The Mayor’s Partnership for Public Art, better known as Summit Public Art, has recently installed several exciting sculptures around the City of Summit. They can be found in places like the lawns at City Hall and the Public Library, the Promenade and the Bank Street Mini-Park in downtown, the Village Green, the Tulip Street triangle across from Brayton School, and the Elm Street triangle.
Phyllis Baker Hammond is a renowned international artist whose career has been influenced by a circle of abstract expressionist colleagues. She works in powder-coated aluminum and is featured at two sites. Streaming Spirits, a large multicolored piece, and Cosmos I, an orange sculpture, bring lively color to the City Hall grounds. (Vivian Furman Rubin and Julian Rubin are the sponsors of this site.) At the Public Library, Hammond’s outdoor sculpture, Streaming Spirits II, is a large piece in yellow and blue. Her indoor sculpture, the green Cosmos II, sits on a tabletop. All Ms. Hammond’s sculptures, these done in 2016, convey playfulness, elegance, and delight through their wonderful interplay of form and color. (The Library site is made possible with generous support from the Pardo family.)
The three aluminum columns in the Promenade, Solar Totems (2016), are by Richard Pitts and reflect the artist’s love of materials and how, like music, they can be crafted and composed into works that evoke emotions. Pitts has shown his work in Summit over the years. (Debi and Fred Schwarzmann have graciously sponsored this site.) Jay Lagemann is a prolific sculptor whose work reflects his imagination and joy for life through his depiction of animals as abstract forms in vivid colors. Deer Park (2005) is a colorful piece in painted steel that imagines some of the fauna seen in our own backyards. The sculpture is installed on the Tulip Street triangle, across from Myrtle Avenue. (Jessica Oppenheim and Martin Burke have sponsored the site.)
Shadow Migrations (2015-2016), by Wendy Klemperer, are a series of plate steel sculptures, which can be seen in multiple locations. These installations address how wildlife, threatened in the 20th century, is re-emerging in the wilderness, in suburbs, and even in urban areas. Some sculptures are on the Village Green and others are in the Bank Street Mini-Park and on the Elm Street triangle. (This art was made possible by the generous support of My Life Documentaries and an anonymous donor.)
To learn more about Summit Public Art, visit our website at www.summitpublicart.org or email summitpublicarts@ gmail.com. Summit Public Art receives no public funds from the City of Summit to bring art to public places. To make a secure online donation, go to bit.ly/SummitPublicArt.
(above) Phyllis Baker Hammond sculpture.
