The guys in charge of colossal installations at Rockefeller Center! Remember the giant flowering Koons puppy? Paikian laser towers and retro cars softly playing the Requiem? Wax figures walking up a pole to heaven, and the creepy pointy-headed plastic Murakami statue? The latest installation is the giant concave/vex (depends on which side of the Center you're on) mirror by Anish Kapoor, who manages to invert space in the middle of one of Manhattan's busiest holiday shopping areas, something tiny restaurant owners have been trying to do for years. They may be best known for the Rock. Center stuff, but PAF's been around for a while, and have been doing all sorts of fun, subversive, art-for-the-people type projects.
Public Art takes art out of museums and galleries, which can often seem like dead spaces (for dead art), and puts it on the sidewalk, where people can experience and interact with it. They ask famous artists to do this, pushing the artists as well as the viewers to contemplate new methods of communication between the artist, the artwork, and the viewer, necessitating new relationships between the three. Check out their website for pictures and info on past and present projects. All in all, Public Art Fund is one of the most delightful and exuberant institutions for the arts operating in New York. Long live Public Art Fund! read more