Gotham’s galleries and museums are rolling out their big spring shows this month, but do not overlook the city’s parks and streets. Anyone headed to Frieze New York at the Shed would do well to stroll along the High Line, taking in works including Derek Fordjour’s buoyant mural Backbreaker Double (2025) at West 22nd Street and Raven Halfmoon’s monumental ceramic bust West Side Warrior (2025) at Little West 12th Street. In Midtown, Monira Al Qadiri offers her own startling take on a traditional bust with her giant purple First Sun (2025) beside the Plaza, while in Stuyvesant Square, Judith Modrak turns the stump of the historic Mother Elm Tree into a pedestal for an otherworldly sapling. Across the East River, Woody De Othello has taken over Brooklyn Bridge Park with totemic hybrids. And up in the Bronx, Shellyne Rodriguez’s Phoenix Ladder: Monument to the People of the Bronx (2025) celebrates the borough’s residents, while Graciela Cassel’s pair of sculptural kaleidoscopes offer dazzling views of Pelham Bay Park.
Shellyne Rodriguez’s Phoenix Ladder: Monument to the People of the Bronx, between Grand Concourse and Morris Avenue, commemorates the loss of 80% of housing in the area in the 1970s Photo: Andrés Rodríguez von Rabenau
The High Line Art commission West Side Warrior by Raven Halfmoon, at Little West 12th Street, subverts the traditional, male commemorative statue by depicting an Indigenous woman Photo: Timothy Schenck; Courtesy of the High Line
Judith Modrak’s Nurturing Tree, the winner of the Stuyvesant Park Neighborhood Association’s 2025 Peace Prize, is situated on the stump of the 300-year-old Mother Elm Tree, which was felled in 2023 Photo: © 2025 Sylvie Rosokoff, all rights reserved
Orange Kaleidoscope, one of two kaleidoscopes by Graciela Cassel, is constructed from steel and includes 56 mirrors. The works sit in the grounds of Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum in Pelham Bay Park Photo: Esperanza Cortes
Woody De Othello’s group of large-scale sculptural hybrids, at Brooklyn Bridge Park, are inspired by nkisi ritual objects from Western and Central Africa and supported by Public Art Fund Photo: Nicholas Knight; Courtesy of the artist and Public Art Fund, NY
Derek Fordjour’s Backbreaker Double, on the High Line at West 22nd Street, shows two marching-band drum majors performing the titular dance move Photo: Timothy Schenck; courtesy of the High Line
