storm king announces second season of acclaimed di suvero

STORM KING ANNOUNCES SECOND SEASON
OF ACCLAIMED DI SUVERO EXHIBITION ON GOVERNORS ISLAND;
TWO WORKS, INCLUDING A NEW SCULPTURE, ADDED
Mark di Suvero at Governors Island: Presented by Storm King Art Center
opens on May 26, 2012; expanded series of public programs begins in June
For Immediate Release, May 10, 2012, New York City. . . . Storm King Art Center today
announced a second season of the critically acclaimed exhibition Mark di Suvero at Governors
Island: Presented by Storm King Art Center. Opening on May 26, 2012, the exhibition features
two works not included last summer: a new sculpture, titled Dreamcatcher, which has never
been on public view, and Chonk On (2002), which Mr. di Suvero has painted red especially for
the exhibition. In addition, viewers will discover fresh perspectives on select works that Storm
King and the artist are relocating on the 172-acre Island, a former military base that is now a
vibrant public space.
Mark di Suvero at Governors Island, curated by Storm King Director and Curator David
Collens, is the largest outdoor presentation of di Suvero’s sculpture to be shown in New York
City since the 1970s. With loans from public and private collections, including a number of
sculptures from Storm King’s own celebrated installation of the artist’s work, the exhibition will
be a highlight of the Island’s 2012 season. It remains on view through September 30. Governors
Island is accessible by ferry from lower Manhattan and Brooklyn and is free to the public.
Storm King President John P. Stern notes, “Storm King is delighted to extend the
exhibition of work by Mark di Suvero for another season. This will not only enable first-time
visitors to view the exhibition, but, we hope, also encourage the many people who saw it last year
to return, gaining a deeper perspective on di Suvero’s multi-faceted work.”
This year’s presentation of the Mark di Suvero at Governors Island will be accompanied
by a greatly expanded schedule of public programs, developed by Storm King in partnership
with other organizations. These range from tours of the exhibition by visual artists, organized in
collaboration with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Socrates Sculpture Park; to a
hands-on family program, developed with The Children’s Museum of the Arts; to an afternoon of
poetry, a collaboration between Storm King and Poets House.
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Leslie Koch, President of The Trust for Governors Island, adds, “The Trust for
Governors Island is thrilled that Storm King is again exhibiting the works of Mark di Suvero. We
are additionally delighted that Storm King’s dynamic collaborations with other cultural
organizations will enable visitors to enjoy a new series of compelling related programs.”
The works in the exhibition are sited throughout Governors Island—including at Picnic
Point, the Parade Ground—and on Governors Island National Monument, adjacent to Fort Jay. The
vistas of the Statue of Liberty, New York Harbor, the Lower Manhattan skyline, and Brooklyn
Bridge from these locations ensure an experience of public art that is unique to New York City.
Patti Reilly, Superintendent of Governors Island National Monument notes, “The Mark di
Suvero exhibition gives visitors a wonderful new perspective for experiencing the historic fabric of
the Island and the vivid backdrop of the Harbor. It’s a trip you do not want to miss.”
In addition to organizing the di Suvero exhibition on Governors Island, Storm King, which
is located in the Hudson Valley, has enhanced its own presentation of the artist’s sculpture. The
public may thus view the work of this seminal artist in two distinct but complementary settings—in
a dynamic urban environment, and a pastoral one of mountains, sky, and fields—enhancing
viewers’ understanding of the sculptures themselves and of their relationship to their surroundings.
Mark di Suvero at Governors Island
Mark di Suvero’s work has helped to shape our notion of modern sculpture. His
monumental, spatially dynamic compositions, created using such industrial materials as I-beams
and salvaged steel, reveal a masterful sense of form, composition, and movement, while also
conveying poignant emotion and, frequently, a sense of play.
With work ranging in date from 1977 to 2012, Mark di Suvero at Governors Island
reveals the depth and variety that the artist has achieved within his intentionally limited range of
materials. The newly added Chonk On, for example, combines found materials and steel plates
that were shaped in the studio into a complex assemblage that cannot be perceived from a single
vantage point. Those who have seen this sculpture at Storm King, where it was until recently on
long-term view, will find that it looks dramatically different with its new coat of red paint.
Additional works from Storm King—from its collection or others on long-term loan—include
Mahatma (1978–79), in which a 7,000-pound beam, bent into a “U” shape, rocks and turns on top
of a sentinel-like I-beam, producing continually changing shadows and perspectives; and For
Chris, 1991, created by di Suvero as a memorial to his friend the late artist Chris Wilmarth, an
assemblage in which the open spaces created by cut shapes are as integral to the sculpture as the
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steel forms themselves, and which contains a bell that visitors can ring. Old Buddy (For Rosko)
(1993–95), a composition of vertical and horizontal girders that is at once powerful and playful,
named in memory of the artist’s dog, is also on view.
Other works in the exhibition include She, 1977–78, a fifty-two-foot wide, dynamic
composition that includes three suspended elements—a swing made from recycled tires, a steam
roller, and an abstract construction—on loan from a private collection; Will, a forty-two-foot-high
I-beam sculpture dating from 1994, from The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection; and Fruit
Loops (2003), a sixteen-foot-high work in which elements of bent steel loop and intersect in a
fanciful, energetic composition, from The Collection of Agnes Gund.
