Most of the High Line’s roughly 1.5-mile length along Manhattan’s West Side is open to the elements, making it a fine venue for durable sculpture but something less than an ideal one for some other types of art—like, say, painting.
But painting is the subject that Cecilia Alemani, the director of the High Line’s public art programs, has picked for the next annual show on the former rail line. Titled “En Plein Air,” it will open in April and runs through March 2020. It will bring together work by eight artists, including the veteran French Daniel Buren, who will string his signature stripe pieces in the form of garlands over the elevated walkway, and Vivian Suter, who will exhibit unframed paintings that blend in with the surrounding flora and fauna, allowing nature to take control of the pieces over time.
“Usually painting is not a medium that is associated with public art, so we wanted to challenge artists that we wouldn’t necessarily work with because they typically work with painting or two-dimensional mediums,” Alemani told ARTnews. “We wanted to bring those artworks into the parks and see what would happen.”
Diversity was also emphasized during the selection process, and the selected artists hail from seven countries across four continents. Alemani added, “The idea was also to bring together a number of artists who I knew could collaborate with nature in the way they make their paintings.”
The full list of artists is as follows:
– Ei Arakawa
– Firelei Báez
– Daniel Buren
– Sam Falls
– Lubaina Himid
– Lara Schnitger
– Ryan Sullivan
– Vivian Suter
