The Weight of Our Living
Rachel Hsu
August 1 – October 27, 2024
Inspired by reflexology footpaths in Taiwan’s public parks, The Weight of Our Living was selected for Art on the Parkway, a local competition organized by the Association for Public Art and the Parkway Council. This temporary installation for The Oval encouraged visitors to remove their shoes and traverse a surface of river stones, making a journey that connects emotional endurance with physical experience.
The Radical Black Elite
Xenobia Bailey
Spring – Fall 2024
The Association for Public Art in partnership with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) engaged Xenobia Bailey to create a singular emblematic image, The Radical Black Elite, which was displayed on street pole banners on Locust Street near HSP. Bailey’s first public art installation in Philadelphia, the artwork includes a mid-1800s daguerreotype of a Black man collaged with crocheted gold embellishments.
Steel Bodies
Maren Hassinger
June 12 – November 12, 2023
The Association for Public Art brought Maren Hassinger’s Steel Bodies to Philadelphia from Socrates Sculpture Park as a temporary exhibition at the historic Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial on Kelly Drive. Part of an ongoing effort to reimagine the site, Steel Bodies was the first contemporary public art exhibition at the memorial and Hassinger’s first outdoor sculpture exhibition in Philadelphia.
Maja
Gerhard Marcks
Installation: March 2021
After years in storage, Gerhard Marcks’ Maja (1942) was placed in a new park on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Maja Park. The Association purchased Maja in 1949 and had been waiting for the right opportunity to reinstall the work, which once stood atop the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps.
Liberty Bell
Nancy Baker Cahill
July 2020 – July 2021
Nancy Baker Cahill’s Liberty Bell is an animated, monumental and richly sonorous augmented reality drawing in 360 degrees that relies on geolocation. This AR project was on view in six U.S. cities simultaneously, including Philadelphia, where the Association for Public Art was the host partner for the installation.
Winter Fountains
Jennifer Steinkamp
December 2017 – March 2018
A centerpiece of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway centennial, four fiberglass domes glowed nightly with Jennifer Steinkamp’s dream-like animated video projections, inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s research and evoking the art and science explorations represented by the Parkway institutions.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies
Cai Guo-Qiang
September – October 2017
Cai Guo-Qiang’s largest public art project in the US in a decade, Fireflies invited the public to ride at night along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway inside a fleet of 27 pedicabs, which were adorned with clusters of hundreds of illuminated, handmade Chinese lanterns. The lanterns were handcrafted in Cai Guo-Qiang’s hometown of Quanzhou, China.
Big Bling
Martin Puryear
June – November 2017
Rising forty feet high and eliciting many interpretations, Big Bling (2016) is Puryear’s largest temporary outdoor sculpture to date. The sculpture was brought to Philadelphia through a collaboration with New York’s Madison Square Park Conservancy, which commissioned the work. The sculpture’s next stop was MASS MoCA.
AMOR
Robert Indiana
Installed 2015
On the occasion of the World Meeting of Families and Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S., the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Association for Public Art presented the installation of AMOR (1998) atop the Museum’s famous steps, where it overlooked the Papal Mass. In 2016, the sculpture was permanently installed in Sister Cities Park at 18th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Magic Carpet
Candy Coated
July – August 2014
Magic Carpet transformed The Oval in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art into a magical environment of color, pattern, illusion, and movement, with pink-colored sandboxes, oversized game boards, and the artist Candy Coated’s signature decorative motifs rendered in vinyl, among other attractions.
Symbiosis
Roxy Paine
Installed 2014
Hand-fabricated from thousands of pieces of stainless steel pipe, plate, and rods, Symbiosis (2011) suggests both ecological and anatomical branching systems. The Association for Public Art received a generous grant from the Daniel W. Dietrich II Trust, Inc. to acquire the sculpture, which is installed on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway near the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Rock Form (Porthcurno)
Barbara Hepworth
Installed 2012
Rock Form (1964) was donated to the Association for Public Art in 2011 by art patron David N. Pincus, and installed at 17th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 2012. One of the 20th century’s most eminent sculptors, Hepworth was a friend of Henry Moore, whose sculpture Three Way Piece Number 1: Points is placed nearby.
OPEN AIR
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
September – October 2012
A world-premiere interactive light installation, OPEN AIR transformed Philadelphia’s night sky with 24 powerful robotic searchlights. Unique, dynamic light formations were directed by participants’ voice messages and GPS locations. The work was inspired by the city’s rich tradition of democracy and respect for free speech.
The Labor Monument
John Kindness
Installed 2010
The Labor Monument in Philadelphia’s Elmwood Park commemorates the contributions of organized labor nationwide and Philadelphia’s working class history. Each bronze relief sculpture represents an important event in labor history, and blue paving and brick detailing around the seating elements suggest the denim and stitching on workers’ clothing.
Common Ground
John H. Stone, Lonnie Graham, Lorene Cary
Installed 2009
Commissioned as part of the New•Land•Marks program and developed with the anti-homelessness organization Project H.O.M.E., Common Ground provides new dedicated meeting places for the community to gather, reflect, and celebrate the neighborhood.
Iroquois
Mark di Suvero
Installed 2007
Formed from painted steel I-beams, Mark di Suvero’s 40-foot-high Iroquois (1983-1999) has a robust energy and physical presence. The red-orange sculpture was acquired by the Association for Public Art in 2007 with the support of art patron David N. Pincus. The artist describes his monumental sculptures as “paintings in three dimensions with the crane as my paintbrush.”
Manayunk Stoops
Diane Pieri
Installed 2006
Nine colorful mosaic “stoops” by Philadelphia artist Diane Pieri serve as seating elements along the Manayunk Canal Towpath. They are an interpretation of the front steps and entryways that mark the neighborhood’s architecture and street life. The artwork was commissioned as part of the Association for Public Art’s New•Land•Marks program.
Embodying Thoreau
Ed Levine
Installed 2003
A series of wooden structures “between sculpture and architecture” in Pennypack Park explore different aspects of humanity’s relationship to nature. The artwork was commissioned as part of the Association for Public Art’s New•Land•Marks program and developed with the Pennypack Environmental Center.
I have a story to tell you…
Pepón Osorio
Installed 2003
To realize this project, Pepón Osorio collected photographs from Philadelphia’s Latino community and sought images of shared experiences and local events that have impacted community life. Part of the New•Land•Marks program, this is Osorio’s first permanent public art commission.