ART & DESIGN

Art Outside

5 summertime exhibitions in New York transcend the gallery walls.

June 16, 2015

Jeppe Hein’s Please Touch the Art at Brooklyn Bridge Park

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Jeppe Hein’s Please Touch the Art at Brooklyn Bridge Park To transform Brooklyn Bridge Park into an interactive playground, the Danish artist Jeppe Hein installed a collection of bright orange circular benches on the waterfront. On a recent sunny afternoon, I saw children hanging from the lower bars of one, while a group of strangers worked to figure out how to sit comfortably together on another. (Tip: Ask a friend to hoist you up.) For the exhibition, entitled Please Touch the Art, Hein also brought in a version of his Instagram-friendly sculpture “Mirror Labyrinth,” a swirling maze that splinters your reflection. Play at your own risk.

Jeppe Hein’s Mirror Labyrinth NY, 2015. Courtesy of König Galerie, Berlin; 303 Gallery, New York; and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen. Photo by James Ewing, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY

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Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden Life at the New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden has put Frida Kahlo’s paintings, drawings, and personal effects on display—and transformed its conservatory into a traditional Mexican garden based on the artist’s famed La Casa Azul.

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

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Creative Time’s Drifting in Daylight in Central Park There’s only one more weekend to catch Creative Time’s Drifting in Daylight, which brings together a variety of artists—including Ragnar Kjartansson, Spencer Finch, and Alicia Framis—for interactive performances in the northern end of Central Park. Don’t miss it!

Photo by Tara Rice, Courtesy Creative Time.

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Robert Irwin at Dia:Beacon If you are feeling adventurous, you can head out of town to the Storm King Art Center for Lynda Benglis: Water Sources, the first exhibition centering on the artist’s monumental bronze and cast polyurethane fountains. While you’re up there in Hudson Valley, go to Dia:Beacon for Robert Irwin’s delightful site-specific installation Excursus: Homage to the Square3. Okay, these two aren’t technically in the five boroughs, but there’s always Zipcar.