso was forced to permanently shutter the space in June after three years. Even without a physical location, Ayuso is carrying on La Bodega’s mission of offering “cultural artistic activities” to the community. He hosted several of the venue’s popular figure drawing sessions at Prospect Park over the summer and is trying to continue those “in a safe way” as the days get shorter and colder. While Ayuso hopes to open another brick-and-mortar location in the future, he says right now he’s “regrouping to see what the next step is going to be.”

    La Catrina Enmascarada on view at Betty Bakery, 448 Atlantic Avenue

Detail of Miguel Ayuso's Eye Smile You Smile on view at Atlantic Avenue & Hoyt Street

Head over to Betty Bakery at 448 Atlantic Avenue to see a another work by Ayuso, a vibrant reinterpretation of José Guadalupe Posada’s iconic Dia de los Muertos image La Calavera Catrina. According to Ayuso, Posada’s illustration of a well-dressed skeleton represents a wealthy woman. “The idea is to show that we are all going to the same place after this life, no matter how much money we have here or how our life was here. We all go to the same end,” he said.

Ayuso’s La Catrina Enmascarada wears a face mask to echo Posada’s original message of unity. “It doesn’t matter who you are, everybody has to wear the masks. We’re all going through the same thing,” Ayuso said. “This is temporary and at some point, we are going to stop wearing these masks and the smiles are going to start coming back slowly.”

Miguel Ayuso’s Eye Smile You Smile is located at the northwest corner of Atlantic Avenue & Hoyt Street and La Catrina Enmascarada at Betty Bakery, 448 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn. Both works are part of the Arts Gowanus on Atlantic Ave Art Walk, on view through November 1, 2020. Learn more about the event at artsgowanus.org. Follow Miguel Ayuso at @themexiyorker.

 

Upcycling | A Group Exhibit that Transforms Trash into Treasure

Upcycling is on view at 357 Atlantic Avenue through November 1

As part of the massive Arts Gowanus on Atlantic Ave event that opened this past weekend, six Brooklyn-based artists are exhibiting works created with discarded materials. Upcycling, on display in the window of the bright blue vacant storefront at 357 Atlantic Avenue, wonderfully demonstrates art composed with items that otherwise would have wound up in a landfill.

“Upcycling is all about taking things that have been discarded or unwanted and transferring them or translating them into something with more purpose and more value,” explained Park Slope-based artist Tracy Penn on Saturday afternoon. Penn, who curated the Upcycling exhibit, uses discarded produce bags to create “misaligned” grid-like impressions in her textural encaustic paintings.

Unable to host its popular Open Studios event this year due to the pandemic, Arts Gowanus joined the Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District to present a socially-distanced, self-guided art walk, exhibiting work by Brooklyn-based artists in the windows of 65 participating storefronts along 1.5 miles of Atlantic Avenue, spanning 4th Avenue to Hicks Street. When the organization announced an open call for submissions for the event, Penn quickly sent her idea of “featuring artists who work with upcycled materials.” 

“Most of my work uses upcycled material and it’s something that I’ve really embraced in terms of the idea of transformation, of taking something that’s been discarded and transforming it into something new,” Penn said. “I’ve always cared about the environment…this is environmentally friendly, but more because of the value added by using these materials and creating something more.”

Six Artists Featured in Upcycling

Along with Penn’s recent encaustic piece, Stronger By the Minute, other works showcased in Upcycling include an aggressive rooster puppet by Manju Shandler created with a cast plastic rooster head, spray foam, mesh, toothpicks, tulle, ostrich feathers, and glass beads, and Mark Anthony McLeod’s pair of dapper figures whose grinning faces are illuminated by the flashes of old-school Instamatic cameras.

Dara Oshin's Nesting, The Gatherer, and Belief, all 2018; Manju Shandler's Cock n Guf 1, 2016

Ward Yoshimoto, You Talk Out Your Ass With a Forked Tongue, 2016; Mark Anthony McLeod's LEVELS and SELF CARE IS, both 2020

Marlene Weisman, Saved Souls No. 18 Gamila Gavini, Seamstress, 2018

A trio from Dara Oshin’s Nest series combines her abstract egg images with both natural and man-made found objects including seeds, two-dollar bills, chains, and dryer lint tucked into small drawers. Four works from Marlene Weisman’s Saved Souls series juxtapose antique tintype images with ephemera and found objects such as newspaper clippings, dice, buttons, and jewelry. And three pieces commenting on the 2016 election from a series by Ward Yoshimoto feature found objects, many unearthed at Dead Horse Bay, including pig figurines, fencing material, doll heads, and trophies.

