1977 - 2017: Public Art Fund 40th Anniversary

In 2017, Public Art Fund will celebrate 40 years of presenting bold, impactful, ambitious works of contemporary art throughout New York City with a series of exhibitions that are emblematic of the organization’s mission and innovative history. Since our founding by Doris C. Freedman in 1977, we’ve worked to break down the inherent boundaries between audiences and brick and mortar institutions by presenting work outside the confines of the traditional white cube. 40 years later, we continue to demonstrate the power and potential of public art to transform the urban environment, while encompassing experiences as diverse and wide-ranging as the artists who have imagined them.

The first half of 2017 includes a citywide digital group show featuring 20+ artists, followed by solo shows with Liz Glynn, Anish Kapoor, and Katja Novitskova.

Commercial Break
February 6 – March 5, 2017 | Citywide
Launching Public Art Fund’s 40th anniversary season, the citywide exhibition Commercial Break celebrates and expands upon Public Art Fund’s commitment to media-based artwork. The show is inspired by Public Art Fund’s seminal exhibition Messages to the Public, which ran on the 800-square-foot animated Spectacolor light board in Times Square from 1982 to 1990 and displayed artworks by 70 figures including Guerrilla Girls, David Hammons, David Wojnarowicz, Lorna Simpson, Alfredo Jaar, Keith Haring, and Jenny Holzer (her first large-scale LED work). Similarly disrupting the daily flow of advertising that regularly saturates the urban landscape, Commercial Break invites a new generation of artists to create interventions utilizing the latest digital advertising across New York City. These brief interruptions on some of the city’s most highly visible and technically advanced screens will explore issues relevant to the current moment, such as the intersection between technology, culture, and communication; the proliferation of images in our daily lives; and contemporary notions of public vs. private.
Sites for the exhibition include a large billboard in Times Square near the site of the original Spectacolor board; Barclays Center’s “Oculus,” a one-of-a-kind 3,000 square foot, 360-degree LED marquee, which hangs above the main entrance to the arena in Prospect Height; 19 digital screens at Westfield World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan; hundreds of LinkNYC’s Link kiosks in all five boroughs; and PublicArtFund.org, where the work will be embedded as a pop-up “ad”.

Commercial Break artists include:

• Times Square: Cory Arcangel, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Brian Bress, Sue de Beer, Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley, Heather Phillipson, and Martine Syms

• Barclays Center: Meriem Bennani, Kate Cooper, Cecile B. Evans, GCC, Agnieszka Polska, Tabor Robak, and Jacolby Satterwhite

• Westfield World Trade Center: Hayal Pozanti

• LinkNYC: Lucas Blalock, Antoine Catala and Gabriel Kahan, Awol Erizku, Ed Fornieles, David Horvitz, Britta Thie, and Hannah Whitaker

• PublicArtFund.org: Casey Jane Ellison

Liz Glynn: Open House

March 1 – September 24, 2017 | Doris C. Freedman Plaza, Central Park
This new commission by Los Angeles-based artist Liz Glynn (b. 1981, Boston) draws inspiration from one of the grandest Fifth Avenue ballrooms designed by famed Gilded Age architect Stanford White: the now-demolished William C. Whitney Ballroom. Located at the southeast entrance to Central Park, one of the nation’s first public parks, the work stands just eight blocks from the original mansion in a plaza named for the founder of Public Art Fund. Glynn’s work, which she describes as a “ruin”, transforms Doris C. Freedman Plaza into a “ballroom” featuring opulent Louis XIV replica furniture from the original space but with a twist—her furniture is recast in concrete, a populist material more commonly seen in modern architecture. These 26 painstakingly-created sofas, chairs, footstools, and arches adorn the 3,500-square-foot plaza, where the public will be invited to enjoy the artist’s contemporary re-imagination of a historically exclusive space as one that is accessible to all. In this strange facsimile of a once opulent past, Glynn addresses the evolving face of a city: who has access to space in a society that is increasingly divided along socio-economic lines?

