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About the Plinth
The High Line Plinth is a landmark destination for public art, designed as the focal point of the Spur, the newest section of the High Line. Unlike most sections of the park, the Spur is conceived as a natural gathering space, where the Plinth serves as the anchor and center of this piazza, creating a dialogue with the towering skyscrapers and arresting vistas of the immediate surroundings. The Plinth is located on the High Line at 30th Street and 10th Avenue, and is visible from the street.
About the Proposal Process
Eighty artists from 40 countries and all corners of the United States submitted the proposals above to be considered for the third and fourth Plinth commissions, which will be installed in 2022 and 2024. These artists were nominated by an international advisory committee of artists, curators, and arts professionals convened by High Line Art. In fall 2020, High Line Art will select a shortlist of artists to move to the next stage of the proposal process. These artists will be invited to present maquettes of their proposals in a public exhibition in early 2021.
Public feedback is integral to the proposal process: the comments we received August 10 through October 2, 2020 have been shared with High Line Art’s curatorial team and will help inform their selection of the shortlist of artists.
The First Plinth Commissions
Simone Leigh’s Brick House was chosen as the first High Line Plinth Commission. Brick House, a 16-foot-tall bronze bust of a Black woman with a torso that combines the forms of a skirt and a clay house, opened to the public in June 2019 to wide public and critical acclaim. The second Plinth commission will be announced in the coming months and on view for 18 months following Brick House.
The two inaugural High Line Plinth commissions were initiated in 2016 by an international advisory committee of 13 artists, curators, and art world professionals who each recommended artists to invite to submit a proposal. After collecting and reviewing more than 50 proposals, the High Line selected a shortlist of 12 artists, who exhibited maquettes of their proposals on the High Line in 2017.
Nominating Advisory Committee
The third and fourth Plinth commission proposals’ international advisory committee comprises 23 artists, curators, and art world professionals, including Bao Dong (Curator, Beijing), Naomi Beckwith (Senior Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago), Myriam Ben Salah (Executive Director and Chief Curator, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago), Raphael Chikukwa (Acting Executive Director & Chief Curator, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare), Tine Colstrup (Curator, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark), Anita Dube (artist & curator, India), Elena Filipovic (Director, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland), Marina Fokidis (curator & writer, Athens, Greece), Eureka Gilkey (Executive Director, Project Row Houses, Houston), Katerina Gregos, (curator & writer, Brussels), Naima J. Keith (Vice President of Education & Public Programs, Los Angeles County Museum of Art), Simone Leigh (artist, New York City), Pablo León de la Barra (Chief Curator, MAC Niterói, Rio de Janeiro), Miguel López (Co-Director & Chief Curator, TEOR/éTica, San José, Costa Rica), Lu Mingjun (curator, Chengdu, China), Ibrahim Mahama (artist, Ghana), Michy Marxuach (Co-Founder, Beta-Local, San Juan, Puerto Rico), Manuela Moscoso (Senior Curator, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; Curator, 11th Liverpool Biennial), Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro (Former Director & Chief Curator, Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York City), RUANGRUPA (artist collective, Indonesia; Curators, Documenta 15, Kassel, Germany), Nari Ward (artist, New York City), What, How & for Whom/WHW (Ivet Ćurlin, Ana Dević, Nataša Ilić & Sabina Sabolović) (Directors, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna), Ernestine White (William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley, South Africa).
Support
Major support for the High Line Plinth comes from the High Line Plinth Committee, a group of contemporary art leaders committed to realizing major commissions and engaging in the public success of the Plinth.
Support for the High Line Plinth is provided by Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons, Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros, Elizabeth Belfer, Suzanne Deal Booth, Fairfax Dorn, Steve Ells, Kerianne Flynn, Andy and Christine Hall, Hermine Riegerl Heller and David B. Heller, J. Tomilson and Janine Hill, The Holly Peterson Foundation, Annie Hubbard, Dorothy Lichtenstein, Amanda and Don Mullen, Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, Douglas Oliver and Sherry Brous, Mario Palumbo and Stefan Gargiulo, Susan and Stephen Scherr, Susan and David Viniar, and Anonymous.