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The City Hall Park Furniture Show

About the Exhibition

Despite the obvious stylistic differences of the four artists included in this exhibition—Donna Dennis, Jackie Ferrara, Rodney Alan Greenblat, and Stomu Miyazaki—the works presented are thematically related by the notion of furniture. The artists included in this exhibition have all addressed the notion of furniture in different ways. Each artist has produced strong and engaging works during the varying spans of their careers, and each has a distinctive vision.

The City Hall Park Furniture Show is sponsored by the Public Art Fund. The exhibition includes works by Jackie Ferrara, Rodney Alan Greenblat, and Stomu Miyazaki.

Location

Location

City Hall Park

Broadway & Chambers Street

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Photo Gallery

Featured Artists

Donna Dennis, Tourist Cabin
Donna Dennis (b.1942, Springfield, OH) describes Tourist Cabin as a small sculpture made of screen, wood, electric lights and furniture, which is visible through the screens. The cabin is about 6 feet tall, so the scale of the cabin itself and the furniture inside is reduced and not “real.” The cabin cannot be entered.

Jackie Ferrara, Love Seat
Jackie Ferrara’s Love Seat measures 39” x 35” x 66”, is made of cedar 2x4s, and has black stripes stained into its surface. Ferrara (b.1929, Detroit, Michigan), who is known for making functional public art, built Love Seat to face the Mayor’s Office because she thought, “City Hall was badly in need of a love seat.” Love Seat is functional and is intended for use.

Rodney Alan Greenblat, The High Chair
The High Chair by Rodney Alan Greenblat (b.1960, San Francisco, CA) is a 15 1/2’ tall chair made of enamel-painted wood-framed plywood. Furniture is an integral part of Greenblat’s work, and The High Chair represents the first outdoor translation of his ideas in an architectural scale. The roof or seat of the chair is made of translucent corrugated fiberglass, forming a dry, well-lit shelter for passersby. On the right top back of the chair is a bird house. The chair, painted in the artist’s familiar trompe l’oeil decorative vocabulary, is described by Greenblat as an “unexplained billboard.”

Stomu Miyazaki, Narrative Furniture No. 5, Homage to American Dream II
Miyazaki’s Narrative Furniture No. 5, Homage to American Dream II, is a 33” x 24” x 21” functional chair of white painted aluminum, in the style of picket fencing with an artificial grass seat. The work is part of a series of designs by the artist called Narrative Furniture. The chair, in referring to adjacent corners of suburban backyards, pays homage to the American Dream. Miyazaki, who prefers to let the viewer create his or her own story, feels “the meaning of the work is what you see.”