Spring will arrive early to New York this year. In an attempt to transform Park Avenue into a fanciful garden, Will Ryman creates 38 sculptures of rose blossoms towering as high as 25 feet, complimented by 20 individual scattered rose petals, to be installed along Park Avenue from January 25 through May 31, 2011.
Reflecting Ryman’s flair for the dramatic and absurdly wonderful, roses painted in shades of pink and red will spring up in vibrant contrast to the traditionally bleaker winter months preceding spring in the artist’s large-scale love letter to New York City.
This project is hosted by Paul Kasmin Gallery in conjunction with new york city’s department of parks and recreation and the Fund for the Park Avenue Sculpture Committee.
“I love that somebody looking out their window could be experiencing an object one way, while someone standing on the sidewalk could be looking at the same object and having a totally different experience,” Mr. Ryman, 41, said during a recent visit to his loft on the Bowery. “If you look at the stems, they’re sort of dancing.”
Ryman, familiar with non-traditional materials such as plaster, wire mesh, and PVC tubes, adopted industrial materials—stainless steel, yacht-grade fiberglass resin, automotive paint, and brass—creating sculptures designed to withstand the elements and be enjoyed by viewers throughout the seasons. The Roses will be on view from winter’s dormancy through Spring’s regeneration, suggesting the cycle of nature, as well as the eternally changing landscape of New York.
“With these roses I wanted to do something that was larger than life and site-specific. In my work I
always try to combine fantasy with reality. In the case of The Roses, I tried to convey New York City’s larger than life qualities through scale; creating blossoms which are imposing, humorous, and hopefully beautiful,” comments artist Will Ryman.
About Will Ryman
A native New Yorker, Will Ryman is internationally known for his large-scale figurative sculptures based on urban scenes and outsized flora. His work steadily incorporates a range of materials including plaster, fiberglass, stainless steel, paper maché, magic sculpt, brass, copper tubing, and cast aluminum. A writer turned artist, Ryman’s work is also heavily influenced by the works of absurdist playwrights and philosophers.
His work has been included in numerous exhibitions including Tangled Up In You: Connecting, Coexisting, and Conceiving Identity (2008), at 21c. Museum Foundation, Louisville, Kentucky; Contemporary Figurative Sculpture (2010), at Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, New York; Sculpture: Selections from the collection of Martin Z. Margulies (2007), at Margulies Warehouse, Miami; Greater New York 2005, at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts (2007), at The American Academy of Arts and Letters; Reconfiguring the Body in American Art, 1820–2009 (2009), at The National Academy of Design, New York; and The Shape of Things to Come (2009), at The Saatchi Gallery, London. Also upcoming, Ryman’s recent work, The Dinner Party (2010), will be on view at The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse in Miami, Florida during Art Basel Miami Beach. Additional works by Ryman will also be featured at the Paul Kasmin Gallery’s booth at Art Basel Miami Beach 2010. Will Ryman is the latest in a long list of distinguished artists to exhibit on Park Avenue. Previous exhibitions have included Deborah Butterfield, Robert Indiana, Jun Kaneko, Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne, Yoshitomo Nara and George Rickey. To view a complete history of art on Park Avenue visit www.nycgovparks.org/art and www.fundforparkavenue.org.
About Paul Kasmin Gallery
Paul Kasmin Gallery represents several generations of internationally recognized modern and contemporary painters, sculptors, designers, photographers, and filmmakers. Since its inception in 1989, the Gallery has presented a program of exceptional one-person exhibitions and dynamic group shows and is well know for its commitment to public sculpture projects. For more information, please visit www.paulkasmingallery.com.
What a fantastic initiative! I wish they would do something like that in Beirut.. we need it!
Comment by This is Beirut — 18 Feb ’11 @ 11:40 am