Dreamcatcher, the new work, is a roughly fifty-foot high steel composition with a bentsteel, mobile element near its top. In another recent work, Figolu, 2005–11, the combination of
painted I-beams and large buoys suspended from a steel cable creates a tension between dense and
open spaces and nods to the maritime setting and active harbor beyond.
In addition to the outdoor works, the exhibition includes an installation in the Governors
Gallery building of photographs of Mr. di Suvero’s work at Storm King, complemented by videos
of the artist installing his sculpture.
Mark di Suvero
Mark di Suvero was born in China in 1933 and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area.
His work may be found in public and private collections across the globe and has been exhibited
internationally. The first of several citywide exhibitions of his work was in New York City in
1975. This was followed by presentations in Paris, Nice, and Valence, France; Venice, Italy; and
Stuttgart, Germany. He was the first living artist to be shown in the Jardin des Tuileries, in Paris.
In 1957, di Suvero moved to New York City, which, other than during the first half of the
1970s, he has continued to make his home. His early wood sculptures were made with material
from buildings being torn down in Lower Manhattan. After he was paralyzed in an accident while
doing a construction job, he began electric arc-welding while in a wheelchair and later learned to
operate a crane. He continues to make his work at his studios in New York and California.
In addition to his role as a pivotal American artist, di Suvero is also a central figure in some
of the institutions that have shaped the landscape of New York City’s art world. In the early 1960s,
for example, he was a founding member of the Park Place Gallery, in Soho, the first contemporaryart gallery located in what would become a hub of the City’s art scene. Since 1981, he has
maintained a studio in Long Island City, Queens, and in 1986, he led the transformation of an
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abandoned landfill and dumpsite next door into the award-winning Socrates Sculpture Park, which
combines space for artists with a neighborhood park. Today Socrates Sculpture Park, with its
stunning view across the East River to the iconic Manhattan skyline, is internationally renowned
for its programs serving artists and the public, including an extensive arts-education program.
Mark di Suvero is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the 2010 National
Medal of Arts.
Storm King Art Center
Widely celebrated as one of the world’s leading sculpture parks, Storm King has welcomed
visitors from across the globe for fifty years. Its pristine 500-acre landscape provides the setting for
a collection of more than 100 carefully sited sculptures, created by some of the most acclaimed
artists of our time. These span the years from post-World War II to the present and include specially
commissioned site-specific works, all set against the backdrop of Storm King and Schunnemunk
Mountains. With its verdant fields, rolling hills, and woodlands, Storm King offers a unique and
memorable experience with every visit, as changing light and weather conditions transform both the
grounds and the sculpture.
In addition to Mark di Suvero, artists whose work is on permanent view include
Alexander Calder, Andy Goldsworthy, Maya Lin, Louise Nevelson, Isamu Noguchi, Nam June
Paik, Richard Serra, David Smith, Ursula von Rydingsvard, and Zhang Huan. Storm King’s
permanent display is complemented by special exhibitions, which may comprise large-scale
sculptures sited in outdoor “galleries” defined by sky and landscape, or smaller works and
supporting materials shown in Storm King’s museum building. On view this year is Light and
Landscape, a special exhibition comprising works by artists who explore natural light as a
medium. For additional information, visit www.stormking.org.
The Trust for Governors Island
The Trust for Governors Island is the nonprofit corporation created by the City of New
York that is responsible for the planning, redevelopment, and ongoing operations of 150 acres of
Governors Island. The Trust’s mission is to bring Governors Island back to life, making this island
at the center of New York Harbor a destination with great public open space, as well as
educational, not-for-profit, and commercial facilities. In 2013, The Trust will open 30 new acres of
park, designed by the acclaimed landscape architecture firm West 8. For more information, visit
www.govisland.com.
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Governors Island National Monument
The National Park Service administers Governors Island National Monument, which
consists of twenty-two acres, including the historic fortifications Castle Williams and Fort Jay.
The Monument is one of twenty-two sites operated by the National Park Service in the New York
City area. Its purpose is to preserve and protect Castle Williams and Fort Jay, and to interpret
them and the harbor’s rich history and ecology for the public. More information can be found at
www.nps.gov/gois.
How to Get to Governors Island
Governors Island—and the di Suvero exhibition—will be open every Saturday, Sunday,
and Holiday Mondays from May 26 through September 30. The Island is open from 10 am to 7
pm. Free ferries leave every half hour from the Battery Maritime Building, on the corner of South
and Whitehall Streets, in Lower Manhattan. On Saturdays and Sundays, free ferries run
continuously from Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 6. For up-to-date ferry schedules and
downloadable maps, please visit www.govisland.com.
Food and Amenities on Governors Island
Visitors are welcome to bring their own food or to purchase it on the Island. They are not
permitted to bring alcohol to the Island.
Indoor bathrooms are located in Building 110, adjacent to the Governors Island ferry
landing; port-a-sans are located throughout the Island and at Picnic Point.
Visitors may also bring their own bikes to enjoy five miles of car-free biking. Bikes are
also available for rent on the Island.
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For information on the exhibition or Storm King Art Center: [email protected].
For information on Governors Island: Elizabeth Rapuano, [email protected],
+1 212-440-2205.

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