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Socrates Annual 2018 at Socrates Sculpture Park

ART, Astoria, Dominican, French Archive, Indigenous, Italian, Peruvian, Puerto Rican, Socrates Sculpture Park / by

The Socrates Annual 2018 sculpture exhibition is at the Socrates Sculpture Park in Astoria, Queens from October 7, 2018 through March 11, 2019.

Extended to Sunday, March 24 with a Farewell Fête on Sunday, March 24 from 3-5pm. FREE

Socrates Annual

The Socrates Annual is an exhibition of work produced by emerging artists at a summer residency.

“The strength of these artists’ work was evident from the onset, and their creative practices have evolved throughout the summer months,” says curator and Director of Exhibitions, Jess Wilcox. “Whether inspired by Queens hip-hop or Incan masonry and architecture, Socrates is honored to offer each artist fellow this platform to bring their vision to life.”

Socrates Annual 2018

The exhibition of 15 works includes Dominican, French, Peruvian and Puerto Rican artists or inspirations.

This edition doesn’t follow a theme. Instead it looks to show the diversity of methods, materials and subjects that exist in art and our society. Themes in the work include the land, ecology and the loss of our common humanity at this moment in history.

The Socrates Annual 2018 is curated by Jess Wilcox, Socrates Director of Exhibitions and 2018 Curatorial Advisors: Connie Choi, Associate Curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and Alex Fialho, Programs Director at Visual AIDS.

Latin Artists

The exhibition includes work by 15 artists. These are the Latin artists and inspirations.

Socrates Sculpture Park was created by noted Italian – American abstract expressionist sculptor Mark di Suvero.

Sherwin Banfield

Sherwin Banfield "A Cypher in Queens" (2018). Courtesy of the artist / Socrates Sculpture Park.
Sherwin Banfield “A Cypher in Queens” (2018). Courtesy of the artist / Socrates Sculpture Park.

Steel, Winterstone, Wood, Resin, Cement, Paper
9 x 10 x 4 feet

Sherwin Banfield’s A Cypher in Queens is a three-part audio sculpture combining the busts of Queens hip-hop legends Jam Master Jay, Phife Dawg, and Prodigy with their music. The sculptural forms are inspired by stacked speaker boxes seen on the streets during Carnival celebrations and slit gongs, tall painted wood musical instruments made by the Tin Mweleun peoples of Ambrym Island in the Pacific Ocean.

Carlos Jiménez Cahua

Carlos Jiménez Cahua "Hatun Rumiyoc, etc." (2018). Courtesy of the artist / Socrates Sculpture Park.
Carlos Jiménez Cahua “Hatun Rumiyoc, etc.” (2018). Courtesy of the artist / Socrates Sculpture Park.

Concrete
Dimensions Variable

Carlos Jiménez Cahua’s Hatun Rumiyoc, etc. is a series of cast concrete copies of the famous Incan-carved 12-angled wall stone of Cuzco, Peru. The artist’s replicas mimic the façade dimensions of the ancient Andean object, but vary in depth and sit in a variety of orientations throughout the landscape, linking the geographically removed site to the Park.

Lionel Cruet

Lionel Cruet "Reverb/Ensemble Space" (2018). Courtesy of the artist / Socrates Sculpture Park.
Lionel Cruet “Reverb/Ensemble Space” (2018). Courtesy of the artist / Socrates Sculpture Park.

Interactive Installation
8 x 8 x 8 feet

Lionel Cruet’s Reverb/Ensemble Space is a multi-sensory installation within a porous cube that visitors are invited to enter. Each wall of the cube produces sound, taking cues from musical instruments—tambourines, strings, pipes, guiros—while the sand covered floor provides texture and the translucent tarp ceiling colors the light within.

Joiri Minaya

Joiri Minaya "Tropticon" (2018). Courtesy of the artist / Socrates Sculpture Park.
Joiri Minaya “Tropticon” (2018). Courtesy of the artist / Socrates Sculpture Park.

Aluminum, polycarbonate sheets, one-way vision perforated vinyl, wood
12 x 16 x 10 feet

For Tropticon, Joiri Minaya appropriates a retail backyard greenhouse and cloaks it in oneway perforated vinyl printed with pixelated botanical images. The installation poses questions of visibility—from the outside the interior will be obscured, whereas from within the piece will function as a panopticon—while destabilizing the greenhouse’s function as colonial repository of tropical plants.

Virginia Lee Montgomery

Virginia Lee Montgomery "Sword in the Sphinx" (2018). Courtesy of the artist / Socrates Sculpture Park.
Virginia Lee Montgomery “Sword in the Sphinx” (2018). Courtesy of the artist / Socrates Sculpture Park.

Steel, resin, concrete, enamel paint
42 x 14 x 48 inches

Virginia Lee Montgomery presents Sword in the Sphinx, a resin-cast copy of a popular garden sculpture of Madame de Pompadour, a member of the 18th century French court, embedded with an artist-smithed sword. A companion video, Cut Copy Sphinx, viewable on the Park’s website expands on the piece’s themes of myth, reproduction, destruction, power, and ambiguity.

Socrates Annual Tickets

The exhibition is FREE.

Visit the Socrates Annual

Socrates Sculpture Park

32-01 Vernon Blvd, Long Island City, Queens
(at Broadway)

Hours

Daily: 9am – Sunset

Subway

  • (N) (W) to Broadway (closed for construction through February 2019)
  • (N) (W) to 30th Avenue

Bus

  • Q103 and Q104 stop in front of the Park
  • Q69 and Q100 stop at 21st St and Broadway (3 blocks east of the Park)

Ferry

Take the ferry to Astoria Landing. It’s a five minute walk to the Sculpture Park.

Car

There is no parking at the Park.

For more information, visit socratessculpturepark.org