Anish Kapoor: Descension

Opening May 2017 | Brooklyn Bridge Park
Considered one the most influential artists working today, Anish Kapoor (b. 1954, Mumbai, India) works in a wide variety of scales and formats, and in a range of media including pigment, stone, stainless steel, resin, wax, earth, and most recently, silicone. Over the last four decades, he has created a remarkably inventive and resonant body of work layered with artistic, cultural, and personal associations. Anish Kapoor: Descension brings one of Kapoor’s most viscerally arresting installations yet to New York for the first time. Creating a dynamic negative space that descends into the ground, Descension is a massive spiraling funnel that harnesses the evanescent material of water. Disturbing the familiar boundaries of our world whilst pushing the limits of materials, the work invites visitors to experience the sheer wonder of intense perception, in a quintessential New York park.

Katja Novitskova: EARTH POTENTIAL

Opening June 2017 | City Hall Park, Lower Manhattan
For her first major public art commission in the United States, emerging artist Katja Novitskova (b. 1984, Tallin, Estonia) expands her ongoing investigation of today’s image-laden culture. Advances in technology have enabled us to render images based on data, and translate them into composite photographs that could never be reproduced using a single lens or shot. In this monographic exhibition, Novitskova appropriates images of planets and celestial bodies created using this technique. These large, flat, cut aluminum sculptures feature digitally-printed imagery to which she adds a second layer of printed aluminum covered with alien-like, but terrestrial, animals and organisms. The flatness replicates the experience of viewing images online, while the form and subject of her sculptures—from science fiction and otherworldly encounters, to data sets, and advancements in image making—will encourage visitors to consider how our conception of the universe is shaped and mediated by digital imagery. Siting these works in Lower Manhattan, Novitskova recasts City Hall Park as an extraterrestrial environment, akin to those often featured in Hollywood movies and mass media sources.

Images, in order of appearance:

Forrest Myers
The Wall, 1973
Photo: Joel Peter Witkin

Richard Haas
Arcade, 1978

Alex Katz
Nine Women, 1977
Photo: Chuck De Laney

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (It’s a small world but not if you have to clean it), 2000
Photo: Dennis Cowley

Neon Park
California Billboards, 1981
Photo: Donna Svennevik

Jerry Johnson
Oceana, 1979
Photo: Donna Svennevik

Jack Frost
California Billboards, 1981
Photo by: Donna Svennevik

Matthew Geller
Untitled, 1982
Part of Messages to the Public exhibition
Photo: John Marchael
Artwork courtesy of: Jane Dickson, Project Initiator and Animator

Bill Sullivan
Untitled, 1982
Part of Messages to the Public exhibition
Photo: John Marchael
Artwork courtesy of: Jane Dickson, Project Initiator and Animator

Jack Goldstein
Untitled, 1984
Part of Messages to the Public exhibition
Artwork courtesy of: Jane Dickson, Project Initiator and Animator

Robin Winters
No Joke/Reasons to Believe, 1989
Part of Messages to the Public exhibition
Artwork courtesy of: Jane Dickson, Project Initiator and Animator

Pipilotti Rist
Open My Glade, 2000
Photo: Dennis Cowley

Iran do Espírito Santo
Playground, 2013
Courtesy of Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, and Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo
Video: SandenWolff
© Iran do Espírito Santo 2013

Isamu Noguchi
Unidentified Object, 1979
Photo: Donna Svennevik

Louise Nevelson
Frozen Laces I, 1980
Photo: Donna Svennevik

Alexander Calder
Carmen, 1985
Photo: Stephen F. Harmon / Ronay Menschel / Rhoda Galyn

Louise Bourgeois
Eyes, 1986
Photo: Peter Bellamy

Willem De Kooning
Standing Figure, 1998
Photo: Marian Harders

Alice Aycock
Three-Fold Manifestation II, 1987
Photo: Fred Scruton

Juan Munoz
Conversation Piece, 2002
Photo by: Mauricio Alejo

Thomas Schütte, United Enemies 2011
Photo: Jason Wyche

Franz West
The Ego and the Id, 2009
Photo: James Ewing
Artwork courtesy of: the collection of Amalia Dayan and Adam Lindemann

