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 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

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

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.

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.