More About the Curator

A graduate of Boston University, Penn has “always circled the drain” of creativity, working in photography and interior design and toiling in marketing and advertising for years in “art related industries.” She took the leap to fully focus on her own artwork three years ago.

A regular participant of Gowanus Open Studios, Penn misses the camaraderie normally sparked by the event but found this weekend’s substitute art walk inspiring. “It’s usually a very social time for us…we see other people’s work and we have events where we get together in preparation, and I missed that, the community of other artists. We connect online but it’s not the same as being together, so it’s been so nice just being here today and people walking by and seeing old friends,” she said.

Tracy Penn at 357 Atlantic Avenue standing next to her work Stronger By the Minute, 2020

She also enjoyed watching kids “connect to” and recognize some of the materials in the artworks, like the trophies and the cameras, and talking to them about upcycling. “This mom was saying to her kid, ‘We’ve got so many old trophies lying around at home.’ The idea that you can repurpose something and create something better. We don’t always have to buy new,” Penn noted. “We can take what’s there already and create things that are beautiful, interesting, and thought provoking.”

All of the work featured in Arts Gowanus on Atlantic Ave will be on display through November 1. Stop by and support local artists and small businesses during these challenging times. Go to artsgowanus.org for a map and a list of participating artists.

With the sunny skies on Saturday afternoon casting a glare (or shadows) on the storefront windows, my photos sadly don’t do the artwork justice. Check out the Arts Gowanus page on Artsy for better images of the works.

Upcycling
357 Atlantic Avenue (between Bond & Hoyt)
On view as part of the Arts Gowanus Art Walk on Atlantic Ave through Nov, 1,2020

 

Bosco Sodi Presents Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit in Red Hook

Nearly 30 large-scale clay spheres and a trio of cubes take the place of cars at an auto body lot in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Artist Bosco Sodi’s sculpture exhibition Perfect Bodies opened last Saturday, inviting visitors to see his work outdoors on a perfect autumn day.

Presented by Pioneer Works and curated by Dakin Hart, Senior Curator of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation, Perfect Bodies is being shown concurrently with Sodi’s exhibit Vers l’Espagne on view by appointment only at Chelsea’s Kasmin Gallery through November 12.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions “it was very sad that [Vers l’Espagne would] be seen by very few people,” Sodi said last weekend in Red Hook. “I was talking to Dakin…and we said we should do an open show that people are able to go and walk around and spend as much time as possible and feel the elements…. It can be good medicine to walk around.”

Perfect Bodies examines “silence, contemplation, and the passing of time—the small things in life and our relationship with the earth,” Sodi states in the press release. “In this particular time more than ever, I believe in the healing power of art.” Sodi and Hart decided to produce the public art installation this past spring as Sodi prepared for his Kasmin exhibit.

In 2014 Sodi founded Foundación Casa Wabi, a non-profit arts center in Oaxaca, Mexico that promotes collaboration between its artists-in-residence and local communities. The stunning property, surrounded by breathtaking views of the ocean, sky, and mountains, was designed by renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando and was named for the concept of wabi-sabi, “a vision of the world focused on the acceptance of the ephemeral and the imperfect,” according to casawabi.org. Sodi’s work is influenced by Japanese aesthetics and Abstract Expressionism as well as by nature.

Though Sodi is a native of Mexico and created these sculptures in his sprawling open-air studio in Oaxaca, the artist is primarily based in Red Hook. After living in Barcelona for ten years, Sodi and his family came to New York a decade ago, planning to stay for just one year, he explained. “Then I found a studio here in Red Hook. I was bicycling every day around here and I fell in love with it,” he said of his decision to settle in Brooklyn. The neighborhood proved to be the perfect location when Sodi and Hart decided to exhibit his sculptures—composed of “raw and natural materials”—against an open industrial setting in a creative gesture to “reconquer” the land.

Known for his vividly hued, textured paintings, Sodi recently shifted his focus to sculpture and “the traditions of his Mexican heritage,” according to his bio on kasmingallery.com. Sodi sources the clay he works with from a town near Casa Wabi and “uses this elemental material, one of ancestral significance, to create minimalist sculptures.”