Sarah Sze
Corner Plot, 2006
Photo: Tom Powel
Art courtesy of: the artist, Public Art Fund, and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York

Eric Arctander
Nieuw Amsterdam Shoreline, 1980
Photo by: Donna Svennevik

Kirsten Mosher
Ball Park Traffic, 1998
Photo: Marian Harders

Stephen Korns
The Lines of the West-Side Elevated Highway in Two Parts, 1978

Dennis Adams
Bus Shelters I, 1983
Photo: Douglas Mulaire

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (bus shelter posters), 1991
Photo: Timothy P. Karr

Lawrence Weiner
NYC Manhole Covers, 2000
Photo: Richard Griggs

Rachel Whiteread
Water Tower, 1998

Martin Wong
Traffic Signs for Hearing Impaired, 1990

Christine Hill
Tourguide?, 1999
Performance
6/18/1999 – 9/18/1999
Photo by: Brent Stirton

Mark Handforth
Lamppost, 2003
Photo: Aaron Diskin

Matt Irie and Dominick Talvacchio
Lamppost, 2009
Part of Double Take exhibition
James Ewing

Antonio Muntadas
The Limousine Project, 1990
Photo: Timothy P. Karr

Barbara Kruger
Bus, 1997
Photo: Marian Harders

Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel
Pananemone, 1987
Photo: Charles Erickson

Alison and Betye Saar
Roots and Wings Garden, 1997
Part of Urban Paradise: Gardens in the City
Photo by: Frederick Charles / Betye Saar

Vito Acconci
Addition to MetroTech Gardens, 1996
Photo: Andrew Moore

Jenny Holzer
Benches, 1989
Photo: Oren Slor

Sam Falls, Untitled (Thermochromic bench), 2014
Part of Light Over Time exhibition
Courtesy of the artist, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, and Hannah Hoffman Gallery
Video: SandenWolff

Modified Social Benches NY #01 – 16, 2015
Powder-coated aluminum
56.5 x 139.5 x 37 inches
Courtesy of König Galerie, Berlin; 303 Gallery, New York; and Galleri Nicolai Wallner,
Copenhagen
Video: SandenWolff

Tony Oursler
The Influence Machine, 2000
Photo: Aaron Diskin

Francis Alÿs
The Modern Procession, 2002
Photos: Francis Alÿs / Amy Elliott

The New York City Waterfalls, 2008
Commissioned by Public Art Fund
© Olafur Eliasson, 2008
Photo: courtesy of Public Art Fund
Video: Bloomberg TV

Harriet Brickman
Beached Forms: Passages, 1980
Photo: Donna Svennevik

Tony Oursler
The Influence Machine, 2000
Photo: Aaron Diskin

Vito Acconci
Face of the Earth, 1984
Photo: Charles Frazer

Mel Chin
Myrrha of the P.I.A., 1984
Photo: Charles Frazier

Olaf Breuning
Clouds, 2013
Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures
Photo: Liz Ligon

David Hammons
Higher Goals, 1986
Photo: Pinkney Herbert / Jennifer Secor

Jeff Koons
Puppy, 1992
Photo: Bart Barlow

Mariko Mori
Wave UFO, 2003
Photo: Tom Powel

Martin Basher
Minimal Consumption/Reflective Sublime/Aspirational Sunset Art, 2010
Part of Total Recall exhibition
Photo by: James Ewing

Christy Rupp
Social Progress, 1986
Photo: Peter Bellamy

Three x Four x Three, 1984
Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Walker Special Purchase Fund, 1987
Photo: Jason Wyche
© 2011 The LeWitt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Huma Bhabha
The Orientalist, 2007
Part of Statuesque exhibition
Courtesy the artist and Salon 94, New York
Photo: James Ewing

Katharina Grosse, Just Two of Us, 2013
Courtesy of the artist and Johann König, Berlin
Photo: James Ewing

