On admiring a graceful trio of ponds on the terrace at the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, we enquired after the designer. But Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, responsible for most of the Whitney’s outside space, said sorry, it was nothing to do with them.
Photography by Megan Wilson, except where noted.
Photograph by Ron Amstutz.
Virginia Overton, a Tennessean based in Brooklyn, reacts to her surroundings with minimal sculptures. Like a landscaper (which she is not), Overton is in the business of transforming architectural space.
Like oversized celluloid film canisters, painted galvanized steel tanks provide a minimalist setting for uncongested aquatics.
Virginia Overton’s open-air installation extends the fifth floor gallery space at the Whitney.
Mahogany pads complement magenta lilies with Nymphaea x ‘Red Flare’. Whether you approach it as art or ornamentation, keep the planting sculptural.
Lightly mottled pads provide an alternative to plain green. Since artists don’t tend to give it all away, we asked our friends at Florida Aquatic Nurseries to help us to catalog the lilies.
Florida Aquatics are quite convinced that this is Nympaea x ‘Foxfire’.
Beautiful, minimalist pond or “integrated vernacular ornamental object?” The reaction of museum goer Megan Wilson, who took these photos, is nicely succinct: “The Whitney is helping to make New York sexy again.”
Virginia Overton uses industrial and natural materials.
Another clever and practical element to this artwork is the use of directional rubber cable protectors, covering air hoses which connect the windmills (powder-coated galvanized steel) to the ponds. For information and museum hours, go to Whitney Museum of American Art.