Public Art Fund: In the Public Realm: Maria Elena González

Press Release
Artist Bio
Sponsorship
Location
Bibliography

Maria Elena González "Magic Carpet/Home"

rubber, wood, paint

March - December 1999

Coffey Park, Red Hook, Brooklyn

Maria Elena González, "Magic Carpet/Home" Photo: Marian Harders

Maria Elena González's Magic Carpet/Home replicated the floor plan of a six-room unit in Red Hook East Housing, originally designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Complete with the outlines for a kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, and closets, this artwork visually transforms the apartment layout into a flying carpet. González used standard playground surface material to construct her creative rendition of a Red Hook East apartment fusing fantasy with daily New York living.

Artist Bio
Cuban born artist Maria Elena González has been creating art in the Red Hook area for twelve years. She has received numerous prestigious awards, including grants by Anonymous was a Woman, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Tiffany Foundation and The Joan Mitchell Foundation; she has had recent solo exhibitions at Manhattan's El Museo del Barrio, Brooklyn's Rotunda Gallery and Hallwalls in Buffalo.

Sponsorship
Magic Carpet/Home is a project of Public Art Fund's In the Public Realm program, a series of site-specific proposals and projects by emerging New York artists.

In the Public Realm is supported with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency, and the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs, and through generous support from the Greenwall Foundation, the Heathcote Foundation, the Silverweed Foundation and friends of the Public Art Fund.

Location
Magic Carpet/Home was located at Coffey Park in Red Hook, Brooklyn.