The High Line is one of our favorite spots in the city, and we are enjoying the last sunny days of fall by exploring the current contemporary art exhibitions on view. The installation “Secondary Forest” by Italian artist Giulia Cenci stands at 24th street, welcoming visitors to investigate the intersection of human forms and organic elements. The sculptures depict animals, plants, and human appendages created from melted down scrap metal to create a forest that has regenerated after human-caused disturbances, much like the Highline itself. In fact, the artist described how the unique location of the exhibit, which hovers above NYC’s Meatpacking District, where slaughterhouses once stood and chic restaurants and shops now line the streets, influenced her work. As the artist explains, “[T]he High Line is a beautiful work itself; I immediately loved the way nature has been growing and devouring a manmade infrastructure. I started to fantasize about an area where different people, animals, plants, machines, and invisible entities are meeting and crossing.” Cenci’s thought-provoking work will be displayed through March 2025.
Día de los Muertos in Times Square
In the heart of Times Square, the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) has unveiled three vibrantly colorful skeleton statutes in celebration of the traditional Día de los Muertos, or The Day of the Dead. Celebrated on November 1 and 2 in Mexico, Día de los Muertos celebrates the rich cultural tradition that honors the memory of deceased loved ones and reminds us to appreciate life while we have it.
The installation, which is presented in partnership with the Times Square Alliance, the nonprofit Mi Casa es Puebla, and the Mexican Consulate invites visitors to remember and celebrate the memory of their dearly departed.
Dinosaur by Iván Argote
Not to be outdone by our friend in London, “Dinosaur” has made its debut on The High Line. The 16-foot-tall aluminum pigeon sculpture is the newest High Line installation, surveying the city from 30th street. The name “Dinosaur” serves as a nod to the humble pigeon’s incredible origins, as the common birds descended from dinosaurs.
Artist Iván Argote noted that when developing the piece, he wanted to make something strange, funny, and provoking. With this installation, Argote places the pigeon on a pedestal, the kind of space usually reserved for leaders, heroes, or historical figures, and by doing so pushes New Yorkers to question who and what we commemorate. Pigeons, like many of the city’s residents, migrated here from abroad, and Argote highlights that “even the pigeon, a New York fixture, migrated here and made the city their home.”
“Graft” by Edra Soto
Welcoming visitors at the Fifth Avenue entrance to Central Park stands a new sculpture, “Graft” by Puerto Rican artist Edra Soto. “Graft” is part of a series of installations by Ms. Soto that brings to life the exploration of the relationship between our private lives and what we choose to share with the world. The four screens are sculpted out of corten steel and terrazzo, which are inspired by rejas, or iron screens commonly seen outside of homes in Puerto Rico. The rejas replicate geometric patterns that may be traced back to West Africa’s symbol systems known as Yoruba and pay homage to the island’s Black heritage which is often overlooked by Puerto Rico’s Spanish Colonial history and architecture.
Visitors can stand on the outside of the sculpture, peering across towards the park, or on the inside, where they are invited to sit at tables and seating that mirror the welcoming interior of a home in Puerto Rico. By welcoming us inside, Soto invites New Yorkers to connect to Puerto Rico and its communities across the city.
“Untitled (America/Me)” by Glenn Ligon
For decades New York based artist Glenn Ligon has explored issues of race, sexuality, and identity in his art through a historical lens, drawing on literature and sources from the past. Using text in his work, he plays with language to make us think about shifting meanings in different contexts. Now, Ligon has once again drawn attention to what America means as our nation struggles to maintain unity.
“Untitled (America/Me),” is a new 25 x 75 foot billboard viewable from the High Line at 10th Avenue and 18th Street. The installation revisits Ligon’s iconic 2008 neon sculpture, “Untitled,” which featured the word AMERICA in bold neon caps that flickered on and off. Ligon has modified his original piece by crossing out most letters in AMERICA, leaving behind only the word “ME.” As the artist explains, “The word ‘America’ is eclipsed, and the blackening of the letters adds a layer of ambiguity… It’s timely as we reflect on our purpose as a nation and as individuals.” Timely indeed as we ponder the election this coming November 5th and what America means to each of us.