Spencer Finch
Lost Man Creek, 2016
Courtesy the artist
Video: SandenWolff

Isa Genzken
Two Orchids, 2015
Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Cologne/Berlin/New York and David Zwirner, New York/London
Photos: Natasha Orlando Figueiredo, Jason Wyche
© 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Agnes Denes
Wheatfield – A Confrontation: Battery Park Landfill, Downtown Manhattan – Aerial View, 1982
Wheatfield – A Confrontation: Battery Park Landfill, Downtown Manhattan – Golden Wheat (Close-up), 1982
Wheatfield – A Confrontation: Battery Park Landfill, Downtown Manhattan – The Harvest, 1982
Copyright Agnes Denes, courtesy Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, NY
Full descriptions on PublicArtFund.org

Art Domantay
Balsa Wood Airplane (The Land that Time Forgot), 2003
Photo: Tom Powel

Klara Hobza
The New Millennium Paper Airplane Contest, 2008
Photo: Amy C. Elliott

Paola Pivi, How I Roll, 2012
Photos: Attilio Maranzano, Liz Ligon

Rob Pruitt
The Andy Monument, 2011
Photo by: James Ewing

Auguste Rodin
Rodin at Rockefeller Center, 1998
Photo: Andrew Moore

Tatzu Nishi: Discovering Columbus
On view September 20 – November 18, 2012 in Columbus Circle, New York City
Presented by Public Art Fund
Photos: Sugimoto Reproduction / www.sugimotoreproduction.com, Tom Powel Imaging

Anish Kapoor
Sky Mirror, 2006
Photo: Seong Kwon

Ugo Rondinone
Human Nature, 2013
Presented by Nespresso, Organized by Tishman Speyer and Public Art Fund
Photos: Sam Rauch (installation image), Bart Barlow

Takashi Murakami
Reversed Double Helix, 2003
Photo by: Tom Powel
Courtesy of: © 2005 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Dara Friedman
Musical, 2007
Photo: Amy C. Elliott

Kate Gilmore
Walk the Walk, 2010
Photo: Tara Hart

Richard Serra
St. John’s Rotary Arc, 1980
Photo by: Donna Svennevik

Tatiana Trouvé,
Desire Lines, 2015
Courtesy of the artist, Gagosian Gallery, New York, and Johann König Gallery, Berlin
Video: SandenWolff

Peter Fischli David Weiss
How to Work Better (1991)
Photo: Jason Wyche

David Shrigley
MEMORIAL, 2016
Courtesy the artist and Anton Kern Gallery
Photo: Liz Ligon

Jeppe Hein
Please Touch the Art, 2015
See previous Jeppe Hein credit for benches
Appearing Rooms, 2004
Courtesy of König Galerie, Berlin; 303 Gallery, New York; and Galleri Nicolai Wallner,
Copenhagen

Iran do Espírito Santo
Playground, 2013
See preview Iran do Espírito Santo credit

Anissa Mack
Pies for a Passerby, 2002
Photos: Aaron Diskin

Elmgreen & Dragset
Van Gogh’s Ear, 2016
Courtesy the artists and the K11 Art Foundation, Galerie Perrotin, Galleria Massimo De Carlo, and Victoria Miro Gallery
Photo: Jason Wyche

The Cause Collective
In Search of the Truth (The Truth Booth)
2011-2015
Courtesy of the Cause Collective
Video: SandenWolff

Gran Fury
Women Don’t Get AIDS They Just Die From It, 1991
Photo: Tim Karr

JEFF KOONS
Split-Rocker, 2000
Stainless steel, soil, geotextile fabric, internal irrigation system, and live flowering plants
446 7/8 x 483 1/8 x 427 5/8 inches
1,135.1 x 1,227.1 x 1,086.2 cm
Edition of 1 plus 1 AP
(c) Jeff Koons. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery and Public Art Fund. Photography by Tom Powel Imaging

Ronald Bladen
Kama Sutra, 1977
Photo: Chuck De Laney

Tony Smith
Snake is Out, 1982
Photo: Donna Svennevik

Pierre Clerk
Exhibition on Four Works, 1977

Robert Ressler
Mantis, 1991
Photo: Timothy P. Karr

Henry Moore
Reclining Figures: Angels, 1984
Photo: Susan Swider

Chris Griffen
Untitled, 1983
Part of Bridges exhibition

Chris Duncan
Water Table, 1983

Stomu Miyazaki
Narrative Furniture No. 5, 1986
Part of The City Hall Park Furniture Show exhibition
Photo: Ronay Menschel