“I think that clay is something that has been with humans since the very beginning. It’s something that all countries have in common,” Sodi said. “It’s a material that involves the four elements and I think is a nice way to reconnect with earth, to reconnect with nature in these troubling times.”

The artist described his arduous and lengthy process of creating the forms, first meticulously shaping them by hand, leaving them to dry under plastic for about two to three months and regularly inspecting them to ensure they do not crack. He then uncovers the pieces and continues to dry them in the shade for another two to three months before placing them outside under the sun for another couple of months. If cracking should occur during this stage, the artist will leave the flaws so long as they do not “undermine the whole structure.” He then fires the pieces in an open kiln with native wood when various cracks will appear on their surfaces, providing wabi-sabi-style imperfections and organic textures. You can watch a video of Sodi's process on his Instagram account here.

Artist Bosco Sodi at the opening of Perfect Bodies in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Oct. 10, 2020.

Exhibited on a large lot with plenty of room for social distancing, the sculptures resemble a galaxy of planets or asteroids, prehistoric boulders, or a scattering of oversized seeds or eggs. But Sodi describes the works as simply geometric forms. “I like the concept of doing something by hand that’s imperfect, but trying to imitate a very human form,” he said. “At the end, they become alive when somebody…makes their own interpretation. It’s always right. For me, any interpretation is right.”

Learn more about the artist at boscosodi.com and find more info on Foundación Casa Wabi at casawabi.org.

Bosco Sodi: Perfect Bodies
Perfect Bodies Auto Collision, 184-186 Conover Street (at Wolcott), Red Hook, Brooklyn
On view through December 20, 2020, Saturdays & Sundays, noon to 7pm
More info at pioneerworks.org.

Bed-Stuy Mural Declares Black Lives Matter

Dozens of Brooklyn artists, cultural leaders, public officials, and volunteers came together to paint NYC’s first Black Lives Matter mural in Brooklyn on June 13th. Massive 28-foot-tall bright yellow letters spanning 375 feet along Fulton Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant—from Marcy Avenue to Brooklyn Avenue—spell out "Black Lives Matter." The names of Black women and men killed by racism and police violence are written on life-size silhouettes standing at each end of the mural.

Black Lives Matter mural on Fulton Street, between Marcy & Brooklyn Avenues, Bed-Stuy

"You are going to see everyone from Emmett Till to Freddie Gray to Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor…it’s heartbreaking the amount of names we’re going to be embedding," Dr. Indira Etwaroo, the Artistic Director of The Billie Holiday Theatre, told CBS New York. The project was spearheaded by The Billie Holiday Theatre, a historic arts venue in Bed-Stuy dedicated to presenting works "rooted in racial justice," and Council Member Robert Cornegy who represents the neighborhood.

Cornegy was inspired by the Black Lives Matter mural leading up to the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., according to Gothamist. That mural, commissioned by Washington, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser, was completed on June 5 to show "support and solidarity" to the thousands protesting the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis on May 25th.

"Similar to what was done in Washington D.C., we saw that it helped boost the morale of not only the demonstrators, but of the ancillary community to it," Cornegy told Gothamist. "And we thought that since this community has been historically Black, and it's the last bastion of Black homeownership, the last bastion of Black small business, this will be the right place in New York City to begin the Black Lives Matter mural movement." Dawud West, Cey Adams, and Hollis King are just a few of the artists who contributed to the Bed-Stuy mural which was unveiled on Sunday, June 14th. 

"This mural is not the change we seek. It stands as a message for the change we seek: swift justice for the killing of Black people due to racially motivated violence; equitable funding to our educational, artistic, healthcare, and cultural institutions; the dismantling and reimagining of systems so all people can flourish," a June 18th post on The Billie Holiday Theatre’s Facebook page reads.

Last week Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the stretch on Fulton featuring the BLM mural will be closed to traffic and become a pedestrian plaza for the summer. The mayor also announced a separate project that will create similar murals in all five boroughs within the coming weeks to commemorate the Black Lives Matter movement. These murals will be located at:

• Brooklyn: Joralemon Street between Adams Street & Court Street
• Bronx: Morris Avenue between 161st Street & 162nd Street
• Manhattan: Centre Street between Worth Street & Reade Street
• Queens: 153rd Street between Jamaica Avenue & Archer Avenue
• Staten Island: Richmond Terrace between Hamilton Avenue & Ferry Terminal Viaduct.

A BLM mural will also be unveiled on July 4th in Harlem at Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard, between 125th & 127th Streets, Gothamist reported.

The Staten Island mural was painted last Friday, June 19th, to commemorate Juneteenth, or Emancipation Day, which celebrates the day in 1865 when Union soldiers informed enslaved people in Galveston, Texas that they were free as a result of President Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier (1863) and the end of the Civil War (May 9, 1865). Mayor de Blasio officially declared Juneteenth a public holiday in NYC last Friday.

I took a walk to Bed-Stuy this past Saturday to see the Black Lives Matter mural on Fulton. Check out my photos below of the bold and poignant piece of protest art.

Antony Gormley: New York Clearing | Brooklyn Bridge Park

Antony Gormley debuted a massive sculptural work at Brooklyn Bridge Park‘s Pier 3 earlier this week as part of Connect, BTS, a global arts project funded by the K-pop boy band BTS.

The British artist’s New York Clearing is a sprawling construction of interconnected aluminum tubing that spirals and loops in and around itself “without beginning or end,” according to the Connect, BTS website. Overlooking the East River and set against the Manhattan skyline, the work is meant to “converse with the city.” This is the first time the piece has been exhibited outdoors. The Brooklyn Bridge Park website notes that the installation may be closed due to weather conditions, such as today's gusty winds, so be sure to check Twitter @bbpnyc for updates.

Antony Gormley, New York Clearing, on view at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 3

Antony Gormley, New York Clearing, on view at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 3

Antony Gormley, New York Clearing, on view at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 3

Connect, BTS unites five cities and twenty-two artists in an effort to “redefine the relationships between art and music, the material and immaterial, artists and their audiences, artists and artists, theory and practice.”

Daehyung Lee oversaw the international art project, leading teams in each participating city, according to the New York Times.

The performance series Rituals of Care, which featured experimental choreography, took place in Berlin from January 15 through February 2. An immersive digital installation by Jakob Kudsk Steensen is currently on view in London. Tomás Saraceno presents Fly With Aerocene Pacha in Buenos Aires and installations by artists Ann Veronica Janssens and Yiyun Kang are being featured in Seoul.

Antony Gormley, New York Clearing, on view at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 3

Antony Gormley, New York Clearing, on view at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 3

Antony Gormley, New York Clearing, on view at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 3

Antony Gormley, New York Clearing, on view at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 3

New Yorkers may recall Gormley’s Event Horizon from 2010 in which 31 life-size casts of the artist’s body were displayed around Madison Square Park, including one on the roof of the Flatiron Building.

New York Clearing is on view at Brooklyn Bridge Park from February 5 through March 27. Learn more at connect-bts.com and brooklynbridgepark.org.

Spencer Finch | MetroTech Commons

Check out BKLYNER.com for my post on Spencer Finch's Lost Man Creek currently on view at MetroTech Commons in downtown Brooklyn through March 2018.

Silent Lights | Brooklyn

On an unassuming block in Fort Greene, under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, a series of 5 noise-activated metal gates playfully light up in response to the sounds of the busy surrounding streets.  Silent Lights debuted last month at the intersection of Navy Street and Park Avenue in Brooklyn, on a pedestrian pathway situated beside a parking lot under the BQE.  Created by the design studio Urban Matter, with support from the NYC DOT, the public art installation is composed of 2,400 LED lights and sound equipment.  When triggered by passing street noise, the gates illuminate in colorful patterns, visualizing the noise pollution in a beautiful, serene manner.

Silent Lights brings a bit of life and color to an otherwise dark and ordinary city block.  Take a stroll through the interactive work and enjoy the art of noise.  Learn more at urbanmatterinc.com and watch a video of the Urban Matter team discussing the project here.  Through November 2014.

Nick Cave | Grand Central Terminal

On Sunday, I hopped on the subway and went up to Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall to check out the second-to-last performance of Nick Cave's terrific Heard NY.

Both wings of Vanderbilt Hall featured roped off areas containing 15 of Cave's horse suits resting on sawhorses, along with a platform for a harpist and a percussionist to play.  Arriving at 10:40am for the 11:00am performance, the crowds for both show areas were already five people deep!  One section on the side of the roped off area was reserved for parents with small children.

