Bharti Kher (b. 1969, London, UK) connects New Delhi and New York with this nearly 18 foot tall bronze Universal Mother figure, entitled Ancestor (2022) which is her most ambitious artwork today. Its source is a miniature statue from the artist’s “intermediaries“ series, assembled by recomposing broken clay figurines. Kher finds these small objects in secondhand markets in India, where she moved in 1992 after being raised and educated in the United Kingdom. Continue reading Bharti Kher’s Ancestor in Doris C. Freedman Plaza→
Artist Metis Atash is known for her Swarovski crystals-encrusted sculptures of little Buddha Babies (which she calls Funkybuddhas) sporting spikey mohawks or embellished with sassy sayings. This pretty Pink one, joyously flipping the bird in a shirt that proclaims “Darling, No is a Full Sentence”(which: truth) was spotted in the Eden Gallery in Soho.
Rudy’s is a famous Dive Bar in Hell’s Kitchen NYC that has a storied history going all the way back to 1933! Rudy’s 6-foot high Pink Pig mascot, known affectionately as The Baron, has stood vigil at the door for about twenty years, and was only stolen twice before they bolted his big butt down!
Gilded monuments and bronze statues evoke the public art of a bygone era, though we’ve recently been reminded of the potent symbolic value they still hold. Artist Gillian Wearing (b. 1963, Birmingham, England) has been fascinated by these sculptures since childhood. For her, there’s something uncanny about a human form that appears immovable and changeless in a public setting. Wearing has alwasy made art about people, usually presented in unexpected ways, in photography, video, and more recently, sculpture.
This week I went on an adventure! I had to make a trip down to Wall Street for the first time since our work-from-home directive went down in mid-March, because I had dermatologist appointment. Wee! After braving my masked-up, socially distanced subway ride, I had about 30 minutes to kill before my appointment time, and I enjoyed walking about in the financial district in relative solitude. It was awesome. And what a fun surprise to see artist Arturo Di Modica’s now-iconic bronze statue, Fearless Girl, rocking a face mask to reflect the Covid Life we live in. Inspiring! If you happen to be in that area, you can find her on Broad Street standing across from the NYSE.
