Brookfield Properties will soon install two large-scale public artworks within the Manhattan West commercial campus in Midtown. This includes a sculpture by Charles Ray and a mosaic mural by Christopher Wool, both highly acclaimed artists in their field.
Entitled “Adam and Eve,” Ray’s sculpture will sit on the northwest corner of 31st Street and Ninth Avenue, outside the entry plazas for One and Two Manhattan West. The work consists of two 10-foot-tall figures machined out of solid blocks of stainless steel that speak to the vitality of the campus and surrounding neighborhood.
“Eve sits at the viewer’s eye level and the liveliness of the street, with its light and its noise, reflects from her surface,” said Ray. “Adam, standing, teeters as he looks towards Ninth Avenue.”
Before the Manhattan West commission, Ray debuted a new sculpture dubbed “Archangel” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as three large-scale sculptures at the Whitney Museum of American Art 80th Biennial.
Rendering of the Adam and Eve sculpture by Charles Ray on the southeast corner of Manhattan West – Image courtesy of Brookfield Properties and Charles Ray
Crosstown Traffic mosaic by Christopher Wool in he production phase – Photo by Fabrizio Travisanutto; courtesy of Christopher Wool
Wool will debut “Crosstown Traffic,” his first public commission and largest work to date. The mosaic is constructed of stone and glass spanning 39 feet wide and 28 feet high. His acclaimed career also includes a 2013-2014 retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and The Art Institute of Chicago, as well as a career survey at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art in 1998 and the Carnegie Museum of Art and Kunsthalle Basel.
“It has been an honor to work with Charles and Christopher to realize their visions and to witness the evolution of their creative processes,” said Sabrina Kanner, Brookfield Properties’ executive vice president and head of development, design and construction. “Brookfield Properties is proud to host two incredibly significant works of public art to be enjoyed by and accessible to all New Yorkers.”
Both works will be unveiled on Monday, June 5.
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How on earth can a backdrop to the desk in a PRIVATE lobby be considered “Public Artwork” Is homeless Joe allowed to go in and have a look? I doubt it.
Anyone can walk into the lobby. Just like at One Manhattan West.
Is it just me or is Adam pitching a tent?
Also is it just me or is Adam and Eve, the central figures in a mythological Abrahamic human original story and doctrinal parable who are strangely clothed in anachronistic nineteenth century wardrobe a pretty bizarre art choice for the public plaza of a Manhattan office tower?
Given they are clothed, it’s after Eve put us all in peril… LOL