Aesthetic Grounds

Public Art, Public Space

You are here: Home / Archives for usa

New and Old Glass Ceilings

by

With Spencer Finch's new ceiling in Seattle, I was reminded of some others by Carl Cheng and Seyed Alavi.  Unfortunately, none of them compare well the late 19th century and early 20th.   At least the architects at the new Amazon.com office building created a space for the work with the illusion of extra height. The Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, between San Francisco and … [Read more...]

Modern Brick and Stone, Ann Norton and Harvey Fite

by

Two artists born two years apart in 1903 & 1905, aspired to the creation of a "place" through their art.   The next generation artists - Anselm Kiefer, Donald Judd - followed the same instinct, but unlike the next generation, Harvey Fite and Ann Norton labored in stone and brick almost alone for more than 30 years starting in middle age.  Both artists made a name for themselves through a … [Read more...]

Public Art Postings on Facebook

by

Artists -- Joana Vasconcelos, Harvey Fite, Dennis McNett, Éder Oliveira, Panya Clark Espinal, Höweler + Yoon, Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam, Mark Reigelman, Tadashi Kawamata.  Follow at glenn.weiss.100 on facebook.   … [Read more...]

Weekly Public Art Posts on Facebook glenn.weiss.100

by

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's quote on public art: “Public art installations allow Chicagoans to be active participants in arts and culture, and as part of the Chicago Cultural Plan, we’ve made progress on a number of fronts to bring the arts directly to Chicago neighborhoods,” said Mayor Emanuel. “From Sculpture on the Boulevards to art installations on the lake front to more than 1,000 events … [Read more...]

Cement Relief Murals: Nair, Mitchell, Nivola and Scuri

by

Over the last 70 years, a few artists have worked in concrete or cement for relief sculpture in public spaces.  The work includes pre-cast concrete panels hung on the building, form liners for poured in place concrete walls and hand carving of "green concrete" spread over a wall.  Four artists completed a significant amount of work: Costantino Nivola, Italy/USA, 1911-1988 Primarily: green … [Read more...]

Street Artists make Place Identity

by

Street artists like Haas and Hahn or JR are volunteering with or without crowd-funding or being commissioned by NGOs to help make place.   Sometimes place making by paint occurs overtime such as the Wynwood Arts District murals in Miami or older historic murals in smaller towns across America in the 1980-90s such as Lake Placid, Florida.  But this visioning by a single artist or artist team seems … [Read more...]

Is the Blue Light Tower the new 19th Century Memorial Obelisk?

by

For a hundred years, the stone obelisk became western civilization's preferred memorial for important individuals and death in wars.  Recently, the blue tower of light has emerged as the new memorial including the new "Spectra" by Ryoji Ikeda in London for WW1 dead from the UK.  A few differences: - Momentary vs Permanent - Night vs Day - Photographs Blue vs White - Random Location vs … [Read more...]

Kara Walker Tangent: Remember Fred Wilson

by

The sugar baby is not public art.  I am stubbornly holding onto the idea that an essential part of the definition of  "public art" is the capacity for any person to stumble across the work in accessible public space.  Once the art is locked inside a structure, the key element of the "any person" disappears.  And more importantly it loses it's power as a threat or collaborator to public … [Read more...]

Best of the Week in Public Art

by

Friend me at glenn.weiss.100 for the originals in real time. Two best finds of the week are the giant mural in Syria complete this year in the middle of the war and the Smokey Hollow Memorial to the African American Community that was demolished in the late 1960s. Most popular this week is the Edmonton, Canada, pavilion by Marc … [Read more...]

Return to top of page

an ArtsJournal blog

This blog published under a Creative Commons license