Jerilea Zempel
Untitled, 1983

George Sugarman
Yellow Ascending, 1978
Photo: Donna Svennevik

George Segal
Street Crossing, 2003
Photo: Aaron Diskin

Wim Delvoye
Caterpillar, 2003
Photo: Aaron Diskin

Michael Sailstorfer
Tornado, 2011
Photo: James Ewing

Richard Deacon
Masters of the Universe: Screen Version, 2005
Photo: Tom Powel

Sarah Lucas
Perceval, 2006
Photo: Seong Kwon
Art courtesy of: © the artist, Sadie Coles HQ, London and Gladstone Gallery, New York. Courtesy Murderme, London.

Damian Ortega
Obelisco Transportable, 2004
Photo: Seong Kwon

James Yamada
Our Starry Night, 2008
Photo: Seong Kwon

Thomas Houseago
Masks (Pentagon), 2015
Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian Gallery
Photo: Jason Wyche
Organized by Public Art Fund and Tishman Speyer

Franz West
The Ego and the Id, 2009
Photo: James Ewing
Artwork courtesy of: the collection of Amalia Dayan and Adam Lindemann

000152 AX V C 00:59:59:29 01:00:00:03 00:01:31:20 00:01:31:23
Olaf Breuning
Clouds, 2013
Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures
Presented by Public Art Fund at Doris C. Freedman Plaza, Central Park, March 4 – August 24,
2014.
Photo: James Ewing

Alexander Calder
Le chien en trios couleurs (“Three-colored Dog”), 1973
Part of Alexander Calder in New York exhibition
Photo: Tom Powel
Courtesy of: Artwork © 2006 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Thomas Houseago
Untitled (Sprawling Octopus Man), 2009
Bronze
Part of Statuesque exhibition
Courtesy the artist and Michael Werner Gallery,
New York
Photo: James Ewing

Martin Creed
Work No. 2630 UNDERSTANDING, 2016
Courtesy the artist, Gavin Brown’s enterprise New York/Rome, and Hauser & Wirth
Photo: Jason Wyche
© Martin Creed 2016

Paul McCarthy
Daddies Ketchup, 2001
Part of Common Ground exhibition
Photo: Jason Wyche
Artwork courtesy: the artist and Hauser & Wirth

SOL LEWITT
Splotch 15, 2005
Acrylic on fiberglass
12′ x 8’4″ x 6’8″
LeWitt Collection, Chester, CT
Photo: Jason Wyche, courtesy Public Art Fund
© 2011 The LeWitt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Sam Falls, Untitled (Wind chimes), 2014
Part of Light Over Time exhibition
Courtesy of the artist, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, and Hannah Hoffman Gallery
Video: SandenWolff
Keith Haring
Keith Haring on Park Avenue: Red Dog; Julia; Headstand; Untitled; Untitled (Figure Balancing a Dog); Self-Portrait, Blue Curling Figure; Untitled (Head Through Belly); Untitled (Boxers), 1997
Photo: Frederick Charles

Sarah Morris
Robert Towne, 2006
Courtesy Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York
Photo: Seong Kwon

Louise Bourgeois
Maman and Spiders, 2001
Photo: Bart Barlow

James Pelletier
Night/Light, 1979
Photo: Donna Svennevik

Olafur Eliasson
The New York City Waterfalls (Brooklyn Bridge at night), 2008
© Olafur Eliasson, 2008
Photo: Julienne Schaer

Paul Howard Manship
Manship at Rockefeller Center: Cycle of Life; Maiden; Times and the Fates of Man; Diana; Actaeon, 1999
Photo: Andrew Moore

Roy Lichtenstein
Element #E from Five Brushstrokes, 1983 – 1984
Part of Roy Lichtenstein at City Hall exhibition
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein
Photo by: Tom Powel

Jean Dubuffet
La Chiffoniere, 1979
Photo: Donna Svennevik

Photo of Christopher Columbus monument by Nicholas Baume