Virginia Overton. Untitled (4×8 view), 2018; Courtesy the Artist, Bortolami Gallery, White Cube, and Socrates Sculpture Park. Photo by Nicholas Knight.
Looking for some fun in New York City? The best photo op of the summer could be here, where seesaws, oversized diamonds and other fun pieces by artist Virginia Overton are currently on view at the Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City.
The newly commissioned works for her Built series includes a 1990 Ford pick-up truck turned into a fish pond, a quirky billboard and a crystal-shaped sculpture made of iron. The Tennessee-born artist is known for collecting broken machinery and upcycling these found objects into artwork.
Virginia Overton. Untitled (Gem), 2018; Courtesy the Artist, Bortolami Gallery, White Cube, and Socrates Sculpture Park. Photo by Nicholas Knight.
Here, she is exhibiting stuff she has found and collected over the past year; including steel roofing trusses from Philadelphia, plexiglas found in New York and a gantry found nearby the art park.
“Where some see beams, pipes, and trusses as the most basic elements of architecture, Virginia Overton sees limitless potential for new structures,” said Jess Wilcox, the exhibitions director at Socrates Sculpture Park in a statement.
Virginia Overton. Untitled (Suspended beam), 2018; Courtesy the Artist, Bortolami Gallery, White Cube, and Socrates Sculpture Park. Photo by Nicholas Knight.“This impulse to re-orient one’s perspective on what’s readily available in order to create wondrous things parallels Socrates grassroots D.I.Y. origins and ethos.”
Virginia Overton. Untitled (Mobile), 2018; Courtesy the Artist, Bortolami Gallery, White Cube, and Socrates Sculpture Park. Photo by Nicholas Knight.
Text by Nadja Sayej
Photos via socratessculpturepark
