What better way to get out and enjoy the crisp fall air than to browse amazing outdoor art while sipping on a warm pumpkin spice latte? Sounds like an October Sunday morning spent right. Grab your culture-loving bestie and add these stops to your New York outdoor art hunt.
Martine Gutierrez: “ANTI-ICON“
JCDecaux bus shelters: New York, Boston, Chicago
August 25, 2021 – November 21, 2021
ANTI-ICON, is a 300-site exhibition of 10 new photographs by Brooklyn-based photographer and performance artist Martine Gutierrez. The exhibition is now on view on 100 JCDecaux bus shelters across New York City, 150 in Chicago, and for the first time in this exhibition series, 50 JCDecaux bus shelters in Boston. With ANTI-ICON, Gutierrez continues her exploration of identity across the landscapes of race, gender, class, and culture. Through the ten black and white and color photographs, the artist embodies the spirit of historical and mythological women who have achieved iconic status across cultures, over many centuries, in both art history and popular culture. Gutierrez is the sole performer in the series, and through the use of simple props, wigs, makeup, disguises, and natural elements, she represents ten icons: Aphrodite, Atargatis, Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth I, Gabriel, Lady Godiva, Helen of Troy, Judith, Mulan, and the Queen of Sheba. Framing them as “anti-icons,” Gutierrez reinvents the conventional modes of their representation while acknowledging their powerful idealized and legendary status. Inspired by and presented on traditional advertising spaces across the three cities, the exhibition can be encountered on a walk or daily commute throughout the duration of the exhibition.
Claudia Wieser: “Rehearsal“
Main Street Park at Brooklyn Bridge Park
Washington and Plymouth Streets, DUMBO
July 29, 2021 – April 17, 2022
Featuring five distinct large-scale geometric sculptures clad with hand-painted glazed tiles, panels featuring photographs of New York City and Roman and Greek antiquities, and mirror polished stainless steel, Claudia Wieser‘s “Rehearsal” will create an immersive experience for park goers to explore. The cluster of sculptures will be located at the iconic terminus of Washington Street, where the Manhattan Bridge frames the Empire State Building. Juxtaposed with the surrounding architecture and natural landscape of Brooklyn Bridge Park, “Rehearsal” highlights the dynamism of the city and its people. The installation can be seen as both a meeting place and a theatrical set that hearkens back to ancient Roman forums—public spaces where people could assemble, interact, and exchange ideas. Inviting park goers into the installation to explore the painted, photographic, and mirrored details of Wieser’s works, “Rehearsal” will offer a moment of pause and reflection, and also allow the public to become actors in their own urban narrative.
Sam Moyer: “Doors for Doris“
Doris C. Freedman Plaza
September 16, 2020 – October 3, 2021
Located on the Upper East Side, Sam Moyer constructed three immense stone sculptures made with locally sourced marble that originates from all over the globe, known as “Doors for Doris”. Serving as an entrance between Central Park and Midtown, this unique exhibit represents the differences that come together to make up the structure of New York City.
Melvin Edwards: “Brighter Days“
City Hall Park
May 4, 2021 – November 28, 2021
Melvin Edwards is known for creating sculptures using abstract forms to display issues regarding labor, race, and African Diaspora. “Brighter Days” can be interpreted in numerous ways. Chains can represent bonds that unify us, or broken fragments that symbolize ruin. Located at the site of the colonial-age African Burial Ground and current day Black Lives Matter protest, this structure is symbolic of Edwards’ optimistic look towards the future. “Brighter Days” consists of five sculptures created between 1970-1996, as well as the addition of a sixth sculpture in 2020.
