Summit Public Art

Summit Public ArtSummit Public Art

Bringing Art to Public Spaces in Summit

2020

Maxikiosco

2011

12’ x 9’ x 9’

Welded steel, salvaged acrylic, LED lights

 

Inspired by Argentina’s colorful “kioscos,” or corner stores, Tom Fruin’s Maxikiosco celebrates the familiar neighborhood structures that serve as both community centers and sources of nourishment, its vibrant colors reflecting the vibrancy and variety of city life. Constructed from recycled plexiglas and reclaimed steel, Fruin’s illuminated art house creates a sense of wonder through the abstract collision of light and color, becoming a “kaleidoscope of color” during the day and a “beacon of light” at night.

Drawing on what he calls “the ephemera of the city,” Fruin seeks to present “a profoundly optimistic message—that discarded elements once seen as waste can be transformed into positive and progressive symbols.” Likewise, by presenting “everyday structures in a new way,” he aims to create works that “refocus attention back on the original,” turning “overlooked infrastructural items” into something “fantastical” and new.

Tom Fruin was born and raised in Los Angeles has lived and worked in Brooklyn since the 1990s. Often working with “forgotten” or cast-off materials, Fruin takes on urban objects such as houses, billboards, and flags, elevating their form to emblematic status and architectural scale. Best known for his iconic Watertower sculpture, which can be seen from both the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, he has exhibited his work internationally and his art can be found in many permanent collections in the U.S., Europe, and Argentina.

Troika

2017

108” x 112” x 120”

Welded plastic debris, hardware, LEDs, solar panels

Troika, like much of Aurora Robson’s work, was inspired by the recurring images that haunted her dreams when she was a child. This curiously-shaped trio, sculpted from plastic debris, is the result of Robson’s practice of transforming bad into good, turning “displaced abundance” into works of art. Seen at night, her sculptures, lit by internal solar-powered lights, become enchanted objects that glow from within.

“Art and garbage are polar opposites,” says Robson, “yet they are the two things we leave behind on earth. Once transformed into art, debris becomes the antithesis of itself.” She defines her approach to art as a “meditative practice of transformation,” where the goal is to “establish value where it ought to have been recognized in the first place. The key for me is often factoring in the big picture—imagining myself in outer space peering at this solitary planet that supports life. We are stardust with a temporary heartbeat.”

Aurora Robson was born in Toronto, raised in Hawaii, and now lives and works in Hudson Valley, NY. Robson is a multi-media artist-activist whose work has been widely exhibited across the United States and abroad and has been featured in Sculpture Magazine, WIRED, Art in America, BBC News the Forum, and numerous other publications. She is also a founding member of Project Vortex, an international collective of artists, designers, and architects who work in innovative ways with plastic debris.

What Lifts You

Kelsey Montague’s What Lifts You is one of a series of the artist’s signature interactive murals. This exquisitely designed pair of wings incorporates a number of features characteristic of our town: a tree (for Summit’s many parks and tree-lined streets), a train (for our Midtown Direct line to NYC), a dragonfly (which can be found in any garden here), and a large sunflower (a nod to the patch of sunflowers growing nearby). Like many of Montague’s works, this interactive work invites passersby to stop and try on these wings for themselves. “I really love to have people step into my work and become part of it and share something positive about life,” says the artist, who invites you to snap a photo of yourself with her work and share it online at #WhatLiftsYou or @KelseyMontagueArt.

A native of Colorado, Kelsey Montague studied art in Italy and in the UK where she graduated with a degree from Richmond University. Since painting her first angel wings mural in New York’s Nolita neighborhood in 2014, Montague has painted hundreds of her interactive murals on six continents and in dozens of cities around the world, from Buenos Aires to Dubai to Singapore and now Summit, New Jersey.

This specially-commissioned mural was brought to Summit through a joint partnership between Summit Public Art, Summit Downtown, Inc., and Dylan Baker of Summit House Restaurant and Bar Bacoa. We are excited to be part of this true community effort!

Efflorescence

Kate Dodd, 2020

Kate Dodd’s Efflorescence is a site-specific installation created from bundles of repurposed plastic water bottles. Composed of fourteen flower-like stalks, this whimsical grove demonstrates Dodd’s talent for using discarded materials to transform otherwise ordinary settings into fantastical spaces. The vibrant colors come from plastic as well—multiple layers of the netting used to bind onions and garlic.

“A certain amount of my artwork,” says Dodd, “responds to the question: What is there a lot of in the world that people don’t value? What can I do to give these materials value? A central part of art-making to me is turning nothing into something or turning raw materials into objects. And part of what making satisfies for me is the need to bring order to chaos. It doesn’t make sense to me to make new objects when the world is already so full of objects. And almost nothing seems as ever present and unwanted as plastic bottles.”

A graduate of New York’s Pratt Institute and a recipient of a 2020 NJ Fellowship for Sculpture, Kate Dodd has exhibited her artwork widely throughout New Jersey and in New York and California. Dodd frequently works with repurposed materials, using everything from discarded books to styrofoam cups to create installations for a variety of venues, from museums and parks to schools and train stations.

http://www.katedodd.com/

Anomie Exquisite

Anomie Exquisite

Andrew Light, 2014

 

Andrew Light’s sculpture Anomie Exquisite began with a random series of scrapyard finds. Out of this initial “anomie” or uncertainty, Light reimagined the function of these discarded materials to create a dynamic new work defined by its central arc. From the twin cylinders that function as its base—a reminder of its junkyard origins—the resulting piece ascends and takes flight on curved wings that carry it into a new harmony and purpose, evoking what Light calls the “echo of a movement.”

