About
Stone forms the foundation and framework of New York City. It is the bedrock that supports the structures we inhabit and it clads many of them too. To mark the threshold between Central Park’s boulder-filled terrain and Midtown Manhattan’s built environment, Sam Moyer (b. 1983, Chicago, IL) has created a massive three-part sculpture, with a title that pays homage to Public Art Fund founder, Doris C. Freedman (1928-1981).
Moyer’s hybrid sculpture unites imported stone with rock indigenous to the New York region. The artist inlaid marble fragments into three double-sided vertical concrete slabs and framed them with contrasting rough-hewn bluestone monoliths. Their final arrangement demonstrates her impressive skill in composing sculptural forms, with its “doors” pivoted ajar to evoke the dynamism of the bustling city.
Doors for Doris examines how our culture values and utilizes materials. Moyer gathered its disparate collection of discarded marble remnants from various renovation projects and stone yards around the city. These polished stones bear the markings and shapes of their original uses. They also display the unique colors, patterns, and geological history of their sources — quarries in Brazil, China, India, Italy, and beyond. Each stone in Moyer’s mosaic compositions takes on an even more striking hue against the others and the locally-quarried rock, an apt metaphor that encourages us to consider the diverse character of our city and our interconnected lives within it.
This exhibition is curated by Public Art Fund Curator Daniel S. Palmer.
Location
Image Gallery
About the Artist
Sam Moyer’s works are included in prominent collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY); Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, CT); Louis Vuitton Foundation (Paris, France); and The Aïshti Foundation (Jal El Dib, Lebanon).
Moyer’s work was included in the 2010 Public Art Fund exhibition Total Recall at MetroTech Center in Brooklyn and has been exhibited at The Drawing Center (New York, NY), The Bass Museum (Miami, FL), University of Albany Art Museum (Albany, NY), Flag Projects and The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (St. Louis, MO), LAND (Los Angeles, CA), Tensta Konsthall (Stockholm, SW), Cleopatra’s Greenpoint (Brooklyn, NY), and Société (Berlin, DE).
She also participated in Greater New York and Between Spaces at MoMA PS1. She received her BFA from the Corcoran College of Art and Design and her MFA from Yale. She lives and works in Brooklyn.
Bloomberg Philanthropies is the presenting sponsor of Sam Moyer: Doors for Doris.
Leadership support for Doors for Doris is provided by Elise & Andrew Brownstein; Fotene Demoulas & Tom Cote; Wendy Fisher, The Kirsh Foundation; Amanda & Glenn Fuhrman; Sean Kelly Gallery; Linda Lennon & Stuart Baskin; Jennifer & Jason New; Elizabeth Fearon Pepperman & Richard C. Pepperman II; and Patricia & Howard Silverstein with additional support from Linda R. & Andrew Safran, Ann & Mel Schaffer, and Anonymous. Generous support is also provided by Kayne Griffin Corcoran and rodolphe janssen, brussels.
Sam Moyer: Doors for Doris is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Special thanks to the Office of the Mayor, Manhattan Borough President, NYC Parks, and Central Park Conservancy.
Public Art Fund is supported by the generosity of individuals, corporations, and private foundations including lead support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, along with major support from Abrams Foundation, the Charina Endowment Fund, the Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, The Fuhrman Family Foundation, The Marc Haas Foundation, Hartfield Foundation, William Talbott Hillman Foundation-Affirmation Arts Fund, the Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, Red Crane Foundation, and The Silverweed Foundation.
Public Art Fund exhibitions are also supported in part with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