Promptly at 11:00am, The Ailey School dancers filed out and put on their horse suits.  Each horse required two dancers - a head and a rear-end.  When all the suits were donned, the horses began to trot around their pens accompanied by the gentle harp, playfully interacting with viewers and inviting them to pet them.  The children seemed particularly thrilled to touch the charming, colorful horses.  After a few minutes, the harpist stopped playing and the percussionist took over with a powerful, infectious beat.  The horses began dancing wildly.  The William Gill-choreographed movements included the horses' heads bopping to the music as well as the horses' bottoms (separating from their front halves) springing up and energetically bouncing and spinning around, creating wonderful rustling sounds with their straw costumes.  After a few minutes of the joyful, reckless abandon, the drums started to slow down, as did the raving horses, until they became still, and it was all over.

As a part of a series of events commemorating Grand Central's centennial, Cave's Heard NY was a vivacious and extraordinary twenty-minute celebration that entertained both children and adults.  If only commuters were treated to such wonderful bouts of whimsy all the time.  March 25th - 31st. Learn more at Creativetime.org.  See my September 2011 post on Cave here.  And this is just awesome - Brooklynvegan.com.

Waiting for the dancers at Vanderbilt Hall

Some of the dancers getting ready

 

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David Byrne | Under the High Line (508 West 25th Street)

David Byrne seems to do it all -- music, writing, art, filmmaking -- and he does it all very well, indeed.  Following up his 2008 Creative Time-commissioned installation, Playing the Building, The Pace Gallery presents Tight Spot, Byrne's site-specific art installation under the High Line at 508 West 25th Street.

Consisting of a 48 x 20 foot inflatable globe, reminiscent of the ones from elementary school days, the representation of the planet is overblown and crammed snugly under the High Line bridge, warping the pastel, plasticky orb.  Emanating from the center of the malformed earth is a low-frequency vibration that Byrne created using his own voice, tweaking and distorting it to make it unrecognizable and give it an otherworldly, sonic sort of vibe.  The mysterious, warbling sounds can be heard around the block and from the High Line above, luring visitors to the installation. 

Always proving to be daring and innovative, the former RISD student, frontman of Talking Heads, and author of Bicycle Diaries (and designer of bicycle racks around NYC and Brooklyn), Byrne has a knack for creating exciting, original, and intelligent visual and sensory work and experiences.  Tight Spot is on view for two weeks only.  Closes October 1st.  Learn more at thepacegallery.com.

Tight Spot, 2011

Sol LeWitt | City Hall Park

Twenty-seven of Connecticut-born artist Sol LeWitt's (1928 - 2007) sculptures, or as he referred to them - structures, are currently on view in and around City Hall Park.  Several of his famous minimal, white, geometric squares are on display in Structures, 1965-2006, alongside more complex forms, a pyramid, a tower, and a wonderfully colorful and dynamic piece called Splotch 15, resembling of a bunch of rainbow-hued stalagmites or a gigantic heap of Crayola crayons melting in the brutal summer sun.

Presented by the Public Art Fund, the outdoor retrospective of LeWitt's works is the first of its kind, and chronicles the progression of his structures for forty years, from his "early white geometric cubes through to the late, multicolored organic forms," (from nyc-arts.org).  It's a nice change to see LeWitt's staid, minimal works displayed outdoors instead of inside a white, sterile gallery.  His structures boldy stand out and make a statement juxtaposed amongst grassy lawns, green foliage, the Brooklyn Bridge and assorted skyscrapers—"both natural and architectural forms in the city that helped inspire his art."  Learn more at nyc-arts.org.  Through December 2nd.

Splotch 15, right, 2005 and Three X Four X Three, left, 1984

Splotch 15, 2005 and Three X Four X Three, 1984

Complex Form 6, 1987

Double Modular Cube, 1979

Pyramid (Munster), 1987

Three-Part Variations on Three Different Kinds of Cubes 3 3 2, 1967 - 1974

Incomplete Open Cubes,1974

Incomplete Open Cube, 1974

One X Two Half Off, 1991

Tower (Columbus), 1990

Public Art

Now that we've entirely bypassed spring and plunged head-on into summer weather, it's time to venture outdoors and enjoy some public art.  Along with Ai Weiwei's Zodiac Heads at Grand Army Plaza, here are a few other suggestions for viewing art whilst simultaneously catching some sun.

