We spotted this painted lady outside the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle. In the tradition of the Cows on Parade, the Zurich public-art project featuring hand-painted statues of cows, Major League Baseball has planted several Statues of Liberty with new paint jobs throughout New York.
Eventually there will be 42 miniature replicas of New York Harbor's grand madame around town. (Find them yourself or download the MLB-provided map.) You can also buy wee versions of the ladies Liberty, but where's the fun in that?
A new "installation" at the Tate Britian is made up of groups of runners sprinting through the neoclassical galleries. Work No. 850, which will continue at the museum until November 16, is a non-stop relay race back and forth through the museum, with each 15-second dash accompanied by a 15-second pause.
Artist Martin Creed says the work was inspired by his attempt to see the catacombs in Palermo, Italy in just five minutes, but we immediately saw another muse. In Bertolucci's "The Dreamers," Isabelle, Théo and Matthew sprint through the Louvre in a moment of youthful jubilation and rebellion.
Of course, that too was an homage. The original museum runners were the trio from Godard's "Bande à Part" in 1964. We've got the clips after the click.
The Walker Art Center now has two mini-golf courses, and we couldn't come up with a better description than the curators did:
In the mockumentary film "This Is Spinal Tap," bassist Derek Smalls suggests that the difference between miniature golf and regular golf is the size of the ball. While the ball remains the same, virtually everything else about mini golf grows--at least on the course of Walker on the Green: Artist-Designed Mini Golf.
For $8 you can play through one of the seven-hole courses, which were designed by local artists. What should you expect? You'll find a pachinko-style hole, a "Water Hazard" hole, pictured, that employs empty bottles as obstacles and even the "Big Kahuna," a sort of frozen-in-place wave. The fun continues until September 7.
The waterfalls are on! After months of waiting, one of New York's most ambitious public art projects since "The Gates" is officially open.
The great thing about public art is that it isn't locked up inside a stuffy museum. But since the falls are scattered around the city, we put together a little guide to help you track 'em down.
Here's a tip: When you find yourself assuring reporters that the $42,000 bronze monument you've put on display involves "no kitsch or obscenity," your art project was probably a bad idea. The statue in question is a tribute to the enema that was unveiled at a spa in the Russian city of Zheleznovodsk on Wednesday. The Botticelli-inspired monument depicts three cherubic little angles holding aloft a bronze syringe bulb that's used for anal cleansing.
The sculpture was presented to the public this weekend at a celebration featuring models and a banner bearing the charming Soviet slogan "Let's beat constipation and sloppiness with enemas." The owner of the spa said enemas are "almost a symbol" of the Caucasus, dotted as the region is with retreats offering visitors the opportunity to get local mineral water sprayed up their ass. (Hey, Zheleznovodsk does mean "Iron Waters.")
Maybe when the spa gang realizes how ridiculous this makes them look they can change that butt bulb into an onion?
Maybe it's the heat that's been gripping NYC or maybe everyone in New York is just that into public art, but Gotham blogs are going crazy over the soon-to-be-fully-operational waterfalls of artist Olafur Eliasson.
This snapshot from Curbed shows one of the cascades doing a test run in preparation for the exhibit's debut on June 26. This one's on Pier 35 on the Lower East Side; two others are in Brooklyn, and a fourth is set up on Governors Island.
Visitors to San Francisco's Golden Gate park have noticed some odd installations over the past few months, as the de Young Museum has rolled out several giant glass sculptures for the largest Dale Chihuly exhibition ever.
The grounds of the de Young Museum and the adjoining Legion of Honor Museum, both within the park, are hosting some of Chihuly's largest works, including a 56-foot garden of glass and a 30-foot-tall neon tower, which should look particularly spectacular at night.
Inside the de Young, 11 rooms will showcase Chihuly's work, including five of his signature chandeliers. The show runs through September 28, but to avoid the $15 ticket charge, check it out this weekend, when admission is free.
The Miho Museum in Shiga, Japan is one of those places that always comes along with adjective "renowned," and for good reason. It was funded by one of the richest women in Japan, Mihoko Koyama, and its collection of both Asian and Western antiques could be worth up to a billion dollars.
Right now it's closed because they're getting ready for their summer exhibition: Ancient Sacred Drinking Vessels. Yes, it's about what the people of old used to drink from. In fact, there are a lot of animal-shaped drinking vessels which sound more exciting than the very regular-shaped glass we drank our last beer out of.
Along with the exhibition there'll be stories and myths about what they were drinking (and possibly, how they cured their hangovers). It opens up on July 12 and should run to August 17. Even if you don't want to see how your ancestors drank, tag along to the Miho just for the scenery. We promise it's great.