“The Great Elephant Migration” by The Coexistence Collective
After a long journey, “The Great Elephant Migration” has finally made its way to New York City. The herd will call the Meatpacking District home for the next few weeks, inviting us all to walk alongside the elephants as they explore the neighborhood. The traveling herd of 100 pachyderm models are each inspired by an individual living elephant in the Nilgiri Hills region of Southern India, and the sculptures are constructed by indigenous artisans and contemporary artists. The majestic elephants are meant to mimick “how it is when you’re in India, with the elephants walking through the streets” according to Dodie Kazanjian, the founder of the Rhode Island nonprofit Art&Newport, who curated the elephants’ US tour.
We last caught up with the elephants in London back in 2021 and are thrilled to visit them again in our backyard! A must see for kids of all ages, the installation will leave us October 20th and travel throughout the US through 2025.
“Wildlife Wonders” by Gillie and Marc
We can never get enough (see our Wildlife, Paparazzi Dogs, and most recently Herd of Hope posts) of artists Gillie and Marc’s works. Now, Rabbitwoman and Dogman have returned to The World Trade center, bringing along some endangered friends to shine a light on wildlife conservation efforts.
At the center of “The Arms of Friendship,” sits the world’s largest octopus sculpture. Surrounded by a group of his wild animal friends, he welcomes all to climb aboard and explore. If climbing is not your thing, feel free to sit at “The Wild Table of Love” alongside bronze sculptures of various animals currently facing extinction enjoying teatime. We encourage you to go enjoy these immersive sculptures as Gillie and Marc bring us face to face with wildlife, urging us all to take action and protect the wild before we lose these beloved creatures.
Tishan Hsu’s Glitching Artwork
Known as one of the pioneers of the digital art movement, Tishan Hsu’s work has been exploring how technology is becoming an extension of the human body. The MIT educated artist’s avant garde sculptures “car-grass-screen” and “car-body-screen-2,” are currently garaged on the High Line. Shaped with soft edges and curved surfaces, like physical bodies, the cars appear organic except for their glitching, screen-like skins.
The resin-wrapped foam forms continue Hsu’s tradition of manipulating technology, materials, and software in his artwork. Armed with a scannable QR code, “car-green-screen-2” connects the viewer to a virtual and physical realm, transporting us to another dimension with a click on our phones.
“Les Voyageurs” by Bruno Catalano
Photos by Misia Delgado
Walking along Park Avenue in Manhattan, you may notice people are missing parts of themselves. Fortunately, you have not taken a turn into the Twilight Zone but have come across “Les Voyageurs”, or The Travelers, an installation by Bruno Catalano.
The artist, who settled in Marseille after leaving his homeland of Morocco at the age of ten, was a sea traveler who worked on boats. His first torso-less statue was the result of a casting accident, but now the gaps in these bronze statues are a signature of the sculptor.
Drawing from his own immigration journey when creating “Les Voyageurs”, Catalano’s statues depict the bodies of weary travelers, clutching onto a piece of luggage with a gap in their torso. Despite losing a part of themselves, these travelers move forward, luggage in hand.
“Field of Light” by Bruce Munro
As the sun sets on our bustling city, British artist Bruce Munro’s “Field of Light” comes to life in the form of 17,000 fiber-optic spheres which create a glowing other-worldly landscape.
Munro’s installation was inspired by a 1992 trip to Uluru through the Red Desert in central Australia, where he was struck by the brightness, energy, and heat of the desert landscape. He sought to capture that feeling in his artwork, noting he “wanted to create an illuminated field of stems that, like the dormant seed in a dry desert, would burst into bloom at dusk with gentle rhythms of light under a blazing blanket of stars.” After ten years in development, the “Field of Light” exhibition was born.
The exhibition is immersive, and has guided millions through the changing fiberoptic lights as they take a winding path through the ethereal landscape across the globe. The field at Freedom Plaza will light up Manhattan through August 31st.