With spring finally blossoming in New York, the city’s public art offerings—several of which are staged in prominent parks—are all the more alluring.
In Harlem Art Park, Kevin Quiles Bonilla and Zaq Landsberg have devised an installation that renders part of a 16th-century fortress in Puerto Rico out of the ubiquitous green fencing used around New York construction sites.
At the south-east corner of Central Park, in Doris C. Freedman Plaza, the artist Bharti Kher has erected an 18ft-tall female figure, Ancestor (2022), which represents both a universal matriarch and a miniature figurine Kher found at a secondhand market in India.
Another monumental female figure presides over Madison Square Park, where Shahzia Sikander’s exhibition spans the park, the rooftop of an adjacent courthouse and an augmented reality app.
In Brooklyn’s Columbus Park, Fred Wilson has turned ornamental gates and fences into a rumination on detainment, incarceration and policing.
For lighter fare, visit the corner of Church and Leonard streets in Tribeca, where Anish Kapoor’s long-awaited “bean” sculpture beckons.