Joy Brown on Broadway
On May 17, 2017, the Broadway Mall Association celebrated its 30th anniversary with the opening of Joy Brown: On Broadway, a public sculpture exhibition of nine bronze works on the Broadway malls from 72nd Street to 166th Street, organized in cooperation with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and the Morrison Gallery of Kent, CT. This was BMA's 10th exhibition of public art.
The show opened with a public ribbon-cutting ceremony with the artist on Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at 11 a.m. at the south entrance of the West 72nd Street subway station, and continued through February 2018.
In Joy Brown on Broadway, the internationally-known artist presented nine of her over-life-size, bronze, humanlike figures in traditional sculptural poses. Joy Brown’s rounded forms and natural materials of clay and bronze convey the heavy gravity of stone; the expressions and gestures transcend that weight, suggesting warmth and lightness of being. The influence of the Japanese aesthetic on Joy Brown’s sculpture springs from her childhood in Japan and apprenticeship in traditional Japanese ceramics.
Learn more about the exhibition:
Press
- 5/29/17: "Thousand-Pound Bronzes on the Upper West Side" by Paige Williams, The New Yorker
Sculptures:
72nd Street – One Leaning on Another
79th Street – Sitter with Head in Hands
96th Street – One Holding Small One
103rd Street – Two Together
117th Street – Kneeler
148th Street – Sitters on Bench
157th Street – Animal with Rider
166th Street – Recliner with Head in Hand and Recliner on Side
About the Artist
Joy Brown has exhibited in galleries and museums in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Hospitals and schools in the U.S. and Japan have commissioned her three-dimensional wall installations. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, Art News, House and Garden, and Ceramics Monthly. In 1998, she co-founded Still Mountain Center, a nonprofit arts organization that fosters East-West artistic exchange. In 2003, Joy received the Ruth Steinkraus-Cohen Memorial Outstanding Women of Connecticut Award. Her works on Broadway were fabricated at Purple Roof Atelier in Shanghai.
All photos courtesy of Katharine Manning.