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Public Art Fund Announces 2012 Summer Exhibitions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Public Art Fund is pleased to announce its 2012 summer exhibition program. Opening on May 24, Common Ground, a group exhibition featuring sculpture, installation, and performance, looks at how different works of art approach the idea of public sculpture and civic engagement. How does the individual vision of an artist draw on and relate to society at large? Opening on June 20 is Paola Pivi’s How I Roll, a mesmerizing kinetic sculpture featuring a rotating plane conceived for Doris C. Freedman Plaza. A joyful expression of creative imagination, the work captures Pivi’s fascination with highly engineered machines that are also capable of poetic transformation into captivating, artistic objects. And finally, on July 19, Public Art Fund presents the first site-specific exhibition for Brooklyn Bridge Park—Oscar Tuazon’s People. Featuring three new sculptures, the show explores the archetypal language of form emerging from both the natural world and the realms of human ideas and culture.

“These three projects attest to the dynamic nature of contemporary art, which continually appropriates existing ideas, objects, and materials, transforming them into new and surprising experiences,” said Nicholas Baume, Public Art Fund, Director and Chief Curator.

OSCAR TUAZON: People
July 19, 2012 – April 26, 2013
Brooklyn Bridge Park

For his Public Art Fund commission, Oscar Tuazon will present three new sculptures that respond to Brooklyn Bridge Park’s physical landscape as well as its role as a site of play and leisure. Like previous works, these hybrid sculptures incorporate both natural materials and industrial building techniques—local trees and cement casting are at the core of each of work—and explore the idea of architecture, labor, and reinvention. In one work, a tall tree trunk is supported with a minimalist steel triangle and conceals a spring from which water will flow. 

Formed by a ten-foot-square, cast cement cube with a tall tree embedded at its central axis, the second work functions both as an icon and a passageway along the pier. And in the third, a steel hoop is attached to a tree trunk fixed against a large cement wall, not unlike a DIY handball wall. Informed by Minimalism, performance, and utilitarian construction, these structures will activate the area they inhabit—a site that inherently juxtaposes organic and industrial sensibilities. 

Oscar Tuazon (b. 1975, Seattle, Washington) lives and works in Paris. He studied at the Cooper Union School of Art and attended the Whitney Museum of America Art Independent Study Program, New York. In 2011, he presented his work at the 54th Venice Biennale, and most recently, his work is included in the 2012 Whitney Biennial. Recent solo exhibitions include: The Power Station, Dallas (2011); Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2010); Künsthalle Bern (2010); Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (2010); Seattle Art Museum (2008); and the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2007). Oscar Tuazon is represented by Maccarone and Galerie Eva Presenhuber.

SUPPORT

Major support provided by Kraus Family Foundation. Additional support provided by Jennifer & Malcolm Nolen. Special thanks to Brooklyn Bridge Park President Regina Myer.

Public Art Fund is a non-profit organization supported by contributions from individuals, foundations, corporations and, in part, with funds from government agencies, including the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Special thanks to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; First Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris; and Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin.

ABOUT PUBLIC ART FUND

Public Art Fund is New York’s leading presenter of artists’ projects, new commissions, installations, and exhibitions in public spaces. Since 1977, the Public Art Fund has worked with over 500 emerging and established artists to produce innovative temporary exhibitions of contemporary art 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 encounter with the art of our time.

For more information about Public Art Fund, please visit www.publicartfund.org

Media Contact
Kellie Honeycutt
212.223.7810 / 917.749.6398
khoneycutt@publicartfund.org

For a PDF of this Press Release, click here.