Thursday, September 13, 2012 - Summer 2013
Edison ParkFast stacked parking lot, West 20th Street at 10th Avenue

Presented by Friends of the High Line, High Line Art is pleased to announce that Brooklyn-based artist Virginia Overton will transform a pickup truck into a site-specific sculpture installed in the Edison ParkFast stacked parking lot next to the High Line at West 20th Street. On view from Thursday, September 13, 2012 through Summer 2013, Overton’s installation is part of HIGH LINE COMMISSIONS, a series of temporary, site-specific artworks that provide park visitors with a unique and enriching experience and introduce innovative works by contemporary artists to a broad audience.

Virginia Overton is known for sculptures and installations that incorporate raw materials, found objects, and often reused and recycled elements. Based on simple gestures, her work calls attention to the inexorable demands of scale and gravity in its attempts to fit into the surrounding environment. Pickup trucks have always played an important role in Overton’s work. The artist has frequently used trucks by turning them into platforms for artistic creativity including photographing trucks loaded with various found objects in their beds.

For the High Line, Overton will transform a pickup truck into a sculpture installed on the stacked parking next to the High Line at West 20th Street. The stacked parking is one of the sites next to the High Line that attracts the curiosity and amusement of passers-by for its unusual structure, and now it will serve as a plinth for the artist’s work. As with other High Line Art projects, the city becomes a pedestal for artist interventions, with its roofs, walls, and, in this case, a parking lot. Overton’s installation will be visible from different vantage points on and around the High Line. Visitors can see the work from above by standing at the top of the staircase attached to the High Line at West 20th Street; a view from the side of the installation by standing on the High Line; and a view from below by standing on the street.

“Virginia’s work has always engaged with the materials and experiences of urban life,” said Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen Jr. Curator & Director of High Line Art. “With this new project, Virginia will transform the High Line and the nearby parking lot into a pedestal for her sculpture, composing a temporary monument to American car culture and life in today’s metropolises.”

About Virginia Overton
Virginia Overton (b. 1971, Tennessee) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Major solo exhibitions include The Kitchen, New York (2012); The Power Station, Dallas (2012); Freymond Guth, Zurich (2011); Dispatch, New York (2010) and N.O. Gallery, Milan (2010). Select group exhibitions include Glee, Blum and Poe, Los Angeles (2011); Bridgehampton Biennial, New York (2011); Impossible Vacation, White Flag Projects, St. Louis (2011); White Columns Annual, White Columns, New York (2010); Greater New York, MoMA PS1, New York (2010); and In Practice Projects, Sculpture Center, New York (2009). Overton is represented by Freymond-Guth in Zurich and Mitchell-Innes and Nash in New York, where she will have her first solo exhibition with the gallery in March 2013.

Support

High Line Art is presented by Friends of the High Line and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. High Line Art is supported by Vital Projects Fund, Inc., and, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.