Andrew Rogers' INDIVIDUALS on View at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza thru 9/13

New York City Department of Parks & Recreation's Art in the Parks Program has announced the exhibition Individuals by renowned Australian artist Andrew Rogers at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza. The exhibition is on view at Second Avenue and East 47th Street today through September 13, 2013.

"Dag Hammarskjold Plaza is one of the most programmed places in the City for public art, showcasing artists from all over the world," said NYC Parks Commissioner Veronica M. White. "Rogers' work brings stunning bronze sculptures to this beautiful plaza in the heart of Midtown."

The installation Individuals is composed of 15 bronze sculptures that are all unique, but similar in form and climb up to12 feet in height. Rogers made these sculptures specifically for Dag Hammarskjold Plaza using bronze, a material weighted in the history of art, but used in a light, contemporary manner for this show. The organic, pulsating and ribbed outer surfaces act as counterpoints to the delicate, highly polished interiors. Each sculpture is balanced on a tightly curled base that unfurls as it extends upwards and outward in a continuously undulating spiral movement, similar to that of a tornado or a blooming flower.

"We are all individuals possessing the sanctity of a singular life and the ability to express ourselves. At the same time we are part of the society within which we live," Rogers says. "These individual figurative forms come together as a close community, yet it is always to be remembered that it is the individual that makes our world a place of justice and compassion." It is a particularly apt theme that resonates with this location, the gateway for the United Nations.

Andrew Rogers has recently installed two 7.5 meter (24.5 ft) bronze sculptures in Australia's national airport in Canberra. Rogers' works explore human emotion reflected in light, floating, organic forms that are about both qualitative time and ordinary quantitative time. These forms capture a passing instant, momentary feelings on the path of life. Rogers exhibits internationally and his critically acclaimed sculptures and photographs can be found in numerous private and prominent public collections in Australia, South East Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the United States of America. During the past 23 years he has received many international commissions and has created Rhythms of Life, the largest contemporary land art undertaking in the world-- forming a chain of 48 massive stone sculptures (geoglyphs) around the globe. The project has involved over 6,700 people in 13 countries across seven continents.

Designed in 1971, Dag Hammarskjold Plaza was intended as a permanent outdoor sculpture garden of rotating exhibitions. However, the plan was short-lived and never realized until about a decade ago. Thanks to the help of the Friends of Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, the park has become a regular showcase of temporary exhibitions. Thirteen installations have been on view at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza since 2000 (including Magdalena Abakanowicz, SteinunnThorarinsdottir, Rachel Owens and Francisco Leiro), and it has solidified the park as a highly desired location for temporary public art.

Parks' public art program has consistently fostered the creation and installation of temporary public art in parks throughout the five boroughs. Since 1967, collaborations with arts organizations and artists have produced hundreds of public art projects in New York City parks. For more information, visit www.nyc.gov/parks/art.