Andrew Light is an artist based in Lexington, KY, where he maintains an active studio, focusing primarily on fabricated metal sculpture. An academically trained artist, Light has an extensive background in industry, having worked in several skilled trades. After earning his MFA at the University of Florida, Light apprenticed as an iron worker and later served as studio assistant to renowned sculptors John Henry in Chattanooga, TN and Richard Hunt in Chicago. He has also worked for the British Open Air Museum of Steel Sculpture as a workshop and foundry technician. His work has been exhibited in museums and art centers across the South and Midwest and can currently be seen in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania.

Summit Under Quarantine

A New Collaboration with Photographer Joanie Schwarz

 

There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment. —Robert Frank

In March 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Jersey, Summit Public Art commissioned artist Joanie Schwarz to capture this unprecedented moment in our city’s history. An award-winning photographer, Schwarz spent several weeks walking the streets of Summit, showing viewers the closed shops and empty streets of a city under lockdown, neighbors helping neighbors at GRACE’s “Giving Tuesday,” and signs of a community taking its first small steps towards a new “normal.”

The resulting series, In This Together, was an inspiring work that reflected both the uncertainty of our times and the resilience of our community. Schwarz’s photographs were shared online through social media in consideration of New Jersey’s shelter-in-place order. The overwhelming number of responses we received led us to curate these photos into an archival outdoor exhibition on the Summit Village Green. Our hope is that viewing this shared history will give even more people the chance to witness the empathy and hopefulness that pulled us together during those first dark days and perhaps provide a way for all of us to reframe and reimagine our lives as we head together into the future.

This exhibit honors Summit’s past and present mayors and all the citizens who have given their time to serve in our city government. We are grateful for the leadership that has continued to build a supportive, compassionate community for all.

Artist Statement

“During late March, there was so much we didn’t know about the virus and the heightened uncertainty created fear. And with each new restriction, the anxiety increased. It was unnerving to see the downtown Summit suddenly vacant, the noise, the energy stilled to a surreal emptiness. Then the following realization that this scene was playing out globally—it was impossible to process.

After having been commissioned by Summit Public Art, I set out to capture the emptiness of the quarantine through the lens of my camera. The earliest photographs reflect the unanimity with which the people of Summit adapted to New Jersey’s shelter-in-place order. I was alone but for Sugar Bear, my dog, who is in all the early ‘shut down’ images because as a portrait photographer, I truly believe that every image is better with a beating heart in it.

As I traveled through town, I recognized the thousands of people dutifully remaining at home, saw essential workers courageously venturing out to ensure the hospitals ran, and I witnessed the food supply chains struggling to function. My perspective changed. I wasn’t seeing restrictions and loneliness; I was viewing ‘Love in Action.’ Out of love for family and community, people were taking action to care for themselves and others. The citizens of Summit were doing what was necessary. Their commitment to one another replaced much of the fear with hope.

And so we all move forward. Not knowing fully what is ahead.”

—Joanie Schwarz

Joanie Schwarz has been known in the publishing world for over 25 years for her dreamlike imagery and her endless patience with children and chaos. Creating images that show unconditional love is what Joanie was born to do. Her work has been on the covers of Time, U.S. News & World Report, the New York Times Magazine, and the L.A. Times.

To see more of Joanie’s work, visit her at www.joanieschwarzphoto.com or follow her on social media @joanieschwarz.

See more photos here.

Thank you to The Northern New Jersey Community Foundation (NNJCF) COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund for supporting this project. @NNJCF

Brickhead Love

Standing eight feet tall and weighing more than five thousand pounds, this colossal ceramic head immediately attracts notice with its imposing size and colorful tiles imprinted with the word “LOVE.” Passersby also hear a changing variety of ambient sounds thanks to an audio component installed by the artist. Sculptor James Tyler says each of his heads is “handmade and unique” but “universal, bringing together today’s faces with pre-Columbian, South American, Native American, Asian, African, and Western influences. They are us.”

Tyler is based in Haverstraw, NY, 25 miles north of New York City and is Executive Director of the GAGA Arts Center. His work has been exhibited across the country and has received awards from the Boston Society of Architects and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. “There is something timeless in Tyler’s Brickhead sculptures,” one curator noted. “Yet they are clearly contemporary. Relics of a civilization not yet past–the ponderous weight of the brick constructions juxtaposed with the ethereal nature of time.”

 

 

Thanks to our community supporters, especially for the seamstress talents of our Summit neighbor Terry Jacobs, in adding to the message of public art during this time.

Sometimes a single image can perfectly capture a moment in time. For many of us that moment came when someone placed a mask on one of our public art works downtown, James Tyler‘s “Brickhead LOVE.” The sight of this familiar face hidden behind the same sort of mask many of us now find it necessary to wear, made for a powerful image and reminded us that we all need to do our part to help one another during this difficult time.