Broad Ordinary Occurrences

- by Karlis Rekevics

2021

hydrocal white plaster

This large-scale plaster sculpture is meant to evoke what artist Karlis Rekevics calls “the unlovelier parts of the man-made environment which we habitually encounter but almost never register.” Using these references as his starting point, the Rekevics has constructed his own version of the surrounding urban landscape, subtly altering the character and proportion of his design to produce a work that is “rooted in real experience” but “tempered by recollection.”

The design for "Broad Ordinary Occurrences" was inspired in part by the urban architecture that Rekevics regularly encounters on his daily walks beneath the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway en route to his studio. Take a look beneath the slanting roof of the sculpture and you'll find echoes of the underside of the BQE, with its curving overhangs and massive concrete pillars, the intricate infrastructure that underlies one of the city's major arteries. But because this is a site-specific piece, you'll also find echoes of the architecture that surrounds us here in Summit. (Hint: the tower-like post at the sculpture's southwest corner was inspired by a similar feature found on a nearby local landmark.)

One of the great strengths of Rekevics' work is that it encourages you to look more closely at the architecture around you. As you begin to look for the local sources of his work, you find yourself looking at the world like the artist himself and, in the process, gaining a new appreciation for the “broad ordinary occurrences" that shape our interactions with the world around us.

Karlis Rekevics lives and works in Brooklyn. Born in England of Latvian parents, he grew up in Rome, Baghdad, and Seattle and received his art education at the New York Studio School and the Hochschule der Kunst, Berlin. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in shows at PS1, the Sculpture Center, and the Whitney Museum of American Art at ALTRIA and reviewed in such publications as The New York Times, Sculpture magazine, and Art in America.