If you haven't already, you should head over to the Seagram Building at Park Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets to check out Swiss-born, Brooklyn-based Urs Fischer's 20-ton, 23-foot-tall, bright yellow, teddybear impaled by a desk lamp.  Untitled (Lamp/Bear) sold at Christie's May 11th auction for over $6 million (a few mill shy of the expected $10 million). After getting six city permits and reinforcing the ground in front of the Seagram Building, about 30 handlers were employed to assemble the piece back in April.  The lightbulb in the giant lamp (whose stand juts out of the poor, slouchy bear's back) lights up in the evening.  Fischer created three of these works — siblings of the bear on display on Park Avenue include a blue one purchased for an undisclosed amount by a hedge-fund manager and another yellow version displayed on the Montauk, New York lawn of its entrepreneur owner.  Learn more at Christies.com and wsj.com.  Through September 30th.

After checking out the excellent McQueen exhibit along with eveyone else and his mom at the Met, be sure to head up to the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden to see sculptures by British artist Anthony Caro.  A key figure in modernist sculpture, the five, large-scale, steel works on exhibit span Caro's sixty year career.  The lively, colorful pieces explore "principal aspects" of the artist's career including "engagement with form in space, dialogue between sculpture and architecture, and creation of new, abstract analogies for the human figure and landscape," (from the museum's website).  Learn more at metmuseum.org.  Through October 30th.

And if you happen to be in or around Union Square, you should make a special stop at the new pedestrian plaza at Broadway and 17th Street where Rob Pruitt's The Andy Monument christens the walkway.  Inspired by Andy Warhol's art, life, drive and spirit, Pruitt created the life-size silvery statue as a tribute to the Pop artist.  Posing with a Polaroid camera around his neck and clutching a Bloomingdale's shopping bag, Pruitt's figure of Warhol is exhibited a spitting distance away from the second incarnation of Warhol's famous and infamous Factory.  The shiny, blinding beacon is a flashy and fitting salute to the legendary and influential New York icon.  Learn more at unionsquarenyc.org.  Through October 2nd.

Urs Fischer, Untitled (Lamp/Bear)

Urs Fischer, Untitled (Lamp/Bear)

Anthony Caro, After Summer, 1968

Anthony Caro, Midday, 1960

Anthony Caro, End Up, 2010

Rob Pruitt, The Andy Monument

Ai Weiwei | Grand Army Plaza

Since Ai Weiwei's whereabouts are still unknown after being detained by Chinese officials in early April, the world-renowned artist and human rights activist was not able to attend the unveiling of his first major public sculpture installation, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, last Wednesday at Grand Army Plaza (at 58th Street and 5th Avenue - across from Central Park, the Plaza Hotel, and Bergdorf Goodman).  New York City is the first stop of the exhibition's official world tour which will be traveling across the U.S. as well as Europe and Asia.

The 800-pound, bronze sculptures represent the twelve animal signs of the Chinese zodiac (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig).  The work was inspired by the 18th century water clock-fountain built in the gardens of Yuanming Yuan by two European Jesuits for Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty.  The Yuanming Yuan gardens were raided in 1860 by British and French troops and the original animal head sculptures were looted.  While only seven of the original twelve heads have ever been recovered, Ai recreated the full dozen in charming, large-scale renditions that question issues of  "looting and repatriation" and explore "fake" or copied works of art (from zodiacheads.com).

The exhibition is organized by AW Asia, and while Ai could not be at the opening last week, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was joined by a number of artists, curators, and members of the arts community to honor the artist and read aloud some of his eloquent and rousing quotes.  Mayor Bloomberg noted, "Artists risk everything to create, but artists like Ai Weiwei, who come from places that do not value and protect free speech, risk even more than that."

New York City seems an appropriate choice to kick off Wei's Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads tour as the artist attended Parsons and lived here for more than ten years.  The artist states that the zodiac sculptures are works that can be enjoyed and understood by all - including children, people not in the art world, and casual passers-by.  The stunning, playful sculptures were certainly getting lots of attention when I visited.  Now if only those imprisoning Ai could understand and appreciate the artist, his artwork, and his politics as well.  Learn more at zodiacheads.com and artdaily.org.  Through July 15th.

Rat

Ox, Tiger

Rabbit, Dragon, Snake

Snake, Horse

Goat, Monkey

Rooster

Dog

Boar

Will Ryman | Park Avenue Mall, 57th - 67th Streets

Now that it feels like spring may have actually, finally arrived (please, please, please!), Will Ryman's The Roses seem more fitting (and less like a tease) along the Park Avenue Mall traveling up the road along 57th - 67th Streets.  Presented by The NYC Department of Parks & Recreation and Paul Kasmin Gallery, Ryman's site-specific installation consists of 38 Godzilla-sized pink and red roses standing between 3 and 25 feet tall with blossoms measuring 5 to 10 feet in diameter.  The enormous, whimsical roses made of stainless steel, "yacht-grade" fiberglass resin, auto body paint, and brass were created to endure unpredictable weather — they were covered in over a foot of snow after a blizzard hit the city shortly after they were installed in late January.  The charming, colorful, monstrously oversized flowers are accessorized with thorns, leaves, fallen rose petals (mostly scattered along the stretch between 63rd and 65th Streets), as well as Mothra-sized ladybugs, bees, and beetles. 

Ryman, a native New Yorker (his parents are painters Robert Ryman and Merrill Wagner), was initially a playwright before becoming an artist known for "large-scale figurative sculptures based on urban scenes and outsized flora," (from Paul Kasmin website).  In explaining his installation, Ryman states:  "With these roses I wanted to do something that was larger than life and site-specific.  In my work I always try to combine fantasy with reality.  In the case of The Roses, I tried to convey New York City's larger than life qualities through scale; creating blossoms which are imposing, humorous, and hopefully beautiful."  Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe adds, "Park Avenue is known for its beautiful floral displays and Will Ryman's massive roses, ranging between three and twenty-five feet in height, will enliven the area throughout the winter, in anticipation of the arrival of the tulips in the spring."

The Roses, situated in the medians between the traffic lanes on the always bustling Park Avenue, give viewers a "bugs-eye-view" of the flowers, making us feel puny in this big, crazy city.  Whether covered in mounds of snow or basking in sunlight, Ryman's dramatic, cheerful, freakishly huge blooms are a delight.  Learn more at Paulkasmingallery.com, nycgovparks.org and at the artist's website Willryman.com.  Through May 31st.

 

Stephen Vitiello | High Line

Back in June, Virgina-based artist Stephen Vitiello debuted A Bell For Every Minute - a site-specific, multi-channel sound installation set up in a tunnel passageway on the High Line.  In colloaboration with Creative Time and NYC's Department of Parks and Recreation, Vitiello recorded bells ringing around New York City and plays one each minute in his installation.  Every hour on the hour a chorus of several selected bells chime in an eccentric symphony.  The recorded rings range from iconic chimes like the New York Stock Exchange Bell and the UN Peace Bell to more ordinary sounds like bicycle bells and church bells.  A clock is conveniently on display alongside a list showing each minute and its corresponding bell.  A map of the city "identifies the location of each bell, allowing the listener to follow the geographic journey of the recordings," (from thehighline.org).

Whether it's the speakers that were used for the installation or the acoustics in the tunnel, the ringing bells sound sweet and magical in the High Line's 14th Street Passage.  While I was only able to stay for a couple of minutes (and for as many rings), I would definitely go back and revisit A Bell For Every Minute.  The seemingly simple installation offers a charming respite from the everyday hubbub of the city.  Learn more at thehighline.org, creativetime.org and at the artist's website stephenvitiello.com.  Ongoing at the High Line's 14th Street Passage (between West 13th and 14th Streets).

Miranda July | Union Square Park

Before closing up shop Deitch Projects organized the exhibition of Miranda July's Eleven Heaving Things in Union Square Park from May 29th - October 3rd.  July, a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, artist, performance artist, and writer created the eleven cast fiber-glass, steel-lined sculptures specifically for interaction and previously presented them at the 53rd International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. 

To encourage visitors to interact with the works, July created platforms to pose on, tablets with holes to poke body parts—faces, heads, limbs, digits— through, and "free-standing abstract headdresses" (from nycgovparks.org).  A series of three pedestals labeled "The Guilty One," "The Guiltier One," and the "Guiltiest One" invites visitors to stand on them and plead their level of guiltiness.  A white slab with a hole cut out to insert a face through reads, "What I look like when I'm lying." Elevated with poles, large, flat, colorful panels feature shapes cut out of their bottom edges to accomodate heads and shoulders.  Another wider pedestal built to be hugged by two people cheekily reads, "We don't know each other, we're just hugging for the picture."  All eleven of July's Heavy Things practically scream, "photo op!" in the most twee sort of way. 

The central lawn in Union Square Park where the sculptures are on display is open during the day from Tuesday through Friday.  I unfortunately dropped by on a Monday so my pics had to be taken from a distance and are pretty lame.  Sorry!  Learn more at nycgovparks.org and at July's website mirandajuly.com.  Through October 3rd.