City in the Grass

City in the Grass by New York-based artist Leonardo Drew extends over 100 feet on the lawn at Madison Square Park and features a colorful and textured surface reminiscent of a Persian carpet. Using varied materials, Drew has created a sprawling artwork with abstract cityscapes beneath rising towers. The artist is known for manipulating natural materials that resemble found objects, and creates works that often address social concerns and injustices. This piece includes both domestic and urban motifs. “This is a symbolic and literal multilayered project,” Brooke Kamin Rapaport, exhibition curator and Deputy Director and Martin Friedman Senior Curator of Madison Square Park Conservancy, said. “The artist builds layer on layer of materials while using the metaphor of a torn carpet as a complicated reference to home, comfort, and sanctuary.” While visitors are invited to walk on the carpet to get a closer look, when we visited the lawn was closed. But no worries, the original Shake Shack is nearby!