MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES OPENING OF
PUBLIC ART EXHIBIT IN CITY HALL PARK

First Temporary Public Art Exhibit in City Hall Park since 1992

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced the opening of “MetroSpective at City Hall Park,” the first temporary public art exhibition in City Hall Park since 1992.  The exhibit, presented by the Public Art Fund, includes six works by seven local artists previously on display at a contemporary art program at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn.  “MetroSpective” will be on display from January 24th to July 1st.  Deputy Mayor for Administration Patricia E. Harris, Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe, Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin, Public Art Fund President Susan K. Freedman, Public Art Fund Director Tom Eccles, and Forest City Ratner Companies President and CEO Bruce Ratner joined the Mayor at City Hall for the opening.

“Bringing these exciting pieces of contemporary art downtown to one of the City’s most historic public spaces will attract people from all over to Lower Manhattan,” Mayor Bloomberg said.  “Thanks to the Public Art Fund, the ‘MetroSpective’ exhibit contains a bold and imaginative spirit representative of the City’s talented artists and invaluable public arts programs.  I hope these impressive works of art inspire all New Yorkers.”

“This show underscores the significant improvements made to City Hall Park in recent years,” Commissioner Benepe said.  “Since the 17th Century, the land where this artwork stands has been an essential site of public gathering, and it contains significant sculptures of the 19th Century.  This exhibit will reward New Yorkers who use the park every day, and it will also attract people from across the city to visit one of Lower Manhattan's most treasured green spaces.”

“It's important that all developments have a public art component,” Mr. Ratner said.  “That's why we have made art available at MetroTech for over a decade.  I'm proud to say that this exhibition brings together some of the most memorable Public Art Fund projects that were originally installed at MetroTech.  And if this whets your appetite for public art, please cross over the bridge and see what we've got there now.”

“From 1978 to 1992, the Public Art Fund presented exhibitions of contemporary art in City Hall Park and it is wonderful to be back,” Ms. Freedman.  “How appropriate, here in the seat of City Government, to affirm the unique role artists play in distinguishing our great City.”

The exhibition at City Hall Park is a retrospective of some of the Public Art Fund’s MetroTech program’s most memorable projects, and includes works by the following artists: Art Domantay, Ken Landauer, Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz, Peter Rostovsky, Do-Ho Suh, and Brian Tolle.  Their works cover numerous subjects, including nature, public memorials, and childhood experience, and complement other recent installations of contemporary art in City Hall and the front lawn of Gracie Mansion. 

The Department of Parks & Recreation’s temporary public art program has consistently fostered the creation and installation of temporary public art in parks throughout the five boroughs.  Since 1967, collaborations with arts organizations and artists have produced hundreds of public art projects in parks and parkland throughout the City.    

In 1999, City Hall Park received extensive renovations that restored much of the original park’s geometry, while adding a central walkway and formal gardens.  Paved areas were reduced and replaced with lawns and trees, and the granite base of the original City Hall Park Fountain, designed in 1871 by Jacob Wrey Mould, was returned to the park, with exact replicas of its centerpiece and lights reconstructed from Mould’s designs.  Portions of the original iron fence around City Hall were recovered and provided the model for the current fence.

The “MetroSpective” exhibit on display includes:

• Art Domantay’s Balsa Wood Airplane: The Land That Time Forgot, a 15-foot replica of a balsa wood airplane;
  
• Ken Landauer’s Picnic Tables, two super-sized versions of a picnic table with appropriately sized nuts, bolts, and benches;
  
• Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz’s 9 to 5, a sculpture installed on two of the park’s trees, featuring beautiful bronze pears that appear to emerge from faucets and drop into awaiting buckets below;
  
• Peter Rostovsky’s Monument, which depicts a human figure standing alone at the edge of a daunting jutting mountain;
  
• Do-Ho Suh’s Maquette for Public Figures, a pedestal supported by miniature anonymous male and female figures; and
  
• Brian Tolle’s Witch Catcher, a large-scale installation of the architectural vestiges of a 17th Century New England home, featuring a brick chimney twisting 25 feet into the air and surrounded by the perimeter of the house’s foundation.

The Public Art Fund is New York’s leading presenter of artists’ projects, new commissions, installations, and exhibitions in public spaces. For the past twenty-five years, the Public Art Fund has identified, coordinated, and realized a diversity of major projects by both established and emerging artists throughout New York City. By bringing artworks outside the traditional context of museums and galleries, the Public Art Fund provides a unique platform for an unparalleled public encounter with the art of our time.  The Public Art Fund is a non-profit arts organization supported by generous gifts from individuals, foundations, and corporations, as well as public funds from the State and City.