Socrates Sculpture Park is pleased to announce Cityscape: Surveying the Urban Biotope. Curated by Alyson Baker and Marichris Ty, the show will explore the presence of nature in the fabric of urban life. Cityscape includes eleven new works by artists:

Saul Becker George Boorujy William Cordova David Kennedy Cutler Lillian Gerson Janelle Iglesias Katherine McLeod Ester Partegàs Zena Verda Pesta Christine Howard Sandoval Mark Lawrence Stafford

The introduction or invasion of plants and animals in the cityscape symbolizes a broad scope of conditions and dynamics – from far reaching social, political, economic and aesthetic issues to an individual’s relationship with their immediate surroundings. Nature’s presence in the urban environment can take many forms: green roofs, community gardens, city parks, corporate plazas; Peregrine Falcons nesting on 5th Avenue balconies; vast populations of rats and pigeons that have readily adapted to the habitat of busy streets; Ailanthus trees growing from crumbling buildings, abandoned construction sites, and cracks in the sidewalk. This range from invited and cultivated to invasive and insidious represents everything from the most innovative urban planning and a trend towards the greening of cities, to a symptom of and contributor to the decay of the built environment.

Opening Day Performance: For the opening, Lillian Gerson will present herself as alter ego, Connie O’Nassis. O’Nassis will be giving out brochures, maps and self guided walking tours of the Park and the surrounding neighborhood. She will also be leading tours of the Park grounds at 3pm and at 5pm. Visitors can sign up the day of the opening at the information booth.

Also opening on Sunday, May 2 is an individual project by Los Angeles-based artist, Jedediah Caesar. To produce his “new horizon sculpture”, Caesar excavated a shallow pit at Socrates Sculpture Park, coring and exploring the topography of the site, which was formerly an abandoned riverside landfill and illegal dumpsite. His plaster-cast sculpture documents the shape of his dig and has been inverted into a particle-encrusted relief sculpture. The piece was produced in February 2010 for inclusion in the artist’s recent solo exhibition at D’Amelio Terras Gallery and will be returning to Socrates, to be shown alongside the hole, which is its origin. The work will remain on view through June 6, 2010.

This exhibition is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency and is supported, in part, by public funds from the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs.